This personal but enormously informative and inventive exploration of the modern Italian cinema begins with the Scorsese family’s 16-inch black-and-white television set and the access it provided the young director-to-be to the tradition of the Italian epic, to the great masters who emerged from the neorealist period, and to his own family’s social and cultural roots. Working with extraordinary prints and the editing skills of Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese guides us on a brilliantly incisive journey that blends vivid social history, skillful formal analysis, and a pure cinephilic delight in the incomparable artistry of these directors, their writing partners, and the extraordinary group of actors who performed in their films.