Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
Un soir sur la plage is relatively interesting; the cast includes highly talented Jean Dessailly, Martine Carol, a cast against type Michel Galabru as the cop.The biggest surprise is sixties starlet Daliah Lavi as a simple-minded nymphomaniac girl who is murdered on the beach. The story is essentially a whodunit: in Martine Carol's house, there are many people (too many people actually) and they all have a reason to get rid of her.
Constantine is fighting against Barbarians with his father when he is called to Rome. In his way to Rome, he falls in an ambush planned by Maxence, who wants to become emperor.
Antonio Spagara, a young Sicilian worker, has been assigned by the Mafia to murder a nobleman, Marquis Macri. But at the last minute Antonio reneges on his commitment and instead of killing the father, he flees to Palermo with Grazia, his daughter. Life is not a bed of roses in the Sicilian capital, as the young man must impose himself to face his godfather and Grazia's despotic sister Dorotea. To make matters worse, the Mafia is not going to tolerate Antonio's desertion...
While her new husband is away looking for work, the wife loses the child she was expecting and uses another woman's baby as a substitute so she won't have to upset her spouse when he returns.
Pisa, 11th century. Spina, a young priestess daughter of Peter, is devoted to keeping a flame burning that illuminates the way back for those returning from the Crusade. But the Florentine knight Lamberto falls in love with her and the two young men fail in the vow of chastity that Spina committed. The shame for having betrayed the promise of purity made pushes Spina to suicide and Lamberto kills himself with her.