By Michael J. Agovino

Italy has won more foreign film Oscars than any other country, and it's not hard to see why. From the rubble of World War II came neo-realism—movies like Rome, Open City and The Bicycle Thief that, for all their simplicity, revolutionized the art form.

The decades that followed produced monumental, diverse works that still inform the way we view Italy in our collective imagination. La Dolce Vita, L'Avventura, Rocco and His Brothers, among dozens of others spoke to the mixed blessing of the country's "economic miracle," the quarter century of sustained growth that dovetailed with a cultural bourgeoning, one the Guggenheim Museum labeled "The Italian Metamorphosis: 1943–1968" in an electrifying 1994 exhibition.

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