The Italian Film Industry
Italian film has its beginnings in the late 1890s, several years
after the invention of moving pictures in the 1880s. The credit for this invention has been disputed for many years
as a number of people have laid claim to its development, including Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey,
Ottomar Anschütz, Thomas Edison, Louis Le Prince, Kazimierz Prószyñski, and Max and Emil Skladanowsky. But it was
the Lumière brothers who patented the process of cinématographe in
1895.
The first known Italian film was produced in
1896 and records the visit of the Italian King and Queen in Florence. But the commercial Italian film industry
began in Rome in 1905 with the release of Florentine Filoteo Alberini's historical film, La Presa di
Roma, 20 Settembre 1870 (The Capture of Rome, September 20, 1870). Other film
companies soon sprang up in Turin, Milan and Naples, and quickly established a national and international market
for their products. Prior to the First World War in 1914, Italy was at the forefront of screenwriting and movie
production. These silent films were originally historical, mythological or documentary in nature, but by 1910 the
Italians began producing art films and comedies.
Italian
Innovations
Turin-based Giovanni Pastrone produced a film in 1910 called The Fall of Troy, which was a great
commercial success. His next film was a two-and-a-half hour epic named Cabiria, which featured dramatic
settings derived from the tradition of grand opera. Instead of a fixed single camera, Pastrone used numerous
cameras to film the same scene from different angles, which then became the standard for film production worldwide.
In addition, Pastrone utilized a dolly or moving camera for the first time.
Later, Italian filmmakers pioneered the use of the close up shot to highlight the beauty of their female (and male)
stars.
Italian Film Genres
By 1911, Italian cinema had given birth to the avant-garde movement. Very few films survive from that period, but
their influence was felt across Europe. Mario Caserini's 1913 film, The Last Days of Pompeii, was a
blockbuster featuring great visual effects for the time, and is regarded as the first disaster movie.
In 1914 society drama became popular with its melodramatic themes and passionate emotions. These films marked the
birth of the Italian femme fatale, and made stars of the actresses who played them. The genre gave rise
to the popularity of the lingering close-up shot, which was emulated throughout Europe. The most famous Italian
diva of the time was Eleonora Duse, who, in 1923, became the first woman (and the first Italian) to be featured on
the cover of the newly created Time magazine.
By the 1930s, the film studio complex, Cinecittà, was established in Rome, and became a breeding ground for many of
Italy's most acclaimed film directors.
World War II saw the production of a series of propaganda films, followed by a new politically inspired film genre
called Neorealism, which explored the demoralizing economic conditions in Italy after the war. Some of the
country's most enduring films emerged during this period, including Luchino
Visconti's Ossessione (1943), Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open
City (1945),Paisà (1946), and Germany Year Zero (1948), and Vittorio De
Sica's Shoeshine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Miracle in
Milan (1951).
As well as Visconti, Rosellini and De Sica, the post World War II era saw the rise of some of Italy's most
celebrated directors, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergio Leone, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani and Franco
Zeffirelli. Each offered something new to Italian cinema:
- In Le Amiche (1955), Michelangelo
Antonioni broke with the conventions of traditional film narrative and told the story in a series of disconnected
events. His next feature,L'avventura (1960), became his first international success.
- Sergio Leone wrote screenplays for the emerging sword and sandal epics,
graduating to assistant director on large-scale international productions like Quo Vadis (1951)
andBen-Hur (1959), but his most original work was in the spaghetti westerns of the 1960s.
- Franco Zeffirelli worked with Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica and
Roberto Rossellini after the war, but turned his attention toward theatre until he made his mark with adaptions
of Shakespeare's plays in 1960s. The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
was followed by his breakthrough work, Romeo and Juliet, in 1968.
The
End of Neorealism
By the mid-1950s Neorealism had morphed into a lighter form of film and actresses like Sophia Loren, Gina
Lollobrigida and Silvana Mangano became international stars. Loren proved she was more than just another European
sex symbol when she won the 1961 Academy Award for the De Sica's film, Two Women. She was one of two
Italian women to win the award, the other being Anna Magnani in 1955.
The late 1950s also saw the emergence of the 'sword and sandals' epics, beginning with American bodybuilder Steve
Reeves's film Hercules. Because of its popularity, Italian film finally made inroads into the lucrative
American market.
Commedia all'Italiana
By the 1960s, Commedia all'Italiana, a genre that addressed social issues through humor and had its
roots in Commedia dell' Arte, was firmly established in Italy. These films made stars of actors like
Claudia Cardinale, Elsa Martinelli, Monica Vitti, Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto
Sordi and Ugo Tognazzi. Few of them ventured into English-speaking films, with the exception of Claudia Cardinale
and Monica Vitti. Mario Monicelli was one of top directors of Commedia all'Italiana films, with
over 60 comedies to his name, as well as writing over 80 screenplays.
Spaghetti Westerns
The Spaghetti Western is a sub-genre of Western films that emerged in Italy in the mid-1960s. The most memorable of
these were two film series: Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwood trilogy – A Fistful of
Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly(1966) – and the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer western spoofs, They Call Me Trinity (1970),
(1971),My Name is Nobody (1973) and a dozen more. Both of these series were either shot with English
dialogue or dubbed, which paved the way for their huge international success. When it was first
released, Trinity Is Still My Name was the top-grossing Italian film of all time. A
Fistful of Dollars was also one of the largest grossing Italian films of all time.
Italian Horror
During 1960s and 70s, Italians filmmakers developed a number of horror films collectively known
as giallo. These soon became classics in the genre and their influence spread to other filmmaking
countries. Popular Italian horror films and thrillers from this era include Black Sunday, Danza Macabra,
L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo, Profondo Rosso, Reazione a Catena and Suspiria. By the
late 1970s, Italian cinema had established an international reputation as a creator of violent horror films.
Italian Film Part 2: The New Directors
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