75-499: Carmine Gallone (10 September 1885 – 11 March 1973) was an early Italian film director, screenwriter, and film producer, who was also controversial for his works of pro-Fascist propaganda and historical revisionism. Considered one of Italian cinema 's leading early directors, he directed over 120 films in his fifty-year career between 1913 and 1963. Carmine Gallone was born as Carmelo Camillo Gallone on 10 September 1885 in Taggia (in
150-664: A Firenze ("Their real heights the Prince of Naples and Princess Elena visit the baptistery of Saint John in Florence") and on the day of their wedding in Dimostrazione popolare alle LL. AA. i Principi sposi (al Pantheon – Roma) ("Popular demonstration at the their heights the princes spouses (at the Pantheon – Rome)"). In the early years of the 20th century, the phenomenon of itinerant cinemas developed throughout Italy, providing literacy of
225-609: A few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina , a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII in 1896. The first films date back to 1896 and were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula . These brief experiments immediately met the curiosity of the popular class, encouraging operators to produce new films until they laid
300-502: A few months after the French Lumière brothers , who made the first public screening of a film on 28 December 1895, an event considered the birth of cinema, began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina , a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII on 26 February 1896 in the short film Sua Santità papa Leone XIII ("His Holiness Pope Leo XIII"). He then became
375-526: A kind of "summa" of the petty-bourgeois aesthetics of the time. The first film of the genre Telefoni Bianchi was The Private Secretary (1931), by Goffredo Alessandrini . Among the authors, Mario Camerini is the most representative director of the genre. After having practiced the most diverse trends in the 1930s, he happily moved into the territory of sentimental comedy with What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932), Il signor Max (1937) and Department Store (1939). In other films, he compares himself with
450-441: A period of crisis due to many factors such as production disorganization, increased costs, technological backwardness, loss of foreign markets and inability to cope with international competition, in particular with that of Hollywood. The main causes included the lack of a generational change with a production still dominated by filmmakers and producers of literary training, unable to face the challenges of modernity. The first half of
525-459: A realist setting is Lost in the Dark (1914) by director Nino Martoglio , considered by critics as a prime example of neorealist cinema. The revival of Italian cinema took place at the end of the decade with the production of larger-scale films. During this period, a group of intellectuals close to the fortnightly cinematografo led by Alessandro Blasetti launched a program that was as simple as it
600-648: A shooting and projecting device not unlike that of the Lumières brothers. Italian Lumière trainees produced short films documenting everyday life and comic strips in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Before long, other pioneers made their way. Italo Pacchioni , Arturo Ambrosio , Giovanni Vitrotti and Roberto Omegna were also active. The success of the short films was immediate. The cinema fascinated with its ability to show distant geographic realities with unprecedented precision and, vice versa, to immortalize everyday moments. Sporting events, local events, intense road traffic,
675-518: Is definitely over. Even if some performers will move on to directing or producing, the arrival of sound favours the generational change and the consequent modernization of the structures. Italian-born director Frank Capra received three Academy Awards for Best Director for the films It Happened One Night (1934, the first Big Five winner at the Academy Awards), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take It with You (1938). In 1932,
750-451: Is noted as one of the most prolific filmmakers in the history of Italian cinema, active both in the silent and sound eras. Italian cinema The cinema of Italy ( Italian : cinema italiano , pronounced [ˈtʃiːnema itaˈljaːno] ) comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors . Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy
825-444: Is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (the most of any country) as well as 12 Palmes d'Or (the second-most of any country), one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears . The history of Italian cinema began
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#1732872497534900-528: Is still the largest film studio in Europe , and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. Filmmakers such as Federico Fellini , Roberto Rossellini , Luchino Visconti , Sergio Leone , Bernardo Bertolucci , Francis Ford Coppola , Martin Scorsese , and Mel Gibson have worked at Cinecittà. More than 3,000 movies have been filmed there, of which 90 received an Academy Award nomination and 47 of these won it. During
975-474: Is that of A Woman's Story (1920) by Eugenio Perego , which uses an original narrative construction to propose a 19th-century morality with melodramatic tones. A particular genre is that of a realist setting, due to the work of the first female director of Italian cinema, Elvira Notari , who directs numerous films influenced by popular theatre and taken from famous dramas, Neapolitan songs, appendix novels or inspired by facts of chronicle. Another film with
1050-557: The Azzurri Film La regina della notte (1915), the Lumen Film Il romanzo fantastico del Dr. Mercanton o il giustiziere invisibile (1915) and Profumo mortale (1915), all films ascribable to the proto-giallo that multiplied in the following decades, becoming preparatory to the subsequent birth of the giallo . Between 1913 and 1920 there was the rise, development and decline of the phenomenon of cinematographic stardom, born with
1125-568: The Castello Sforzesco ") (1896) and La Fiera di Porta Genova ("The fair of Porta Genova ") (1898), all shot by Italo Pacchioni , who was also the inventor of a camera and projector , inspired by the cinematograph of Lumière brothers, kept at the Cineteca Italiana in Milan. If the interest of the masses were enthusiastic, the technological novelty would likely be snubbed, at least at
1200-1061: The Cineteca Nazionale in 1979. The Lumière brothers commenced public screenings in Italy in 1896 starting in March, in Rome and Milan ; in April in Naples , Salerno and Bari ; in June in Livorno ; in August in Bergamo , Bologna and Ravenna ; in October in Ancona ; and in December in Turin , Pescara and Reggio Calabria . Not long before, in 1895, Filoteo Alberini patented his " kinetograph ",
1275-756: The Venice Film Festival , the world's oldest film festival and one of the " Big Three " film festivals, alongside the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival , was established. In 1934, the Italian government created the General Directorate for Cinema ( Direzione Generale per le Cinematografia ), and appointed Luigi Freddi its director. With the approval of Benito Mussolini , this directorate called for
1350-480: The Western genre. Erotic Italian thrillers, or giallo , produced by directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento in the 1970s, influenced the horror genre worldwide. Since the 1980s, due to multiple factors, Italian production has gone through a crisis that has not prevented the production of quality films in the 1990s and into the new millennium, thanks to a revival of Italian cinema, awarded and appreciated all over
1425-723: The White House . After Guazzoni came Emilio Ghione , Febo Mari , Carmine Gallone , Giulio Antamoro and many others who contributed to the expansion of the genre. After the great success of Cabiria , with the changing tastes of the public and the first signs of the industrial crisis, the genre began to show signs of crisis. Pastrone's plan to adapt the Bible with thousands of extras remained unfulfilled. Antamoro's Christus (1916) and Guazzoni's The Crusaders (1918) remained notable for their iconographic complexity but offered no substantial novelties. Despite sporadic attempts to reconnect with
1500-407: The grandeur of the past, the trend of historical blockbusters was interrupted at the beginning of the 1920s. In the first and second decade of the 20th century came a prolific film production aimed at investigative and mystery content, supported by well-assorted Italian and foreign literature that favours its transposition into film. What would later take on the synthesis of the giallo , in fact,
1575-483: The homonymous novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton . Also popular during this period were films about historical figures, such as Caserini's Beatrice Cenci (1909) and Ugo Falena 's Lucrezia Borgia (1910). In 1905, Cines inaugurated the genre of the historical film , which in this decade gave a great fortune to many Italian filmmakers. One of the first of these films was La presa di Roma (1905), lasting 10 minutes, and made by Filoteo Alberini . The operator employs for
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#17328724975341650-451: The 1920s marked a sharp decrease in production; from 350 films produced in 1921 to 60 in 1924. Literature and theatre are still the preferred narrative sources. The feuilletons resist, mostly taken from classical or popular texts and directed by specialists such as Roberto Roberti and the religious blockbusters of Giulio Antamoro . On the basis of the latest generation of divas, a sentimental cinema for women spread, centred on figures on
1725-647: The 1930s, light comedies known as Telefoni Bianchi ("white telephones") were predominant in Italian cinema. These films, which featured lavish set designs, promoted conservative values and respect for authority, and thus typically avoided the scrutiny of government censors. Telefoni Bianchi proved to be the testing ground of numerous screenwriters destined to impose themselves in the following decades (including Cesare Zavattini and Sergio Amidei ), and above all of numerous set designers such as Guido Fiorini , Gino Carlo Sensani and Antonio Valente , who, by virtue, successful graphic inventions led these productions to become
1800-455: The Dark , silent drama film directed by Nino Martoglio and produced in 1914, documented life in the slums of Naples , and is considered a precursor to the Italian neorealism movement of the 1940s and 1950s. The only surviving copy of this film was destroyed by Nazi German forces during the World War II . This film is based on a 1901 play of the same title by Roberto Bracco . In
1875-512: The Futurists, cinema was an ideal art form, being a fresh medium, and able to be manipulated by speed, special effects and editing. Most of the futuristic-themed films of this period have been lost, but critics cite Thaïs (1917) by Anton Giulio Bragaglia as one of the most influential, serving as the main inspiration for German Expressionist cinema in the following decade. The Italian film industry struggled against rising foreign competition in
1950-567: The Hollywood-style comedy on the model of Frank Capra ( Heartbeat , 1939) and the surreal one of René Clair ( I'll Give a Million , 1936). Camerini is interested in the figure of the typical and popular Italian, so much so that he anticipates some elements of the future Italian comedy. His major interpreter, Vittorio De Sica , will continue his lesson in Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940) and Teresa Venerdì (1941), emphasizing above all
2025-585: The Venice Film Festival and was quite successful. In 1943 he made Harlem , set in the US and critical about the American lifestyle, with afro-American and colonial British war prisoners employed in extra roles as colored characters. Gallone also had a passion for making films that were linked to, or inspired by, the world of opera. These include Casta Diva (1935), Il sogno di Butterfly (Butterfly's Dream) (1939 and
2100-436: The arrival of a train, visits by famous people, but also natural disasters and calamities are filmed. Titles of the time include, Arrivo del treno alla Stazione di Milano ("Arrival of the train at Milan station") (1896), La battaglia di neve ("The snow battle") (1896), La gabbia dei matti ("The madmen's cage") (1896), Ballo in famiglia ("Family dance") (1896), Il finto storpio al Castello Sforzesco ("The fake cripple at
2175-425: The aspirations and fears of a petty-bourgeois society torn between the desire for affirmation and the uncertainties of the present. It was significant that the protagonists of Italian comedians never place themselves in open contrast with society or embody the desire for social revenge (as happens for example with Charlie Chaplin ), but rather tried to integrate into a strongly desired world. Italian futurist cinema
2250-607: The beginning, by intellectuals and the press. Despite initial doubt, in just two years, cinema climbs the hierarchy of society, intriguing the wealthier classes. On 28 January 1897, prince Victor Emmanuel and princess Elena of Montenegro attended a screening organized by Vittorio Calcina, in a room of the Pitti Palace in Florence . Interested in experimenting with the new medium, they were filmed in S.A.R. il Principe di Napoli e la Principessa Elena visitano il battistero di S. Giovanni
2325-526: The car, the airplane, and the industrial city. Its key figures were the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , Umberto Boccioni , Carlo Carrà , Fortunato Depero , Gino Severini , Giacomo Balla , and Luigi Russolo . It glorified modernity and aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past. The 1916 Manifesto of Futuristic Cinematography was signed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Armando Ginna, Bruno Corra, Giacomo Balla and others. To
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2400-407: The crises that will periodically shake the industry, right up to the present day. The archetypes of this film genre were The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), by Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi and Nero (1909), by Maggi himself and Arrigo Frusta . This last film was inspired by the work of Pietro Cossa who is iconographically based on the etchings of Bartolomeo Pinelli , neoclassicism and
2475-523: The cultural and historical suggestions of the country. Education is an inexhaustible source of ideas, ideas that are easily assimilated not only by a cultured public but also by the masses. Dozens of characters from texts make their appearance on the big screen such as the Count of Monte Cristo , Giordano Bruno , Judith beheading Holofernes , Francesca da Rimini , Lorenzino de' Medici , Rigoletto , Count Ugolino and others. From an iconographic point of view,
2550-523: The direction of the actors and the care for the settings. Other directors include Mario Mattoli ( Schoolgirl Diary , 1941), Jean de Limur ( Apparition , 1944) and Max Neufeld ( The House of Shame , 1938; A Thousand Lire a Month , 1939). The realist comedies of Mario Bonnard ( Before the Postman , 1942; The Peddler and the Lady , 1943) are partially different in character, which partially deviate from
2625-685: The establishment of a town southeast of Rome devoted exclusively to cinema, dubbed the Cinecittà ("Cinema City"), under the slogan " Il cinema è l'arma più forte " ("Cinema is the most powerful weapon"). The studios were constructed during the Fascist era as part of a plan to revive the Italian film industry, which had reached its low point in 1931. Mussolini himself inaugurated the studios on 21 April 1937. Post-production units and sets were constructed and heavily used initially. Early films such as Scipio Africanus (1937) and The Iron Crown (1941) showcased
2700-542: The first cinema users who demanded a greater offer. The popular consensus is remarkable to the point of encouraging the film industry to invest further production resources since these films are also distributed on the French and Anglo-Saxon markets. Thus directors among the most prolific in this field such as Oreste Mentasti , Luigi Maggi , Arrigo Frusta and Ubaldo Maria Del Colle , together with many others less known, direct several dozen films where classic narrative elements of
2775-787: The first italian film production company and the largest and probably the most famous film house in Italy founded by Gustavo Lombardo at Naples in 1904, Cines , based in Rome; and the Turin-based companies Ambrosio Film and Itala Film . Other companies soon followed in Milan, and these early companies quickly attained a respectable production quality and were able to market their products both within Italy and abroad. Early Italian films typically consisted of adaptations of books or stage plays, such as Mario Caserini 's Otello (1906) and Arturo Ambrosio 's 1908 The Last Days of Pompeii , an adaptation of
2850-461: The first time actors of theatrical origin, exploiting the historical argument in a popular and pedagogical key. The film, assimilating Manzoni's lesson of making historical fiction plausible, reconstructs the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870. The discovery of the spectacular potential of the cinematographic medium favoured the development of a cinema with great ambitions, capable of incorporating all
2925-637: The foundations for the birth of a true film industry. In the early years of the 20th century, silent cinema developed, bringing numerous Italian stars to the forefront until the end of World War I . In the early 1900s, artistic and epic films such as Otello (1906), The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis (1913), and Cabiria (1914), were made as adaptations of books or stage plays. Italian filmmakers were using complex set designs, lavish costumes, and record budgets, to produce pioneering films. The oldest European avant-garde cinema movement, Italian futurism , took place in
3000-528: The imprint of Telefoni Bianchi. List of countries by number of Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of countries by number of Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film before 2020), a table showing the total number of submissions, nominations, and awards of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film received by each country. It follows Academy convention by not grouping
3075-411: The integration of optical effects and stage action, and it was the first Italian feature film ever made. The Last Days of Pompeii (1913), by Eleuterio Rodolfi , used innovative special effects. Enrico Guazzoni 's 1913 film Quo Vadis was one of the first blockbusters in the history of cinema , using thousands of extras and a lavish set design. The international success of the film marked
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3150-606: The late 1910s. After a period of decline in the 1920s, the Italian film industry was revitalized in the 1930s with the arrival of sound film . A popular Italian genre during this period, the Telefoni Bianchi , consisted of comedies with glamorous backgrounds. Calligrafismo was instead in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic , highly formalistic , expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. While Italy's Fascist government provided financial support for
3225-541: The main references are the great Renaissance and neoclassical artists, as well as symbolists and popular illustrations. In the 1910s, the Italian film industry developed rapidly. In 1912, the year of the greatest expansion, 569 films were produced in Turin, 420 in Rome and 120 in Milan. Popular early Italian actors included Emilio Ghione , Alberto Collo , Bartolomeo Pagano , Amleto Novelli , Lyda Borelli , Ida Carloni Talli , Lidia Quaranta and Maria Jacobini . Lost in
3300-412: The margins of society who, instead of struggling to emancipate themselves (as happens in contemporary Hollywood cinema), go through an authentic ordeal in order to preserve their own virtue. Protest and rebellion by the female protagonists are out of the question. It is a strongly conservative cinema, tied to social rules upset by the war and in the process of dissolution throughout Europe. An exemplary case
3375-437: The maturation of the genre and allows Guazzoni to make increasingly spectacular films such as Antony and Cleopatra (1913) and Julius Caesar (1914). Giovanni Pastrone 's 1914 film Cabiria was an even larger production, requiring two years and a record budget to produce, it was the first epic film ever made and it is considered the most famous Italian silent film . It was also the first film in history to be shown in
3450-419: The mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s, Commedia all'italiana and many other genres arose due to auteur cinema , and Italian cinema reached a position of great prestige both nationally and abroad. The Spaghetti Western achieved popularity in the mid-1960s, peaking with Sergio Leone 's Dollars Trilogy , which featured enigmatic scores by composer Ennio Morricone , which have become popular culture icons of
3525-736: The most prestigious awards at national level. Presented by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano in the Cinecittà studios, during the awards ceremony, the winners are given a miniature reproduction of the famous statue . The finalist candidates for the award, as per tradition, are first received at the Quirinal Palace by the President of Italy . The event is the Italian equivalent of the American Academy Awards . The history of Italian cinema began
3600-453: The nation's film industry, notably the construction of the Cinecittà studios (the largest film studio in Europe), it also engaged in censorship, and thus many Italian films produced in the late 1930s were propaganda films . A new era took place at the end of World War II with the birth of the influential Italian neorealist movement, reaching a vast consensus of audiences and critics throughout
3675-428: The national costume, imposing canons of beauty, role models and objects of desire. These models, strongly stylized according to the cultural and artistic trends of the time, moved away from naturalism in favor of melodramatic acting, pictorial gesture and theatrical pose; all favored by the incessant use of close-up which focuses the attention on the expressiveness of the actress. The most successful comedian in Italy
3750-617: The official photographer of the House of Savoy , the Italian ruling dynasty from 1861 to 1946. In this role he filmed the first Italian film, Sua Maestà il Re Umberto e Sua Maestà la Regina Margherita a passeggio per il parco a Monza ("His Majesty the King Umberto and Her Majesty the Queen Margherita strolling through the Monza Park "), believed to have been lost until it was rediscovered by
3825-640: The oldest film festival in the world, held annually since 1932 and awarding the Golden Lion ; In 2008 the Venice Days ("Giornate degli Autori"), a section held in parallel to the Venice Film Festival, has produced in collaboration with Cinecittà studios and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage a list of a 100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978: the " 100 Italian films to be saved ". The David di Donatello Awards are one of
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#17328724975343900-514: The post-war period, and which launched the directorial careers of Luchino Visconti , Roberto Rossellini , and Vittorio De Sica . Neorealism declined in the late 1950s in favour of lighter films, such as those of the Commedia all'italiana genre and important directors like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni . Actresses such as Sophia Loren , Giulietta Masina and Gina Lollobrigida achieved international stardom during this period. From
3975-459: The province of Imperia ), but grew up in Naples . His father was Italian, from Sorrento , and his mother was French, from Nice . He began writing plays at 15 and in 1911 won first prize at a national drama competition for his drama Brittanico . He later moved to Rome where in 1912 he was hired as a general worker by the Teatro Argentina company, all the while continuing to write plays. In
4050-575: The release of Ma l'amor mio non muore (1913), by Mario Caserini . The film had great success with the public and encoded the setting and aesthetics of female stardom. Within just a few years, Eleonora Duse , Pina Menichelli , Rina De Liguoro , Leda Gys , Hesperia , Vittoria Lepanto , Mary Cleo Tarlarini and Italia Almirante Manzini established themselves. Films such as Fior di male (1914), by Carmine Gallone , Il fuoco (1915), by Giovanni Pastrone , Rapsodia satanica (1917), by Nino Oxilia and Cenere (1917), by Febo Mari , changed
4125-525: The remake of 1954) and Puccini (1953). After the revival of Italian film Gallone went back to work at home permanently in 1940. He directed not only more historical films like Messalina (1951) and Cartagine in fiamme (1960), but also some comic films in the Don Camillo series starring Fernandel and Gino Cervi . The comedy Carmen di Trastevere , made in 1963, was the last film of his long career. Having directed more than one hundred films, Gallone
4200-532: The same year he had his first experience working in film at the Cines studio. In 1912 he also met and married the Polish actress Stanisława Winawerówna, better known to the public as Soava Gallone , whom he directed in many of his films. Promoted to director at Cines , he directed thirteen titles in 1914 alone, including Amore senza veli , Il romanzo di un torero , La donna nuda and Le campane di Sorrento . In 1915 he
4275-400: The screens. Historical films such as Blasetti's 1860 (1934) and Carmine Gallone 's Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) were also popular during this period. With the transition to sound cinema, most of the Italian silent film actors, still linked to theatrical stylization, find themselves disqualified. The era of divas, dandies and strongmen, who barely survived the 1920s,
4350-590: The show Nero, or the Destruction of Rome represented by the Barnum circus . Followed by Marin Faliero, Doge of Venice (1909), by Giuseppe De Liguoro , Otello (1909) by Yambo and L'Odissea (1911), by Bertolini, Padovan and De Liguoro. L'Inferno , produced by Milano Films in 1911, even before being an adaptation of Dante's canticle , was a cinematic translation of Gustave Doré 's engravings that experiments with
4425-464: The silent proto-giallo (mystery, crime, investigation investigative and final twist) constitute the structural aspects of cinematic representation. Elvira Notari , the first female director ever in Italy and one of the premieres in the history of world cinema, directed Carmela, la sartina di Montesanto (1916). While in Palermo , Lucarelli Film produced La cassaforte n. 8 (1914) and Ipnotismo (1914),
4500-402: The streets, in cafes or in variety theatres in the presence of a swindler who has the task of promoting and enriching the story. Between 1903 and 1909 the itinerant cinema Italian film was quieting, until then considered as a freak phenomenon, took on consistency assuming the characteristics of an authentic industry, led by four major organizations: Titanus (originally Monopolio Lombardo ),
4575-407: The tastes of the public. The sound cinema arrived in Italy in 1930, three years after the release of The Jazz Singer (1927), and immediately led to a debate on the validity of spoken cinema and its relationship with the theatre. Some directors enthusiastically face the new challenge. The advent of talkies led to stricter censorship by the Fascist government . The first Italian talking picture
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#17328724975344650-595: The technical quality of Italian films. Many films are still shot entirely in Cinecittà. Benito Mussolini founded Cinecittà studio also for the production of Fascist propaganda until World War II . During this period, Mussolini's son, Vittorio , created a national production company and organized the work of noted authors, directors and actors (including even some political opponents), thereby creating an interesting communication network among them, which produced several noted friendships and stimulated cultural interaction. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it
4725-629: The technological advancement of the studios. Seven thousand people were involved in the filming of the battle scene from Scipio Africanus , and live elephants were brought in as a part of the re-enactment of the Battle of Zama . The Cinecittà provided everything necessary for filmmaking: theatres, technical services, and even a cinematography school, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia , for younger apprentices. The Cinecittà studios were Europe's most advanced production facilities and greatly boosted
4800-399: The three years leading up to World War I , as production consolidates, mythological, comedy and drama films are exported all over the world. In the meantime, in the actor's field, the phenomenon of stardom was born which for a few years will experience unstoppable success. With the end of the decade, Rome definitively established itself as the main production center; this will remain, despite
4875-416: The traditional genre of comedy with kammerspiel and realist film, revealing the director's ability to outline the characters of the middle class. While not comparable to the best results of international cinema of the period, the works of Camerini and Blasetti testify to a generational transition between Italian directors and intellectuals, and above all an emancipation from literary models and an approach to
4950-525: The visual medium. This innovative form of spectacle ran out, in a short time, a number of optical attractions such as magic lanterns, cinematographers, stereoscopes, panoramas and dioramas that had fueled the European imagination and favoured the circulation of a common market for images. The nascent Italian cinema, therefore, is still linked to the traditional shows of the commedia dell'arte or to those typical of circus folklore. Public screenings take place in
5025-451: The world. During the 1980s and 1990s, directors such as Ermanno Olmi , Bernardo Bertolucci , Giuseppe Tornatore , Gabriele Salvatores and Roberto Benigni brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema, while the most popular directors of the 2000s and 2010s were Matteo Garrone , Paolo Sorrentino , Marco Bellocchio , Nanni Moretti and Marco Tullio Giordana . The country is also famed for its prestigious Venice Film Festival ,
5100-504: The years following World War I . Several major studios, among them Cines and Ambrosio, formed the Unione Cinematografica Italiana to coordinate a national strategy for film production. This effort was largely unsuccessful, however, due to a wide disconnect between production and exhibition (some movies weren't released until several years after they were produced). With the end of World War I, Italian cinema went through
5175-427: Was The Song of Love (1930) by Gennaro Righelli , which was a great success with the public. Alessandro Blasetti also experimented with the use of an optical track for sound in the film Resurrection (1931), shot before The Song of Love but released a few months later. Similar to Righelli's film is What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) by Mario Camerini , which has the merit of making Vittorio De Sica debut on
5250-401: Was André Deed , better known in Italy as Cretinetti , star of comic short film for Itala Film . Its success paved the way for Marcel Fabre ( Robinet ), Ernesto Vaser ( Fricot ) and many others. The only actor of a certain substance, however, was Ferdinand Guillaume , who became famous with the stage name of Polidor . The historical interest of these films lay in their ability to reveal
5325-499: Was ambitious. Aware of the Italian cultural backwardness, they decided to break all ties with the previous tradition through a rediscovery of the peasant world, hitherto practically absent in Italian cinema. Sun (1929) by Alessandro Blasetti shows the evident influence of the Soviet and German avant-gardes in an attempt to renew Italian cinema in accordance with the interests of the fascist regime. Rails (1929) by Mario Camerini blends
5400-570: Was compared to Cecil B. DeMille . His best remembered films like Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompeii) in 1926 and many years later, the massive epic Scipione l'Africano in 1937, were used to enhance the imperial aspirations of the Mussolini regime, through the depiction of the greatness of ancient Rome. About Scipio l'Africano , Gallone is said to have remarked "If the film does not please il Duce I will shoot myself." The film in fact did not impress Mussolini, but still premiered at
5475-401: Was produced and distributed at the dawn of Italian cinema. The most prolific production houses in the 1910s were Cines , Ambrosio Film , Itala Film , Aquila Films , Milano Films and many others, while titles such as Il delitto del magistrato (1907), Il cadavere misterioso (1908), Il piccolo Sherlock Holmes (1909), L'abisso (1910) and Alibi atroce (1910), breached the imagination of
5550-585: Was selected to direct the film Avatar . In 1918 he made his most successful film to date, Redenzione (Redemption) for the Medusa Film company. The film had a great success with audiences and critics. In 1924, together with Augusto Genina he directed Il corsaro . The following year due to the Italian film industry's troubles Gallone moved abroad where he worked for many years in France, Germany, England and Austria. Due to his predilection for historical epics he
5625-545: Was the oldest movement of European avant-garde cinema. Italian futurism , an artistic and social movement , impacted the Italian film industry from 1916 to 1919. It influenced Russian Futurist cinema and German Expressionist cinema . Its cultural importance was considerable and influenced all subsequent avant-gardes, as well as some authors of narrative cinema; its echo expands to the dreamlike visions of some films by Alfred Hitchcock . Futurism emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as
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