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116-424: Denti ( Teeth ) is a 2000 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Gabriele Salvatores . It is based on the novel with the same name written by Domenico Starnone . It entered the competition at the 57th Venice International Film Festival . Antonio has always had problems with his incisors: enormous and therefore embarrassing. During a quarrel Mara, the woman for whom he left his wife and two children and of whom he

232-527: A "grease stain which is spreading through the whole of European life". French and Russian novels and H. G. Wells 's Outline of History were also attacked as contaminating youth. British literature was used to show them as decadent as the French, their low birth rate was decried and it was proclaimed that Italy had saved Britain and France during World War I. Italianization of street names and monuments in linguistically-Slavic and -German regions of Italy

348-416: A Fascist only in politics, and it therefore overtly rejected liberalism 's private and public spheres. Fascism was not a party but a way of life. The corporatist State was offered as a unifying form of politics, as opposed to liberal democracy . Fascism and the state were identified, and everything was to be encompassed in the state. Work was presented as a social duty of every citizen, because Italy

464-685: 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

580-400: A doctrine of action and a revolt against the conformity and alienation of bourgeois society: The Fascist accepts and loves life; he rejects and despises suicide as cowardly. Life as he understands it means duty, elevation, conquest; life must be lofty and full, it must be lived for oneself but above all for others, both near bye [sic] and far off, present and future. National and social unity

696-627: 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

812-509: 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

928-517: A heroic and militaristic manner, with programs being termed the Battle of Wheat and the Battle of the Lira . Military matters were also straightforwardly praised, with the aim of primacy on land, sea, and air. Because war was to man what maternity was to woman, disarmament was impossible. War, conquest, and killing were praised as the essence of manhood . A Fascist encyclopedia proclaimed, "Nothing

1044-526: 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

1160-441: 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

1276-416: A practitioner of various sports such as fencing , auto racing , skiing , horse riding , lion taming , and swimming , was promoted to create an image of a valiant and fearless hero. Mussolini's prestige as a hero aviator in the manner of Charles Lindbergh was especially important, as for Italian Fascism the aeroplane embodied qualities such as dynamism, energy, and courage. Mussolini himself oversaw

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1392-463: 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

1508-558: A representation of authority. April 21, the anniversary of the founding of Rome , was proclaimed a Fascist holiday that was intended to replace the socialist Labour Day as a celebration of the Roman virtues of "work" and " discipline ". Rome's role in establishing Christianity as a universal religion was also exalted. Architecture was used to supplement the Roman revival by juxtaposing modern monuments with ancient buildings, such as

1624-410: A revolutionary ideology in contrast to the stasis of liberal democracy . The official Italian Fascist hymn, Giovinezza ("Youth"), linked the concepts of youth, the rebirth of the nation, and the reign of Mussolini into symbolic unity. The publicising of Mussolini's birthdays and illnesses were banned for journalists to give an impression of him not aging. The erotic aspect of this personality cult

1740-653: 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,

1856-463: A term used to describe Italian nationalists' dissatisfaction on the territorial rewards at the end of the Great War . Once Mussolini came in power, all propaganda efforts were grouped together under the press office;, and propaganda efforts were slowly organized until a Ministry of Popular Culture was created in 1937. A special propaganda ministry was created in 1935 and claimed that its purpose

1972-525: 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,

2088-469: Is ever won in history without bloodshed". That drew upon older themes, which had been exulted during World War I , with injunctions that suffering was necessary for greatness. World War I was often cited in Fascist propaganda, with many prominent Italian Fascists displaying many medals from the conflict. To such figures as Gabriele d'Annunzio , the return of peace meant only the return of the humdrum, but

2204-518: Is extremely jealous, throws him a crystal ashtray breaking his teeth. He begins his wandering among dentists that will turn into a sort of journey in his own conscience, altered by painkillers, by quarrels with Mara and by memories and ghosts that resurface. This article related to an Italian film of the 2000s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cinema of Italy The cinema of Italy ( Italian : cinema italiano , pronounced [ˈtʃiːnema itaˈljaːno] ) comprises

2320-537: 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

2436-474: 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

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2552-518: The Arabs , Mussolini had himself declared the "Protector of Islam " during an official visit to Italian-occupied Libya in 1937. Italian Fascism was among the most visible of movements that exulted action over talk and violence over reason, which partly stemmed from the First World War . That was used to justify taking up notions and dropping them again. Economic issues were presented in

2668-571: 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

2784-588: 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

2900-1173: 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 ",

3016-547: The Gregorian calendar was deemed as being bourgeois; in the Era Fascista , the year began on October 29, the day after the anniversary of the March on Rome, and the years were to be counted from 1922 by using Roman numerals . The Nazi rise to power was used as Germany 's imitating Italy, which would soon be followed by other nations. The attack on Ethiopia was framed as Italy's vigour and idealism easily crushing

3132-696: The Italian intervention in the First World War . During those years, Fascist propaganda was mostly targeted at opposing the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), the largest political movement in the country and the Italian Fascists' main antagonist to power. The PSI was accused of being a sock puppet of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was often labelled as a "Russian army". Those sentiments were often shared by

3248-603: The Italian people morally, materially, and spiritually. Mussolini was " Il Duce " and as such he had been proclaimed in song even before the seizure of power. The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 was presented as a revival of the Roman Empire , with Mussolini being portrayed as the Roman emperor Augustus . In order to improve the image of Fascist Italy in North Africa and the Levant and to gain support from

3364-563: The National Fascist Party and Italian society. The personality cult of Mussolini helped reconcile Italian citizens with the Fascist regime despite annoyance with local officials. A basic slogan in Fascist Italy proclaimed that Mussolini was "always right" ( Italian : Il Duce ha sempre ragione ). Endless publicity revolved about Mussolini with newspapers being instructed on exactly what to report about him. He

3480-796: The Spanish Civil War , in which the Royal Italian Army sent the Corpo Truppe Volontarie ("Corps of Volunteer Troops") to intervene on behalf of the Spanish Nationalists , were heralded in the Fascist state media. The Italian invasion of Albania in 1939 was presented as a splendid act of aggression. In the run-up to World War II , Mussolini's claim that he could field 8 million was quickly exaggerated to 9 million and then to 12 million. The continually-bellicose pose created an embarrassment with

3596-802: 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

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3712-485: 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

3828-733: 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

3944-523: The attack on Ethiopia as advancing the cause of civilisation. Other European nations were called on to stand with Italy against alleged "savage cannibals" and "slave-holders". That was backed up with one of their most impressive ceremonies, the Gold for the Fatherland initiative, which involved the donation of wedding rings and other forms of gold by Italian citizens in exchange for steel rings bearing

4060-407: 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,

4176-483: 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

4292-404: The status quo instead of the fascist virtues of dynamism, courage, discipline and self-sacrifice. An anti-bourgeois exhibition was opened on 29 November 1937. It denounced "typical aspects of bourgeois mentality" and ridiculed gestures and customs such as handshakes, suits, top hats and afternoon tea , all to which fascism was to provide its own replacements, such as the Roman salute . Even

4408-416: The " Bolshevist beast." In his first speech as a deputy, Mussolini proclaimed that no dealings were possible between Communism and Fascism even while he proclaimed his willingness to work with other groups. The Spanish Civil War was presented as a crusade against Communism. The influx of foreign culture was attacked. " Americanism " was the object of an organised propaganda campaign that attacked as

4524-451: 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

4640-647: 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

4756-507: The 2000th anniversary of the birth of Augustus . There, the symbolic connection between Caesarean leadership of Augustus and Mussolini's dictatorship was stressed. At the exhibition entrance was inscribed a quote from Mussolini: "Italians, you must ensure that the glories of the past are surpassed by the triumphs of the future". Rome thus constituted a point of reference in Fascism's dream of building an aggressive and forward-looking Italy of

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4872-461: 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

4988-522: The Fasci of Combat . Years later, a different set of ideas were enumerated in The Doctrine of Fascism , which was purportedly written entirely by Benito Mussolini although he wrote only the second part, and the first part was actually also written by Giovanni Gentile . Fascism's internal contradictions, such as its changing official doctrines, were justified by Mussolini as a product of its nature:

5104-517: 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

5220-579: 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

5336-537: The Italian Fascist regime presented Mussolini himself having omnipotent or godlike characteristics, such as being able to work superhuman amounts (14–16 hours) daily and never appearing tired. Fascist newspapers implied even that Mussolini had performed miracles , such as stopping the lava flow of Mount Etna in Sicily and invoking rain in the drought -suffering Italian-occupied Libya during his visit to

5452-467: The Italian liberal establishment, which condemned Fascist violence but was more afraid of a Bolshevik Revolution . In addition to attacking the Italian socialists through the pro-war Fascist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia ("The People of Italy"), Mussolini often also attacked the liberal establishment of the Kingdom of Italy , which he regarded as responsible for the so-called " mutilated victory ",

5568-412: The Italian people. Mussolini's melodramatic style of oratory was both pantomimic and liturgical, with exaggerated poses and hand movements, and prominent variations in the pitch and tone of his voice. Mussolini intended his speeches to be faith-inspiring theatrical performances and stated that "the crowd does not have to know; it must believe". In addition to being depicted as being chosen by God ,

5684-436: 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

5800-425: 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

5916-618: 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

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6032-540: 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

6148-625: The creation of the Via dell'Impero . In the city of Rome, archaeological and propagandist projects involving the clearing, isolation (often by deliberately destroying surrounding medieval buildings ) and restoration of key monuments such as the Ara Pacis and the Mausoleum of Augustus received strong support from the fascist regime. A major propaganda event was the opening of the "Augustan Exhibition of Romanitas " on 23 September 1937 to celebrate

6264-407: 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

6380-527: 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,

6496-420: The decadent, bloodless and cowardly democracies, especially as they supported barbarians over the "mother of civilizations". The United States was particularly resented for its wealth and position. Joining World War II was presented as a war on decadent plutocracies . The powers were also claimed to have prevented Italian imperialism. Mussolini began to decry the oppression that Italy suffered as early as

6612-553: The difference being that Mussolini had survived his ordeal. He was also compared to Saint Francis of Assisi , who had, like Mussolini, "suffered and sacrificed himself for others". Mussolini's humble origin was described with explicit parallels with the life of Christ . when writing about Mussolini's blacksmith father and mother , Fascist propaganda presented them symbolically as the Holy Family ("They are but Mary and Joseph in relation to Christ"). His hometown of Predappio

6728-532: 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

6844-692: The earth, buy Italian goods and act as a garrison. Millions of Italians could live in Ethiopia, and exaggerated claims were made of its resources. That would amend the situation after World War I in which Fascists alleged that the Allies had cheated Italy of expansion into the former Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires . Even while arguing that the population had to be drained off, propaganda urged greater fertility and derided men who failed to produce children and women whose Parisian fashions did not fit them for bearing children. Slogans urged maternity as

6960-695: 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

7076-610: The female form of patriotism. Mussolini instructed the heads of fascist women's organisations to go home and tell the women that they needed many births. To help the "battle of births", assistance had to be given to mothers and newborns, and the founding of an organisation to do so was trumpeted. Contraception was decried as producing medical problems. Mussolini also called for a more rural Italy to increase births. The "battles" to reclaim land and increase grain production, Mussolini trumpeted, had produced enough that Italy could hold 10 million more people. Fascist rhetoric portrayed

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7192-582: The films made within Italy or by Italian directors . Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy 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

7308-493: 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

7424-801: 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

7540-466: 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

7656-637: 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

7772-472: The future. After the successful military campaign against Ethiopia and the subsequent proclamation of the Italian Empire, regime propaganda depicted Fascism now even overshadowing its Roman past. Spazio vitale , living space, or vital space, was presented as needing conquest. It would strengthen the country by drawing off its surplus population and send landless peasants and the unemployed to work

7888-521: The ideal was still war, themes that Italian Fascism drew into its propaganda. Mussolini, shortly before the seizure of power, proclaimed violence as better than compromise and bargaining. Afterwards, there was a prolonged period during which the absence of military action did not prevent the government from many belligerent statements. Interviews appearing in foreign press, in which Mussolini spoke of wanting peace, had that portion censored out before they appeared in Italian newspapers. Italian victories in

8004-731: The imprint of Telefoni Bianchi. Propaganda in Fascist Italy From the formation of the Italian Fasces of Combat ("Fasci Italiani di Combattimento") in 1919, the Fascists made heavy use of propaganda , including pageantry and rhetoric , to inspire the nation into the unity that would obey. The party's main propaganda tool was Il Popolo d'Italia ("The People of Italy"), a pro-war political newspaper founded and directed by Benito Mussolini himself in 1914, which advocated for militarism , Italian irredentism , and

8120-411: 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

8236-614: 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

8352-545: 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

8468-412: 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

8584-437: 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

8700-419: 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

8816-768: 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

8932-457: 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

9048-428: 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

9164-641: 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

9280-729: 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

9396-485: The outbreak of World War II since failure to join the war would undermine the propaganda effect. The Italians were called to be like Roman legionaries , and their opponents were depicted as weak and enthralled by money. The United Kingdom was denounced in particular, but both France and later the United States , when its sympathies were clearly turning toward the Allies , also came in for abuse. Heroism

9512-570: The peace negotiations of World War I and the first days of Fascism as a movement. Authorities were allowed to confiscate newspapers on the grounds of publishing false information likely to incite class hatred or to bring the government into contempt. Meanwhile, pro-Fascist journals were subsidized, and by 1926, government permission was needed to publish. Slogans were widely used and especially inscribed on walls. Many of Italy's leading graphic artists produced Fascist posters. During World War II, to counter British pamphlets that proclaimed bombs

9628-410: The photographs that could appear and rejected some, such as because he was not sufficiently prominent in a group. Mussolini's youthfulness (when he took office, he became the youngest prime minister in Italian history ), and his virile and energetic appearance were promoted. In Fascist symbolism , youth constituted a metaphor for action and vitality, which emphasizsed the nature of Italian fascism as

9744-519: 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

9860-410: The region in March 1937. A story of a deaf-mute boy being cured after listening in a crowd to a speech of Mussolini was told in an elementary school manual. His overtly-belligerent image did not prevent Fascist newspapers from declaring he had done more for peace than anyone else, on the principle that Mussolini always did better than everyone else. Fascist propaganda proclaimed that he had improved

9976-575: 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

10092-400: 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,

10208-605: 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

10324-469: 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),

10440-402: 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 ),

10556-407: 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

10672-595: 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

10788-590: 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

10904-399: 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

11020-416: 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

11136-530: 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

11252-472: The words "Gold for the Fatherland". Many Italians participated, and even Rachele Mussolini was known to have donated her wedding ring. The donated gold was then collected and used to fund the war effort. During the war, propaganda was spread about exaggerated Ethiopian atrocities, both the abuse of prisoners and the misuse of the Red Cross symbol on military installations. A series of calculated lies

11368-451: The workers of North America wished they had a Mussolini. He demonstrated the inherent superiority of autocratic regimes to democracies by fixing problems to which liberalism had no answer. In 1934, Mussolini declared both democracy and liberalism dead. Bourgeois culture and morality were seen as integral parts of liberalism and were thus attacked. The bourgeoisie supposedly valued utilitarianism , materialism , well-being and maintaining

11484-451: 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 ,

11600-517: 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

11716-427: 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

11832-401: 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

11948-547: Was a common theme. That called for the control of Mare Nostrum (" Our Sea", as the Mediterranean Sea was called in ancient Rome ). France, the United Kingdom, and other powers were denounced as having kept Italy immured. Concerted efforts were made to drum up enthusiasm for colonialism in the 1930s. Besides its symbolic aspects, the fasces had been carried by the lictors of ancient Rome as

12064-560: Was also prominent since although Mussolini was portrayed as a respectable family man, state propaganda did meanwhile little to counter the idea that he had sexual magnetism to women and was promiscuous . Legends of Mussolini defying death during the First World War and surviving assassination attempts were circulated to give the dictator a mythical and immortal aura. It was stated that Mussolini's body had been pierced by shrapnel just as Saint Sebastian had been pierced by arrows,

12180-503: 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

12296-460: Was being prepared. Similarly, he declared that the State did not weaken the individual any more than a soldier was weakened by the rest of the regiment. That was part of an explicit rejection of liberal individualism ; the punitive aspect of the fasces , containing an axe , not being omitted. Furthermore, Fascism was meant to be a totalitarian or total experience, since it was impossible to

12412-476: Was developed as a place of mass tourism and symbolic pilgrimage . The Vatican implied that heavenly powers were aware that Mussolini had saved Italy from Bolshevism and thus protected him. Pope Pius XI referred to him as "the man of Providence " during the aftermath of the Lateran Treaty . Fascist state media described Mussolini's public speeches as sacramental meetings between " Il Duce " and

12528-518: Was exaggerated. Violent acts committed by the Italian Fascists prior to their seizure of power in the Kingdom of Italy were glorified and legitimized. The March on Rome of 1922 was presented mythically as a bloody and heroic seizure of power. Futurism was a useful part of the cultural scene because of its militaristic elements. A Fascist doctrine was first set forth in The Manifesto of

12644-401: Was generally portrayed in a macho manner, but he could also appear as a Renaissance man or as a military, family, or even common man. That reflected his presentation as a universal man, capable of all subjects. A light was left on in his office long after he was asleep as part of propaganda to present him as an insomniac because of his nature of being driven to work nature. Mussolini, as

12760-467: Was greater than any individual purpose. Beehives were presented as a model of industry and harmony. Furthermore, the unity would allow the entire nation to throw itself into support of military necessity. The sanctions imposed by the League of Nations while Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia were used to unite the country against the "aggression". Reviving the glories of the Roman Empire in modern Italy

12876-576: Was mandated by legislation, and teachers instructing in languages other than Italian were persecuted (See Katakombenschule ). In 1926, new legislation was introduced decreeing the Italianization of Slavic surnames . Sports clubs were likewise forced to Italianize their names: A.C. Milan became Milano, and Internazionale was renamed Ambrosiana , after the patron saint of Milan. Democracy and liberalism were pronounced moribund, with praise cited that Fascism received everywhere and claims that

12992-401: 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

13108-461: Was propagated to win support for the Ethiopian venture by claiming that Italy was self-sufficient in food, and enough oil had been stockpiled. Socialism was resisted, particularly in its internationalist forms. Socialist forces were denounced as a "Russian army". An editorialist, afraid that Fascist violence would repulse women, warned them that the killings were necessary to save Italy from

13224-458: Was symbolized by the Fascist appropriation of the ancient Roman fasces themselves, the bound sticks being stronger together than individually. That drew on military themes from World War I , during which Italians were called to pull together into a unity. Mussolini openly proclaimed that Fascists were willing to kill or die when it was a question of the fatherland while the March on Rome

13340-545: 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

13456-430: Was to tell the truth about Fascism, refute the lies of its enemies and clear up ambiguities that were only to be expected in so large and dynamic a movement. Benito Mussolini was the central figure of Italian Fascism and portrayed as such. The personality cult of Mussolini was in many respects the unifying force of the Fascist regime by acting as a common denominator of various political groups and social classes in

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