41-640: Red Tavern (Italian: Taverna rossa ) is a 1940 Italian " white-telephones " comedy film directed by Max Neufeld and starring Alida Valli , André Mattoni , and Lauro Gazzolo . It was made at Cinecittà in Rome . A young woman eventually marries a count after a series of misunderstandings. This article related to an Italian comedy film of the 1940s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Telefoni Bianchi Telefoni Bianchi ( pronounced [teˈlɛːfoni ˈbjaŋki] ; white telephones ) films , also called deco films , were made by
82-665: A Million (1935), Il signor Max (1937), Department Store (1939), Manon Lescaut . Between 1931 and 1940, he starred in and directed 23 productions. During 1934 in Verona, De Sica first met screenwriter Cesare Zavattini , for many years they would become inseparable collaborators and created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age , like Sciuscià ( Shoeshine ) and Bicycle Thieves (released as The Bicycle Thief in America), both directed by De Sica. In 1940, supported by producer Giuseppe Amato, De Sica debuted as
123-721: A director and created Rose scarlatte . In 1944, De Sica received an invitation from Goebbels to make a film in Prague , but refused, using an offer from the Catholic Film Centre in Rome as an excuse. De Sica's 1946 drama Sciuscià won the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 1947. Despite the film's critical success, it failed in the Italian box office because the public craved easier films and mostly went to comedies. It
164-593: A double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. Rissone agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father. After finally divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959 in Mexico, but this union
205-498: A family friend Edoardo Bencivenga he got a small part in the Alfredo De Antoni film The Clemenceau Affair . De Sica was laureated in 1923. Described as strikingly handsome, already in the early 1920s he began his career as a theatre actor and joined Tatiana Pavlova 's theatre company in 1923. With Pavlova he worked for two years and toured South America . In 1925, he joined the company of Italia Almirante Manzini and
246-451: A film directed by Rossellini in which De Sica played the title role. In 1937 Vittorio De Sica married the actress Giuditta Rissone , who gave birth to their daughter, Emilia (10 February 1938-23 March 2021). In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento , he met Spanish actress María Mercader (cousin of Ramon Mercader , Leon Trotsky 's assassin), with whom he started a relationship. De Sica never parted from his first family: he led
287-418: A kind of "summa" of the petite bourgeoisie aesthetics of the time. 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
328-517: A leading figure in the neorealist movement. Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema , four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves (honorary), while Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Il giardino dei Finzi Contini won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film . Indeed, the great critical success of Sciuscià (the first foreign film to be so recognized by
369-506: A popular song Lodovico sei dolce come un fico sang by De Sica. In 1933, De Sica, Rissone, and Tofano founded their own company. The period of Tofano-Rissone-De Sica was notable also due to De Sica's acquaintance to Aldo De Benedetti and Gherardo Gherardi , the screenwriters with whom he had a long and fruitful collaboration. Tofano-Rissone-De Sica performed mostly light comedies , but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti . In 1936,
410-511: A status symbol of bourgeois wealth generally unavailable to the movie-going public, and children wearing Shirley Temple curls. The films tended to be socially conservative , promoting family values , respect for authority, a rigid class hierarchy and country life. The genre is also referred by modern film critics as "Hungarian style comedies", because the scripts were often adaptations of stage plays written by Hungarian authors (a popular source material also for Hollywood productions of
451-535: A substantially poor country, materially and morally backward and with the majority of the illiterate population. As well as the enthusiastic, cheerful and carefree atmosphere of these films, it seemed to clash with the gloomy situation of the nation, subjugated by the fascist dictatorship and which would soon enter World War II. Among the most relevant directors for this genre are: Mario Camerini , Alessandro Blasetti , Mario Bonnard , Mario Mattoli , Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia , Max Neufeld and Gennaro Righelli . Among
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#1733092892870492-499: Is satirized in Gradisca's sex dream with the Prince. The era of Telefoni Bianchi films is remembered in the 1976 film The Career of a Chambermaid , directed by Dino Risi . Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( / d ə ˈ s iː k ə / də SEE -kə , Italian: [vitˈtɔːrjo de ˈsiːka] ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor,
533-493: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ) and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Award. These two films are considered part of the canon of classic cinema. Bicycle Thieves was deemed the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics in 1952, and was cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history. De Sica
574-472: The Italian film industry in the 1930s and the 1940s in imitation of American comedies of the time in a sharp contrast to the other important style of the era, calligrafismo , which was highly artistic. The cinema of Telefoni Bianchi was born from the success of the Italian film comedy of the early 1930s; it was a lighter version, cleansed of any intellectualism or veiled social criticism. The name derives from
615-673: The British television series The Four Just Men . In 1961, he starred in The Two Marshals alongside Totò . His passion for gambling was well known and because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies, like Count Max (which he acted in but did not direct) and The Gold of Naples , as well as in General Della Rovere ,
656-567: 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
697-448: The authorities, with potentially controversial topics in the plot (for instance divorce , at the time illegal in Italy, or adultery , a punishable offence by the contemporary Italian laws), the action was often set in various foreign – sometimes imaginary – Eastern European countries , but always with Italian protagonists. The Neorealist filmmakers saw their gritty films as a reaction to
738-523: The comedy Bread, Love and Dreams . De Sica's character, Marshal Antonio Carotenuto, immediately became the public's favourite. The film was an enormous success, it was nominated for Academy Awards and won the Silver Bear at Berlinale. It was followed with three sequels: Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954), Scandal in Sorrento (1955), and Bread, Love and Andalusia (1958). In 1959, De Sica appeared in
779-474: The company was reformed into Rissone-De Sica-Melnati, and eventually disbanded in 1939. The play Due dozzine di rose scarlatte , written by Aldo De Benedetti, premiered on 11 March 1936, in Teatro Argentina. It is considered the best Italian comedy of the 1930s. In 1937, De Sica married Giuditta Rissone, around that time the duo with Melnati was ended. In 1940, the spouses reconciled with Tofano and founded
820-523: 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
861-446: The early years, De Sica combined his theatre and cinema careers: in the summer months, he was engaged in filmmaking and spent the winters performing on stage. In cinema, his first notable role was in 1932 Gli uomini, che mascalzoni directed by Mario Camerini . The song Parlami d'amore Mariù became a hit and remained his signature song for many years. In the 1930s his credits included many notable performances such as in I'll Give
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#1733092892870902-401: The film What Scoundrels Men Are! which later became much more famous than the film itself). However, this representation of well-being and progress was far from the Italian reality of the time; the representation of a wealthy (in some cases even opulent), advanced, emancipated and educated society was enormously contrasting with the real situation of Italy, which, at that time, was instead
943-473: The idealized and mainstream quality of the Telefoni Bianchi style. They compared and contrasted the high-and-almighty gimmicks of set and studio production, with the dishevelled beauty of everyday life, the rigorous depiction of human life and its sufferings, and chose instead to work on location and with non-professional actors. In Federico Fellini 's film Amarcord (1973), the popular film movement
984-478: The imprint of Telefoni Bianchi . Soon the subjects began to become repetitive and more and more predictable and banal; later, with the worsening of World War II , the production of this genre became more and more sparse and discontinuous until it disappeared completely with the fall of the Fascist regime (1943). The most important symbol in these films are the quite expensive Art Deco sets featuring white telephones,
1025-537: The international deco style , in vogue in those years. The roots of the Telefoni Bianchi film genre can be found in Mario Camerini 's cinema of the 1920s, in particular in Rails (1929), in which the director photographed — with reverberations of German expressionist cinema or citing the contemporary Soviet cinematographic avant-gardes — the reality of the crisis years, in real time. The cinema of Telefoni Bianchi
1066-416: The most representative actors and actresses: Caterina Boratto , Assia Noris , Cesco Baseggio , Elsa Merlini , Rossano Brazzi , Clara Calamai , Lilia Silvi , Vera Carmi , Gino Cervi , Valentina Cortese , Vittorio De Sica , Doris Duranti , Luisa Ferida , Fosco Giachetti , Amedeo Nazzari , Alida Valli , Carlo Campanini and Checco Rissone . To avoid the limitations imposed by the censorship of
1107-523: The mutual company again, where all the management tasks were taken over by Tofano. Together they released a series of successful plays: La scuola della maldicenza (based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan ), Ma non è una cosa seria written by Luigi Pirandello , Il paese delle vacanze by Ugo Betti , Liolà , etc. In 1945-46, he played in two spectacles directed by Alessandro Blasetti : Il tempo e la famiglia Conway written by John Boynton Priestley and Ma non è una cosa seria by Luigi Pirandello . During
1148-520: The pianists. As an adult, Vittorio De Sica described their family state in his early years as 'tragic and aristocratic poverty'. In 1914, the family moved to Naples. Upon the outbreak of the First World War , they moved to Florence . Eventually, they settled down in Rome. At the age of 15, De Sica started performing as an actor in amateur plays staged in hospitals for recovering soldiers. He started studying to become an accountant when in 1917 through
1189-405: The presence of white telephones in the sequences of the first films produced in this period, symptomatic of social well-being, a status symbol capable of marking the difference from the "popular" Bakelite telephones, cheaper and therefore more widespread, which instead were black. Another definition given to these films is "deco cinema" due to the strong presence of furnishing objects that recall
1230-408: 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 of successful graphic inventions led these productions to become
1271-559: The season 1945-46 he spent playing in The Marriage of Figaro and collaborated with Luchino Visconti , Vivi Gioi and Nino Besozzi . In 1948-49 he acted in two new plays: The Time of Your Life and The Magnificent Cuckold written by Fernand Crommelynck and adapted by Mario Chiari . The Magnificent Cuckold became De Sica's last theatre performance after which he concentrated fully on cinema and TV projects. Between 1923 and 1949 De Sica took part in over 120 theatre performances. In
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1312-545: The success in Italian box office was tepid. The relationship with the government remained bad, after the release of Umberto D. prime minister Giulio Andreotti sent De Sica a letter accusing him of 'rendering bad service for the country'. In 1951, De Sica co-authored (with Alberto Sordi ) and played in Mamma Mia, What an Impression! In 1952, he played along Gina Lollobrigida in In Olden Days and then again in 1953 in
1353-465: The time). The functionalism of the Bauhaus also arrived in Italy and, as can be seen in these films, there was a reflection of an Italy that was "rebuilding" its own modern and efficient image and in which the consumerism was timidly beginning to spread. It was represented by the rationalist architectural style and the industrial ferment that the fascist regime was promoting; in these light films there
1394-525: Was a fascination that glimpsed hope in the future. The bourgeois setting aesthetically echoed American film comedies, especially Frank Capra. The hopes of the petty-bourgeois could only become reality. Films like A Thousand Lire a Month , as well as the song of the same name, went down in history for their explicit lightheartedness and equally irreverent evocation. The melodic element often returned to peep out, many of these films contained at least one hit song (just think Parlami d'amore Mariù composed for
1435-526: Was also heavily criticized by the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Correction. This alienation by the Italian authorities made it difficult for De Sica to finance his subsequent projects. To produce Bicycle Thieves , De Sica had to invest own money and rely on the support of several Italian businessmen. The film brought De Sica his second Oscar as well as multiple other awards and accolades, however, again
1476-499: Was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor 's 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway 's A Farewell to Arms , a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica's acting was considered the highlight of the film. De Sica was born on 7 July 1901 in Sora, Lazio . His father Umberto De Sica
1517-681: Was from Giffoni Valle Piana , Campania ; he was a journalist, and in the later years worked for the Bank of Italy. Teresa Manfredi, his mother, had Neapolitan origins. De Sica was baptised in the church of San Giovanni Battista in Sora under the name Vittorio Domenico Stanislao Gaetano Sorano De Sica. He had a very close relationship with his father and later dedicated to him the film Umberto D. The first interest in cinema sparked in Vittorio due to his father's occasional performances in silent movies: he filled in for
1558-510: Was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris. Meanwhile, he had already had two sons with her: Manuel (1949-2014), a musician and composer, and Christian (b. 1951), who would follow his father's path as an actor and director. Only when Christian was 18, the siblings found out about each other and started communication. Christian's son and Vittorio's grandson Brando De Sica continued
1599-684: Was soon referred to as the second-best in her troupe. Two years later he joined the company of Luigi Almirante , Sergio Tofano and Giuditta Rissone . De Sica debuted as a romantic protagonist in Ferenc Molnár 's Gli occhi azzurri dell'imperatore . During that period he met Umberto Melnati , an actor from Livorno , with whom formed a successful comic duo and collaborated in many films and theatre plays. On 3 October 1930, they premiered in Teatro Manzoni with L'isola meravigliosa based on Ugo Betti 's play. They were soon spotted by Mario Mattoli who
1640-545: Was then an impresario in Teatro Mazoni. Mattoli was impressed by the quality of their rehearsals and offered to join his company Za-Bum . With Za-Bum , De Sica, Rissone and Melnati played in Una segretaria per tutti , Un cattivo soggetto , Il signore desidera? , Lisetta , and many other revues written by Mattoli and Luciano Ramo. The duo became famous on the national level after the success of radio sketch Düra minga, dura no and
1681-511: Was then born from the success of the Italian film comedy of the early 1930s; it was a lighter version, cleansed of any intellectualism or veiled social criticism. The first film of the genre Telefoni Bianchi was The Private Secretary (1931) by Goffredo Alessandrini . In the 1930s and the 1940s, light comedies like those of Telefoni Bianchi were predominant in Italian cinema. These films featured lavish set designs and promoted conservative values and respect for authority, typically avoiding