Poverty and NobilityMovies like Poverty and Nobility
- Key Features:
- Comedy, Social satire, Class conflict, Impersonation, Romantic pursuit, Royalty, Wealth, Deception, Farce
- Tone:
- humorous, satirical
- Target Audience:
- Comedy fans, Classic film enthusiasts, Satire lovers
- Emotional Arc:
- Amusement → Anticipation
Poverty and Nobility

Eugene, a young nobleman, asks two penniless idlers to impersonate his noble relatives to help him marry Gemma, the daughter of an enriched cook.
Poverty and Nobility
Bad financial conditions compel an aristocratic family to do strange work.

The Bouvier-Sauvages, a large aristocratic family, meet the much more modest Martin family when their children's wedding is announced. For the occasion, the future bride and groom offer their parents DNA tests, which will reveal their true origins. The results are totally unexpected and will make the effect of a bomb.

A London aristocrat (Rupert Everett) rents out rooms in his posh estate to a pair of Italians who are wooing two wealthy British gals (Elle Macpherson, Judith Godrèche).

The Tucci family discovers that they have not really lost all their money and, refusing to pay Italian taxes, decides to turn Torresecca into a tax haven, relying on a post-Italian unification bureaucratic oversight.

Antonio, a former variety actor, keeps his daughter in an excellent boarding school by organizing small scams with his friend and colleague Felice. Commissioner Malvasia good-naturedly persecuted him. When their respective unsuspecting children fall in love, the two fathers make peace.

Serafino, a young and innocent shepherd, inherits a huge fortune. He immediately starts spending the entire sum on presents for his friends, causing the envy of his family.

In 18th-century Rome, impish aristocrat Onofrio del Grillo amuses himself by playing pranks on all sorts of people — his reactionary family and fellow nobles, the poors, the French occupiers trying to modernize society, and even the Pope himself.

A wealthy broker, his loyal butler, and a poor street seller all see their social positions change in a twist of fate.

The wealthy businessman Vincenzo realizes that he is a father too absent, but also that his two sons and 1aughter are spoiled and unable to support themselves economically. So Vincenzo stages their fraudulent bankruptcy and runs with their children in Taranto, in his old house. The boys are struggling to settle, but Vincenzo is confident about them and hope that they will soon find a job in the city. Meanwhile, an impostor blackmailer, who wants to marry the daughter of Vincenzo, arrives in Puglia, to expose the scam.

The Arbac de Neuvilles are one of the oldest families in France. They have inhabited their ancient château for fifty-two generations and are proud of their noble ancestry. But today they are stone broke. When a bailiff turns up notifying them that they owe two million euros in back taxes, these proud aristocrats are understandably shaken to the core of their ancestral seat. Just how are they to find this amount of money when none of them has any capacity for work?

Anne and Bob, a well-to-do American couple, have just moved to a beautiful manor house in romantic Paris. To impress their sophisticated friends, they decide to host a lavish dinner party, but must disguise their maid as a noblewoman to even out the number of guests. When the maid runs off with a wealthy guest, Anne must chase her around Paris to thwart the joyous and unexpected love affair.

The story of an encounter between a bourgeois man and a poor woman, because their teenage children fall in love.

Alberto, a newspaper man, tries a one-time shot of living the good life with the help of his penniless mentor.

Umberto Maria Durloni is a successful lawyer and a socialite who likes parties and a lavish life. He's got it all, except any ethical qualms.Only a step away from the top, his perfect world crumbles, showing him the brutal do downside to his life.

During the bombing of Naples in World War II, a cynical businessman helps a naive prostitute, who spends the next two decades desperate to have him reciprocate her feelings.

Pasquale takes all of his 12 children and runs away from Monza, looking for a house of a wealthy and generous awning. Having met on the way impoverished peasant, Pasquale takes him also, having granted the rank of "Half-Monk" and thus having gained rustic, but a reliable friend.

Antonio goes to Rome to represent his fellow peasants, to request a highway that will be built in their region. But the guy is mastered by 'la dolce vita' and wastes the money entrusted to him for his mission. When Peppino is sent to to find out what happened, he lets himself be trapped by the gentle grip of 'la dolce vita'

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

In an accident the young mechanic Marco Coccia meets Cristiana. The two fall in love with one another. Cristiana confesses only later that she is a genuine princess. For Marco it is not a problem, but for Cristiana's parents it is a very big problem. The two must separate. When one evening Cristiana calls Marco and lets him know about her forthcoming wedding, Marco with the car races toward Paris and has an accident...

A multifaceted exploration of the pointlessness of sexual stereotypes. Liv Ullmann is a countess who, after her divorce, takes over the family farm. Realizing that she can't rely on the patriarchal society structure for assistance, Ullmann runs the farm herself with the help of her female servants and relatives. When the Count (Philipe Noiret) comes back into her life, he and his male buddies find themselves outclassed by the expertise of the ladies.

A boy and a girl fall in love but their fathers take a strong dislike to each other, clashing repeatedly during the preparations for the upcoming marriage.

Salvo and Valentino are two happy Sicilian friends, who do not want to work, because they know that if they find a permanent job, their girlfriends will ask them to marry them.

After growing up poor in Salmonella, Vincenzo Cortino installs himself as the preeminent, if bumbling, Mafia don of the New World. But now he must pass on power to one of his two sons: either level-headed veteran Anthony or vituperative loose cannon Joey.

To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.

Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.

Naples/Sorrento, mid 20s. A couple of small thieves conceive a scam whereby one of them dresses up as a eunuch Turk to care for the women of the family of a wealthy man. They end up messing everything up, with lots of gags and funny events in the meantime.

On his deathbed, a powerful Mafia boss names his estranged son heir to his criminal empire: however, his men discover too late that the son at issue is an idiotic manchild.

Some political candidates are determined to win the electors' preference during an election campaign in Italy.

A waiter pretends to be an important businessman in order to reach the upper class through his entrepreneurial dreams.

After a hard day at work and a condominium-board meeting, accountant Ugo Fantozzi goes on a trip with his family. Unfortunately, he will face a nasty surprise upon his return.

Léonard Monestier owns a large fortune, alas his wife Cynthia made a bad investment in a worthless oil concession. Far from letting this get him down, Léonard decides to find a sucker to buy this concession from him. Right on cue appears Antoine Brévin, a befuddled billionaire who is very interested in Léonard's beautiful daughter Patricia and would do anything to win her hand...

Needing good PR, a snooty princess orchestrates a brief romance with an ordinary guy. But the schlub she picks proves more resourceful than expected.

In 1900 in Rome, the poor carpenter Francesco, by a twist of fate, is recognized component of a noble family in the process of decay. Francesco knows the cynical and ruthless Prince Torquato Terenzi, disappointed by life and progress, and also falls in love with the beautiful Duchess Elisa. When Prince Terenzi dies, Francesco realizes that he's not enriched for nothing with the inheritance, because the noble family is broke; so he enlistes himself for the war in Libya, but quickly returnes to Italy, disgusted by the atrocities of the fighting. His dream is to be a singer, and so he goes to America with the Duchess Elisa.

Tells the "riches to rags" story of the Nobles, three upper-class twenty-somethings that appear to have no limits to their checkbooks, and no direction in their lives. Until one day, their father tries to teach them a lesson by staging a financial scandal that forces the whole family to escape to an old house in the poor side of town, and leads the "kids" to do what they haven't done before: get jobs.

The "Tucci" are a poor Italian family living in a small village in Lazio. Father, mother, a conceited daughter and a genius son, forced to pretend being stupid to keep up with the family. One day something unexpected happens: the family wins one hundred million Euros. Excited, they decide to keep the winning a secret, but as soon as a single word slips out from the mouth of the householder, they only have one choice to avoid being persecuted by friends and acquaintances: run away. They leave at night, heading to Milan. They will realize as soon as they arrive that today's rich people behaves very differently from the past, and being rich has become a real bother... this discovery will make things way different from what Tuccis' expected.

When a grandmother falls for a cheeky suitor with dubious intentions, her family devises a secret plan to protect her life — and their inheritance.

Antonio and Peppino live in a small town in central Italy: Peppino is the barber, Totò is maintained by the rich but avaricious wife Teresa.

Long ago in a land with an ailing king, there was a pair of boys who looked exactly alike, a pauper called Mickey and the other, the Crown Prince.

Antonio is the humble servant of a rich family governed by the Marquis Gastone. He is a young man madly in love with Lulu, but she betrays him, and he desperately enlist in the foreign legion.

Felice Sciosciammocca, the mayor of Roccasecca, sends his nephew Ciccillo to Naples so that he will become a good doctor.

Tom loves Sophie and Sophie loves Tom. But Tom and Sophie are of differering classes. Can they find a way through the mayhem to be true to love?

On the Adriatic Riviera the destinies of a variety of characters cross. A piano player is the lover of a rich woman who wants him to become a killer, a call girl is looking for her true love, two workers want to marry two old billionaires.

An aging, down-and-out public employee must face the primary school examination.

Giacinto lives with his wife, their ten children and various other family members in a shack on the hills of Rome. Some time ago he has lost his left eye while at work, and got a consistent sum of money from the insurance company, which he keeps hidden from the rest of the family. His whole life is now based on defending the money he sees as his own, while the rest of the family tries to kill him.

Late 19th century in Alexandria. Two traditionally rival Turkish families, "Seferoglu"s and "Tellioglu"s are competing for the "Green Valley". The winner will be determined by Daver Bey, who has a beautiful young daughter, Leyla. Both families try to arrange a marriage between a man from their family and Leyla, so that Daver Bey will be inclined to give the green valley to his "relatives". Tellioglus, who are behind in the race, desperately find a final solution: They will fake their idiotic butler, Saban, as the highest ranked Ottoman soldier in Egypt: Tosun Pasha.

A ne'er-do-well who's married to a millionnaire realizes his financial trouble might be solved if his wife was dead - and sets out a plot to achieve just that. A remake of Dino Risi's "il vedovo".

Willy, Giacomo, Lorenzo and Sandro are 4 young yuppies rampant in the "Milano da bere" of the 80s, who live in the myth of Lawyer Gianni Agnelli and Silvio Berlusconi; their only purpose in life is to appear rather than be. Giacomo is an advertiser, Lorenzo is a notary, Sandro is a dentist, and Willy is a car salesman.

Agnese has many men who woo her and live with her cousin Cesira, who has the opposite problem with men and wishes she would also have men woo her.

A robbery leaves a proprietor penniless before his wedding, but becoming a son-in-law to a second family might be the financial solution he needs.

A love story between a couple with the same last name but very different social statuses.

Esposito is a thief who cons tourists in Rome. Officer Bottoni manages to catch him and starts persecuting him. When Esposito manages to flee, Bottoni's superiors inform him that he'll lose his job if he can't catch Esposito.

A queue at the ATM machine, a displaced family after a seismic shock that has half-washed their home, a tour within an art gallery, moments of everyday life that become the cues for the emergence of comic, farce, paradoxical situations – trademarks of one of the most successful Italian comic groups.

A low-class antisocial family ends up in a rich upper-class neighborhood and causes all sorts of trouble.

Everyone in the village of Bouzolles knows the Tuche family, who live by the philosophy "Man is not made to work." Despite their lack of money, they strive to be happy... that is, until their hand-to-mouth existence is turned on its head. After winning the lottery, the Tuches get rich beyond their wildest dreams and move to Monaco. And while attempting to fit in in their swanky new homeland, they struggle to stay true to the same principles by which they've always lived.

The frustrating adventures of a humble employee who all the time has to fullfill the wishes and desires of his bosses.

A Milanese businessman is beside himself when his son tells him he's going to marry the daughter of a pizza maker from Naples.

Sweet-sour comedy on Italy's 1950s rage to get rich as fast as possible! The businessman wants to satisfy his wife's craving for luxury and a "respectable life" so he becomes heavily indebted. In desperation he agrees to sell a precious part of his body for a large sum of money. But just before the crucial operation he panics...

Fanfan is a young handsome peasant. He joins the army to escape marriage because a gypsy girl predicted he will get glory and the king's daughter as a wife. But the gypsy girl was in fact Adeline, the daughter of the recruiting officer. Once he has discovered the stratagem, Fanfan refuses to forget this dream and decides to fulfill the destiny of the fake prediction.

Three Italians travel to their hometown to vote for elections: Pasquale is a Southern immigrant living in Munich who's genuinely happy to come back to Italy, even if just for a few days, but the country he dreams of is far from reality; Furio travels to Rome with his family, but his niggling attitude threatens to push his wife Magda over the edge; young Mimmo is also going to Rome, but the trip is repeatedly interrupted by worries about his grandma's health.

Gianni is a taxi driver dissatisfied with his life. One day by chance he gets the opportunity to take possession of the villa and life of a billionaire on holiday.

Mirea is about to be 18 years old, and her family is prepearing a big party for her. Teresa, Mirea's mother, wants to gain notoriety, so begins to spend recklessy for the celebration. When the day finally comes, an unexpected death puts it at risk.

A young bank teller, literally allergic to paper money, becomes the worst nightmare of his best customer, a wealthy butcher who manages his business unscrupulously.

A school janitor pretends to be a priest in order to give private lessons to a young top model.

When young and attractive Lina Stroppiani, a thief like the rest of her family, tries to steal the taxi of Paolo, together with two accomplices, she can't possibly know that this will have far reaching consequences.

Baron Zazà, always broke due his dissolute lifestyle, decides to con a hefty sum of money out of his wealthy but greedy brother.

A catholic French couple sees their life upside down when their four daughters get married to men of different religion and origins.

An anthology of four comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy: frothy young love and office politics in the big city; milk advertisements that begin to haunt an aging prude; a trophy wife enduring her husband's very public affairs; a lucky ticket-holder at a small town fair.

When her social-climbing father is relocated from small-town North to his native Rome, 12-year-old Caterina enrolls to his old school, finding herself at sea with an environment where students sort themselves by social class and their parents' political affiliation.

Antonio, Peppino and Lucia are three brothers who live in the country near Naples. Lucia's son, Gianni, goes to Naples to study medicine, but there he knows a ballet dancer. They fall in love and, when she goes to Milan, Gianni follows her. Informed of this and afraid that their nephew will stop studying, the three Caponi brothers leave for Milan to persuade Gianni to come back and continue studying and abandon the "Malafemmina" (bad girl).

Comedy about the flawed Italian healthcare system of the time and a doctor's expeirence with it.

Tullio Hermil is a chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes she has been unfaithful he becomes enamored of her again.

Corrupt and sleazy entrepreneur Cetto La Qualunque comes back to Italy and "jumps into politics" lest his law-abiding opponent, Giovanni De Santis, is elected as mayor.

The penniless Duke decides to participate in "Lascia o raddoppia", a TV quiz show, in order to win five million lira. Then two gangsters bet between themselves on his success and, alas, the Duke is kidnapped.

Italy, mid '60s. Three guys from a poor neighbourhood try to get rich by printing fake money using the fact that one of them works as a typographer. The story unravels around their embarrassed efforts to spend the money, their little family issues and ends with a surprise.

An Italian socialite on the run signs on as housekeeper for a widower with three children.

Josephine doesn't like her job and keeps on having relationships without a future. Her sister and parents keep pushing her to find a good husband. To shut them up, she creates a handsome Brazilian millionaire but her little white lie has a flip side - she loses everything to find the love of her life.

A young fashion blogger and an aspiring songwriter seem to have not that much in common, but when Cupid’s arrow hits them, every difference fades away and overnight they decide to get married. Even their fathers do not have anything in common: Gaetano is a strict mayor from Southern Italy, while Diego is a rich entrepreneur from the North. Between the two forthcoming in-laws, instead, is hate at first sight. They seem to agree on one single common goal: prevent this marriage at any cost! After fighting by any means in a struggle that will also involve their two bizarre families, will they manage to say no to the wedding?

Pierre Gastié-Leroy is the son of a wealthy director of a factory of weapon manufacturing. Despite his parents, two generous uncles and a bishop godfather who try to inculcate him the rigid values of his social level, Pierre is a dreamer, antimilitaristic, social educator who dreams of saving three thugs, his "little guys" at the limit of delinquency. After several resounding failures that sent him to prison, Pierre is ordered by his father to join his factory to direct the social service. Tired of the venality of his father and the foolishness of the "little guys", Pierre hires them at the factory...

The heir to a noble and influential family finds the love of his life, but she will only accept him if he becomes a kung-fu master. He becomes a legendary folk hero who tries to save the emperor.

The adventures of an upper-class suburban family abruptly confronted with the younger brother's discovery of his homosexuality, the elder sister's suicide attempt and sadomasochist tendencies, and the intrusion of a very free-spirited maid and her husband. And it all started with the arrival in the family of an innocent looking rat.

From Jane Austen’s novella, the beautiful and cunning Lady Susan Vernon visits the estate of her in-laws to wait out colorful rumors of her dalliances and to find husbands for herself and her daughter. Two young men, handsome Reginald DeCourcy and wealthy Sir James Martin, severely complicate her plans.

Mark Antony has a brother-lookalike, Totonno, a sinister slave trader. Totonno secretly replaces Mark Antony in the most delicate moments.

The marquis Galeazzo di Torre Alta is murdered by a mysterious killer who calls himself Diabolicus. His heirs are his three brothers and a sister, but all of them, with the exception of Monsignor Antonino di Torre Alta, are killed by Diabolicus. The police are unable to solve the case, but when Antonino gives his inheritance to Pasquale Bonocore, illegitimate son of his father and Pasquale is in prison and therefore can't be the killer, all the clues are in the hand of the police.

September 1943: in the general confusion a thief dressed as a priest and a sergeant exchange clothes and roles.

Roberto is a student in a corrupt university where teachers sell exams and only hire friends and relatives.

Drowning in debt, two brothers concoct a plan to scam a wealthy heiress and save their home in Naples — but unexpected love soon complicates the scheme.

A modern day telling of the Mark Twain classic, The Prince and the Pauper.

Wrongly accused of physically abusing a fellow actor, starving thespians Arthur and Maurice find themselves pursued by the law aboard a cruise ship.

A hapless hunchback who only yearns for love, finds himself in the middle of a murderous feud between the Pope and the King of France when each orders the hunchback to kill the other.

In many small episodes, various characters represent the typical vices and comedy of Italian society in early 2000.

The adventures of the Milanese yuppies continue, always polished, "at home" in via Montenapoleone or at Nepentha, impeccable in dressing and "winning" at work, a little less in private life.

The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.

Jacques and Martine, an ordinary bourgeois couple, invite to dinner a friend whom they have not seen the last ten years. Since then he has become a media star and everything has to go just right at dinner.

Oscar and Arthur are two actors without fortune who survive unemployment with a routine street, where one represents the thief and the other to the police. Thanks to this performance are "hired" by Mr. Mauricio Tavares to play a practical joke on dangerous Don Antonio Robledo, a senior executive who suffer a fictional kidnapping for later culminate in a surprise party.

Two silent movie actors escape from their film. Forced to find a way to survive in the real world, they will only cause troubles to the people they will meet along the way.

Nicolas Philibert goes to America after killing a French aristocrat. On his return he tries to divorce his wife, Charlotte, but when he sees others trying to woo her his own interest is rekindled.

A Florida con man uses the recent death of the long time Congressman from his district, who he just happens to share a last name with, to get elected to his version of paradise, the U.S. Congress, where the money flows from lobbyists.

When a judge shuts down a high profile cheese factory for violating pollution standards, the owner bribes a monsignor to fix the problem. After they discover the judge has a predilection for married women, the owner employs a prostitute to pose as his wife in an attempt to seduce the judge.

