Marilyn's EyesMovies like Marilyn's Eyes
- Key Features:
- Mental health, Rehabilitation, Restaurant, Community, Mental illness, Friendship, Self-discovery, Inclusion, Overcoming adversity, Hope, Second chance, Teamwork
- Tone:
- humorous, earnest, dramatic
- Target Audience:
- Feel-good movie lovers, Social issue film viewers, Mental health advocates, International cinema fans
- Emotional Arc:
- Doubt → Collaboration → Triumph
Marilyn's Eyes

Clara and Diego, under the guidance of the psychiatrist of a day rehabilitation center for disturbed people who attend, decide to transform the treatment center into a restaurant, involving all their other companions.
Marilyn's Eyes
The film follows Nello, the recently hired director of a newly developed work cooperative of former mental patients. After the closure of state psychiatric hospitals and asylums in Italy under the Basaglia Law many former patients were left with few resources and little hope of reintegrating into society. With the intention of actually improving the lives of his pupils, rather than just sedating them, Nello encourages them to expand their individual abilities and explore the wider world around them although, regardless of intention, there is sometimes a price to pushing boundaries too quickly.

Irene lives in Rome. When her mother ask to, she go back to Rimini, her hometown, to take care of her autistic brother, Omar. She soon discover that Omar knows very well what to expect from the future, but in order to achieve his dreams, he need to be independent, which is why Irene begins a tender crash course to teach him adult life.

Teenager David Clemens develops a hysterical fear that he will die if he comes into physical contact with another person. Perturbed, David's overbearing mother places him in a home for mentally disturbed young people, but David remains withdrawn from the other patients and his psychiatrist. Over time, however, David grows interested in 15-year-old Lisa, who suffers from multiple personalities – one who can only speak in rhyme, and the other, a mute.

Mina has everything going for her, but her world is turned upside down when work sends her to her hometown in Tennessee where she must convince an old, stubborn restaurant owner to sell his property. There is just one problem- the restaurant is now owned by her ex-boyfriend Clay, who claims he will never sell. He resists her negotiations every step of the way, and all the while sparks fly.

Two mental patients with opposite personalities ditch their Tuscan hospital and embark on an unpredictable exploration of the real world.

After losing his beloved mother, a man risks everything to honor her by opening an Italian restaurant with actual nonnas — grandmothers — as the chefs.

A psychoanalyst learns to have an illness and as a consequence he decides to quit his job. All his patients get together to find a way to make him feel better.

A 40-year-old world-famous chef with anger management issues is assigned to run a cooking class at a centre for young people with autism.

When a brothel closes because of new laws, four of the prostitutes decide to go into business running a restaurant. They discover they cannot escape their past.

To avoid jail, a tax-dodging businessman is sentenced to a year of community service in a homeless shelter.

A story about a seemingly unlikely couple who cross paths under life-threatening circumstances as though they are destined not only to meet but to save each other's lives. Not once, but twice.

During a séance with some friends, divorced carny Gualtiero successfully conjures the spirit of Marilyn Monroe, who'll help him win his family back.

A mentally challenged girl proves herself to be every bit as capable as her "perfect" sister when she moves into an apartment and begins going to college.

Muriel is beautiful, free-spirited and bed-ridden since a horrific accident. Leo is a drunk middle-aged ex-boxer. Desperate for work and unqualified, he interviews for Muriel, who hires him to cook and care for her against her better judgment. Initially out of his depth, Leo slowly wins Muriel's trust. As Muriel teaches him to read, he forces her to confront the joys beyond her window.

When a young coffee shop owner is threatened with repossession she must take a chance with life and love as she fights to save her business.

On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.

When Jane is rejected by life, she spirals into a chaotic, schizophrenic world where love and normality collide with humorous consequences.

When Johnny is released from prison following a forgery charge, he quickly lands a job as a short-order cook at a New York diner. Following a brief fling with waitress Cora, he develops an attraction for Cora's friend and fellow waitress Frankie. While Frankie resists Johnny's charms initially, she eventually relents when her best friend, Tim, persuades her to give Johnny a chance.

Carolina has a perfect life: she lives in a luxurious house, works in a fashion magazine and is married to a successful publicist. One day everything goes to waste: she discovers that she is sterile, the same day that her husband leaves her for her best friend, who, in addition, is pregnant with him. After the impact of this news, Carolina has a crisis, drinks too much, trips and falls from the second floor of her house, a fact that is interpreted as a suicide attempt.Carolina is interned against her will, in the exclusive psychiatric center Eden. In that place she will meet a group of "madmen" who will help her heal and glimpse that her previous life was not so perfect. He also discovers that perhaps the craziest are those outside the psychiatric hospital.

Teo has a good job, a fiancee, a lover, no intention to assume any responsibility in his life. Meeting Emma, a blind woman, will upset his convictions.

Follows the fate of Lyle, a violent adolescent who, in lieu of prison, is placed in a juvenile mental institution, where he encounters a group of equally troubled teens. This motley crew—abused, sexually confused, violent, and yet hanging on by their grit and anger—becomes Lyle's last lifeline as he fights to find meaning in a world that seems to defy understanding.

Fired from his HR job in the big city, Fulvio returns home and sees a leaky pipe in his brother's church as the way to save the crumbling town.

High school professor Guido is a hopeless romantic whose life falls apart after his girlfriend leaves him. Paolo, a former student of his, helps him in getting out of his depression for a better chance to become a PE teacher himself.

A blind man has an operation to regain his sight at the urging of his girlfriend and must deal with the changes to his life.

After a serious sport accident in a swimming pool, Ben, now an incomplete quadriplegic, arrives in a rehabilitation center. He meets with other handicapped persons (tetraplegics, paraplegics, traumatized crania), all victims of accidents, as well as a handicapped since his early childhood. They go through impotence, despair and resignation, with their daily struggle to learn how to move a finger or to hold a fork. Some of them slowly find a little mobility while others receive the verdict of the handicap for life. Despite everything, hope and friendship help them endure their difficulties.

In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.

A woman is sent to a mental institution after stabbing her classmate in an attempt to conjure an evil spirit called, Mercy Black. Fifteen years later she's released, and must save her nephew, who has become obsessed with the phenomenon.

Two women -- a restaurateur and an architect -- have a seemingly idyllic romantic relationship, until the latter encounters a man she had a fling with.

Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

Sharing the same psychologist, kleptomaniac Roberto, who writes stories a bit too realistic and scary for kids, and a narcoleptic Beatrice, who documents everything in her life, begin to think that love could be the cure for their problems. But nothing comes easy to either of them, and, just like in one of Roberto's stories, the happy ending really needs to be sought after. Will they find their own?

A romantic comedy that brings together three disparate characters who are learning to face a challenging and often confusing world as they struggle together against a common demon—sex addiction.

A funny story about two brothers, Pietro and Francesco, and what happens with them and their families after Petro loses his memory.

An actor past his prime gives drama lessons to prisoners in an attempt to stage "Waiting for Godot."

A leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.

After a magical night together, Adri voluntarily turns himself into the psychiatric institution where Carla lives.

Paralyzed from a crash, Nicola falls for his physiotherapist Lucia. Franco and Manuela seek fertility treatment in Barcelona. Filippo and Fosco, a gay couple, plan their wedding. Ernesto, a waiter, has an affair with Spanish cook Cecilia.

A young man returns to his ex-girlfriend and true love to discover the source of her increasing depression. As the young man earnestly tries to help his girlfriend through her troubles, their love begins to bloom.

Three years after her relationship with Giovanni, Monica is in prison and has to ask his ex for help.

Orlando is in his 40s and is "loser" until the 2012 earthquake makes him change his life.

The true story of Jimmy Adams, a V.P. of a $30 billion hedge fund, who loses his job and winds up working as a waiter at a waffle shop. Amidst the greasy madness of the 24-hour diner, Jimmy befriends Edward, an ex-con grill master who serves up hard lessons about life, finance, and grits.

Value Shop assistant manager Maya Vargas wants only one thing for her 43rd birthday -- a promotion. While her résumé may not scream upper management, her track record certainly does; she is an innovator who listens to her customers and delivers results. When she loses the job to a college-educated candidate, Maya sets out to prove to Madison Avenue that street smarts are as valuable as book smarts -- and it's never too late for a second act.

Irene, a workaholic, is forced to re-evaluate her priorities after the suicide of her two best friends.

Kazu works at "Funiculi Funicula" cafe. There is a mysterious rumour that if a customer takes a specific seat at the cafe, that customer can travel back to a time of their choice.

When the "Heart Eyes Killer" strikes Seattle, a pair of co-workers pulling overtime on Valentine's Day are mistaken for a couple by the elusive couple-hunting killer. Now, they must spend the most romantic night of the year running for their lives.

After a violent car crash, Marilyn must take care of her man, who suffers from severe head trauma.

Paul is married to Sali. Everything would be fine if they could get a child. Until the day when Sali receives the call that they have been waiting for so long: their adoption file is approved. He is adorable, he is 6 months old, his name is Benjamin. He is blond with blue eyes and white. They - are black.

After thirty years teaching in London, Mark Thackeray retires and returns to Chicago. There, however, the challenge of teaching kids in an inner city school proves to be too much to resist.

A woman seeking treatment for her stress, suddenly finds herself unable to filter herself when she speaks.

Violinist Sydney Wells was accidentally blinded by her sister Helen when she was five years old. She submits to a cornea transplantation, and while recovering from the operation, she realizes that she is seeing dead people.

An aimless college graduate jumping from one job interview to another — killing time in between with his wisecracking and deadbeat room-mate — falls in love with an actress.

Carmine is a Neapolitan mafioso who isn’t cut out for the criminal life. Under the protection of his boss Pasquale, Carmine is sent north to run a money laundering operation through a restaurant. He simply needs to defrost frozen meals, issue receipts and dinner is served. But everything changes when he meets Consuelo, a chef who always pursues perfection and dreams of winning a Michelin star. Carmine hires her and decides to transform the establishment into a high-end restaurant. Could the love for food and dream of winning a Michelin star give them both a second chance?

A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

Molly McKay is a profoundly autistic twenty-something woman who has lived in an institution from a young age following her parents' death in a car accident. When the institution must close due to budget cuts, Molly is left in the care of her neurotypical, older brother, Buck McKay, an advertising executive and perennial bachelor. Buck forces her to undergo an experimental medical treatment, with unexpectedly drastic results.

Mikel, a young cook, meets with his father Juan, who had been missing for 30 years. While trying to keep his restaurant afloat, Mikel has to take care of crazed Juan, a former cook who suffers from a mental condition that prevents him from recognizing neither the aforementioned time gap nor his son Mikel.

Paz seems to have a perfect life. She has a job, a partner and friends but something's missing. In reality, there are things she is unhappy about. She feels anxious and burdened but can't bring herself to express these feelings. Until one day she turns to a strange therapy that will make her say absolutely everything she thinks. How would your life be if you only said what you think?

A man dedicated to religion and very faithful husband suddenly finds himself single. The new shop assistant in his shop will overwhelm his life.

A young woman is sent to Paradise Hills to be reformed, only to learn that the high-class facility's beautiful facade hides a sinister secret.

Three friends in wheelchairs welcome a new patient at a children's hospital. Growing up together. All emotions pass the revue. Friendship and hope survive all.

An ageing hard-living 1970s rock star decides to change his life when he discovers a 40-year-old undelivered letter written to him by John Lennon.

An English teacher and struggling single mother has her life disrupted when the father who abandoned her as a child comes back into her life.

A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker.

Improbable encounters bring tenderness, laughter and compassion to a world of urban alienation.

An epileptic 12-year-old girl, Pippi, is hospitalized in the psychiatric ward instead of the neurological ward, due to an administration error. Out of this mistake begins the difficult journey towards being cured.

Ten minutes a day can change the course of your day. Ten minutes doing something completely new can change the course of a life. This is what Bianca will discover in the midst of an existential crisis. New meetings, the discovery of special bonds and listening to those who have always loved us. Sometimes it doesn't take much to start over and this film teaches us this, through a warm and passionate story of rebirth.

After breaking up with her dreamboat, Marta finds love with an artist. But life throws a few twists into the mix for the ailing woman and her friends.

A young woman dealing with anorexia meets an unconventional doctor who challenges her to face her condition and embrace life.

A man tries to make his wife fall in love with him again, after waking up in an alternate reality where she never knew him.

Lorenzo known as Ghandi and Elena met at 18 during a vacation through Nevada and ended up doing the classic madness: they got married in Las Vegas. A few hours later everyone was going their own way, putting the incident behind them (or at least that's what Elena thinks). Twenty years later Elena is about to marry a very rich and brilliant man, but her best friend Sara, a lawyer, informs her that, being technically still married to Lorenzo, she must first dissolve that bond or she will be accused of bigamy. Elena and Lorenzo must therefore return to Las Vegas and obtain a divorce decree in a few days. If they really want to.

After spending three years in an asylum, a washed-up actor views a minor assignment from his old director in Rome as a chance for personal and professional redemption.

After a life-changing diagnosis, a promising chef finds hope and humor with the help of a fur-midable dog friend.

Struggling with a financial crisis, a good-looking widow decides to put herself up for grabs. However, going through with it becomes almost impossible with a new love and the legal system thrown into the mix.

An international soccer star is on his way to sign a multimillion dollar contract when something happens that brings his career to an abrupt end. A beautiful waitress, struggling to make it in New York City, discovers something about herself that she's unprepared for. In one irreversible moment, their lives are turned upside down.

Paola, a modern woman used to the hardships of modern life, takes her chance to make things right for herself.

Passions reignite and hidden secrets revealed when a graphic designer in Los Angeles reconnects with an ex-lover he hasn’t seen or heard from in 15 years. Over the course of a weekend at a vacation house in the desert, they must determine whether or not they have a future together.

Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train station. Witnessing how she turns around a humiliating situation, younger sculptor Antoine becomes so smitten that he breaks up with his fiancée and sets out to win Angèle's heart. Meanwhile, Angèle attempts to quash the budding romance of her young co-worker, Marie, and a much older widowed client, despite their obvious rapport.

An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company's CEO from an idyllic but mysterious "wellness center" at a remote location in the Swiss Alps but soon suspects that the spa's miraculous treatments are not what they seem.

An ultraconservative police officer suffers a debilitating stroke and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons - with the drag queen next door.

The fates of an apparently random group of strangers who each come into contact with a mysterious figure who they believe possesses the power to grant any wish, in return for which they must carry out a task he assigns them.

Zack Connors and Rachel Meadows were born with incredible psychokinetic capabilities. When word of their supernatural talents gets out, they find themselves the prisoners of Michael Slovak, a deranged doctor intent on harvesting their powers.

Back from the hospital where he has been treated after a heart attack, Lorenzo is on his way upstairs to his top-floor apartment in Naples when he meets Michela. The charming young woman, who has just moved to the facing apartment, has forgotten her keys and finds herself locked out. Cynical and grumpy, the retired lawyer who has been living estranged from the rest of the world, should normally leave her to her fate but he mellows under her spontaneous charm. He helps her, becomes friends not only with her but with her husband Fabio and their two children. For once, the self-declared misanthropist seems to be experiencing the long forgotten feeling of empathy.

A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.

Neto is a middle class teenager living a normal life. After his father finds a marijuana cigarette on his pocket, he is sent to a mental institution, where he gets to know a completely absurd and inhumane reality in which people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel system.

Louise, a widow with two children, almost crushes a stranger with her car. She takes care of him, even if he's not really wounded. It turns out that he has mental disorders and that they can help each other much more than they thought.

Primo and Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant.

Diagnosed with a mental illness halfway through his senior year of high school, a witty, introspective teen struggles to keep it a secret while falling in love with a brilliant classmate who inspires him to open his heart and not be defined by his condition.

Aldo and Vittorio are two men suffering from disabilities. One is blind, the other is forced to a wheelchair. Vittorio one day by chance meets Aldo in the hospice and invites him to take a pleasure trip to Sanremo in Liguria. In fact Vittorio, though blind, is a cheat who’s in trouble.

A girl struggling with asthma is taken to a clinic in South Tyrol to be cured. After some time she decides to get out of this hell (that's how she feels about it) and soon she'll meet a new friend. Together they try to reach the peak of a mountain where, according to an old custom, she can be healed.

Died in a car crash, Paolo is allowed to come back to life for 92 minutes more, thanks to a miscalculation made by Heavenly accountants. He decides to use this newfound time on Earth to fix his mistakes as a father and husband.

A wealthy millionaire decided to commit suicide but meets a homeless with whom he experiences a lot of funny adventures until finally makes order in his life.

Ava, an award-winning chef at a big-city restaurant, has lost her spark. Her boss sends her out to find herself to save her menu and her job. She returns home and finds little to inspire her, but when she reunites with her childhood friend Logan, Ava has to get her head out of the clouds and her foot out of her mouth to rediscover her passion for food.

A head injury causes a woman to develop an extraordinary amount of confidence and believe she's drop dead gorgeous.

Four waiters and a cook working at a seaside restaurant hate one another but still keep working together for lack of better opportunities.

After finding a lump in one of her breasts, Magda goes to visit her doctor who gives her bad news: she needs a mastectomy, preceded by severe chemo treatments. While she ponders this ill fortune at a soccer game where her son Dani participates, she attracts the attention of talent scout Arturo, who is looking for talented young players to enroll them in the junior leagues.

Julia, a woman suffering from a degenerative sight disease, finds her blind sister Sara hung in a basement. Despite all signs pointing to suicide, Julia decides to investigate what she intuitively feels is a murder case.

Rainbow press reporter Ludo is sentenced to 8 months, but is released on probation. But he has to work 300 hours for a local daycare center and meets Anna who has unfinished business with him.

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Despite their differences, Celeste and Sihem quickly become inseparable. The common will to get out of drugs seals their fusional friendship. This will be as much a force as an obstacle when, transferred from the center that welcomes them, they find themselves left to themselves, to the test of the real world and its temptations. They will have to fight to finally live.

Antonio is a 30 year old family man, whose life finds an unexpected twist when he's suddenly dumped by his husband, whom he depends both psychologically and economically: he needs to find a new place to stay, a job and a new purpose in life. Antonio finds a room in an apartment owned by Denis and starts to work in a bakery owned by Luca, while attending pastry school. Through this process he discovers that it was wrong of him to give up his independence for the sake of his relationship in the past.

Whilst on their way to a concert four friends get sidetracked and stranded in a seemingly abandoned town and whilst looking for help find themselves stalked and terrorised by a gang of violent clown dressed psychopaths who will stop at nothing ensnaring them into their sinister blood thirsty games.
