I wouldn't consider any of the three films in this week's Hidden Treasures article to be 'hidden' by any means. But they deserve a great deal more widespread appreciation than they currently enjoy among cineaste circles. All three are from great Italian directors this time.
1900 (1976) - BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI
I could recommend watching Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (or Novecento) in installments. Ideally, all films ought to be experienced in one sitting, but there's so much to this extraordinary film that anyone could be forgiven for taking a few breaks. Enormously ambitious, it was considered a failure by many upon release in 1976; it is nonetheless a film of awesome power and scope, exquisitely filmed by a master operating near his artistic peak.
THE DAMNED (1969) - LUCHINO VISCONTI
A silly, excessive film from Luchino Visconti, but isn't that exactly what you'd want from the great director, making a film about the German bourgeoisie in the 1930s? A ravishing, sickening, appallingly riveting film, Visconti directs as if staging a grand ball, with the characters dancing over these sumptuous sets. The cinematography by Pasqualino de Santis and Armando Nannuzzi is among the finest in all of cinema history.
TEOREMA (1968) - PIER PAOLO PASOLINI
Teorema (Theorem) is, in a very distinct way, not really a film. Not as one might understand the concept of film. It is a work of modern art, beguiling, elusive, experimental. Pier Paolo Pasolini is as interested in the art of transmitting his message and the subsequent effect of that as he is in the message itself and its own effect. It is the ultimate riposte to those who consider film to be an inferior, or low, art form. It's also an extended meditation on Terence Stamp's crotch, but then you don't hear me complaining...
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