Ivory's initial effort as a filmmaker was Venice: Theme and Variations, a documentary made as his master's thesis at the USC film school that, although only 28 minutes long, is rich in composition and aesthetic texture.

Variations on relationships in a New Year Day atmosphere set in a huge and rundown 1980s style hotel awaiting demolition by Lake Balaton, Hungary. Three women and five men in various ways.

Meet Nick. Nick loves his dog, Byron. Nick is obsessive compulsive. He loses his tooth. He sleeps with his girlfriend's twin sister. He gets stranded in the desert. He faces his inner demons. He must decide who he is as a man.

The "casanova" gondolier Bepi struggles to accept his future monogamous life, being Venice a hub of attracting tourists.

When a young and struggling couple go on vacation to rekindle their happiness, the past gets the best of them as they walk the streets of beautiful Venice, Italy for a day.

Reencountering the only man she ever loved is Gringa’s dream. She is the owner of a brothel in the interior of Brazil and even though she is blind and very sick, she insists on fulfilling her last wish: to go to Venice to apologize to the lover she abandoned decades ago. To take her to the Italian city, Tonho, Rita and the other girls who work for Gringa come up with a fantastic plan with help from a circus troupe.

Alone in a secluded mansion, Giacomo Casanova cries out then collapses. When the mysterious and beautiful writer, Elisa von der Recke, comes to visit, it breathes new life into the old man. A movie that captures the myth of the greatest seducer of all times, Casanova, his story is told both through fiction and on-stage opera performances that unravel the tale of his adventures, his passions, and ultimately his fear of death.

This is a rough, fragmented drama about a couple whose 13-year-old son committed suicide without an apparent reason. The film portrays the day after the funeral and the helpless, abandoned mourning of the parents.