Movies - Cinema of Italy

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	Movies - Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began a just few months after the Lumière brothers had discovered the medium, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.

Early years

The Italian film industry took shape between 1903 and 1908, led by three major companies - the Roman Cines, the Ambrosio of Turin and Itala Film. Other companies were soon to follow in Milan and Naples. In a short period of time, these early companies attained a respectable production quality and soon were selling films abroad as well as inside Italy.

One of the first Italian filoni (sub-genres) was the historical film: the first work in the genre was Filoteo Alberini's La presa di Roma, 20 settembre 1870 (The Capture of Rome, September 20, 1870), filmed in 1905. Other films portrayed famous historical figures such as Nero, Messalina, Spartacus, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Arturo Ambrosio's Ultimi giorni di Pompei (1908 - The Last Days of Pompeii) quickly became famous, so famous that it was remade by Mario Caserini in 1913. In the same year Enrico Guazzoni directed the widely appreciated Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

Actresses Lyda Borelli and Francesca Bertini were the first "divas" (stars), specialising in passionate tragedies. Francesca Bertini became the first "star" of cinema, as well as the first actress to appear on film partly naked.

Other filoni featured social themes, often based on published literature. In 1916 the film Cenere (Ash) was based on Grazia Deledda's book, and interpreted by the theatre actress Eleonora Duse (also famous as Gabriele D'Annunzio's lover).

Introduction of sound

Despite the introduction of sound, economic problems stemming from World War I caused the quality of Italian films to decline. It was only at the end of the 1920s that the industry began to recover, with innovative films directed by Alessandro Blasetti, Mario Camerini and his cousin Augusto Genina.

Blasetti opened his long career with a vanguard project (Sole, 1928) and in the following years directed the famous Italian comedian Ettore Petrolini in his comic Nero (an extremely sophisticated satire of Mussolini that, it is said, the dictator himself allowed to pass censorship).

Another burgeoning genre was Telefoni Bianchi (white telephones), so named because of the characteristic presence of these objects in scenes. The Telefoni Bianchi included films that illustrated high society, with a heavy dose of formal morality reflecting the culture of the age. These films, generally little thought-of, launched the careers of many stars, such as Vittorio De Sica and Alida Valli.

Cinecittà

Meanwhile, fascism had created a board of judgment for popular culture. This administration suggested, with Mussolini's full approval, the creation of some important structures for Italian cinema. An area was founded in southeast Rome to build ex novo a town exclusively for cinema, dubbed the Cinecittà. The town was conceived in order to provide everything necessary for filmmaking: theatres, technical services, and even a cinematography school for younger apprentices. Even today, many films are shot entirely in Cinecittà. At the same time Vittorio Mussolini, the son of the dictator, created a national production company and organised the work of the most gifted authors, directors and actors (including even some political opponents), thereby creating an interesting communication network among them, resulting in several famous friendships and, beyond that, stimulating cultural interaction. Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini among many others.

Neorealism

Italian cinema had only a small price to pay for dictatorship. With the approaching war, many works were produced for propaganda purposes, as is the case in many countries at-war. Nevertheless, in 1942 Blasetti produced his Quattro passi tra le nuvole (Four Steps in the Clouds), which is the story of a humble employee, considered by many as the first neorealist work.

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