1.
Bicycle Thieves
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Bicycle Thieves is a 1948 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The film follows the story of a father searching post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle. It is also one of the top ten among the British Film Institutes list of films you should see by the age of 14. In the post-World War II Val Melaina neighbourhood of Rome, Antonio Ricci is desperate for work to support his wife Maria, his son Bruno and he is offered a position posting advertising bills, but tells Maria that he cannot accept because the job requires a bicycle. Maria resolutely strips the bed of her dowry bedsheets—prized possessions for a poor family—and takes them to the pawn shop and they cycle home—Maria on the crossbar—rejoicing in their good fortune. Along the way, Maria insists that she has to visit someone, Antonio discovers that it is a seer who had prophesied that Antonio would find work, Maria gives the seer money in appreciation of her prophecy. Antonio teases her for such foolishness, on his first day of work Antonio is atop a ladder when a young man snatches the bicycle. Antonio gives chase but is thrown off the trail by the thiefs confederates, the police warn that there is little they can do. Advised that stolen goods often surface at the Piazza Vittorio market, Antonio goes there with several friends, finding a bike that might be Antonios they summon an officer, but the serial numbers do not match. At the Porta Portese market Antonio and Bruno spot the thief with an old man, the thief eludes them, and the old man feigns ignorance. They follow him into a church where but he too slips away from them, Bruno is dismayed, which angers Antonio, who slaps Bruno, greatly upsetting him. Bruno waits by a bridge while Antonio goes in search of the old man, suddenly there are cries that a boy is drowning. Rushing toward the commotion Antonio is relieved to see that the boy is not Bruno. Desperate, Antonio consults the seer, who tells him, Youll find the bike today, leaving the seers house he and Bruno encounter the thief, Antonio pursues him into what turns out to be a brothel, whose denizens quickly eject them. In the street hostile neighbors gather as Antonio accuses the thief, during this commotion Bruno fetches a policeman, who searches the thiefs apartment without result. The policeman tells Antonio the case is weak—Antonio has no witnesses, Antonio and Bruno leave in despair amid jeers and threats from the crowd. On their way home, they near Stadio Nazionale PNF football stadium, inside a game is underway, outside, rows of bicycles await their owners. Antonio sees an unattended bike near a doorway and he paces distractedly, then sits with Bruno on the curb, his hat in his hands
2.
Federico Fellini
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Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Known for his style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. His films have ranked, in such as Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound. Sight & Sound lists his 1963 film 8½ as the 10th greatest film of all time, in 1993, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Fellini was born on 20 January 1920, to parents in Rimini. His father, Urbano Fellini, born to a family of Romagnol peasants and small landholders from Gambettola and his mother, Ida Barbiani, came from a bourgeiois Catholic family of Roman merchants. Despite her familys vehement disapproval, she had eloped with Urbano in 1917 to live at his parents home in Gambettola, a civil marriage followed in 1918 with the religious ceremony held at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome a year later. The couple settled in Rimini where Urbano became a traveling salesman, Fellini had two siblings, Riccardo, a documentary director for RAI Television, and Maria Maddalena. In 1924, Fellini started primary school in a run by the nuns of San Vincenzo in Rimini. In 1926, he discovered the world of Grand Guignol, the circus with Pierino the Clown, Guido Brignone’s Maciste all’Inferno, the first film he saw, would mark him in ways linked to Dante and the cinema throughout his entire career. Enrolled at the Ginnasio Giulio Cesare in 1929, he made friends with Luigi ‘Titta’ Benzi, in Mussolini’s Italy, Fellini and Riccardo became members of the Avanguardista, the compulsory Fascist youth group for males. He visited Rome with his parents for the first time in 1933, the sea creature found on the beach at the end of La Dolce Vita has its basis in a giant fish marooned on a Rimini beach during a storm in 1934. To say that my films are autobiographical is an overly facile liquidation and it seems to me that I have invented almost everything, childhood, character, nostalgias, dreams, memories, for the pleasure of being able to recount them. In 1937, Fellini opened Febo, a shop in Rimini. with the painter Demos Bonini. His first humorous article appeared in the Postcards to Our Readers section of Milan’s Domenica del Corriere, deciding on a career as a caricaturist and gag writer, Fellini travelled to Florence in 1938, where he published his first cartoon in the weekly 420. According to a biographer, Fellini found school exasperating and, in one year, had 67 absences, failing his military culture exam, he graduated from high school in July 1938 after doubling the exam. In September 1939, he enrolled in law school at the University of Rome to please his parents, biographer Hollis Alpert reports that there is no record of his ever having attended a class. Installed in a family pensione, he met lifelong friend
3.
Aldo Fabrizi
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Born in Rome into a humble family, Fabrizi debuted on stage in a suburban theater in 1931. He soon got a local success thanks to his sketches and macchiette. He made his debut during the war, in 1942. Already active as a screenwriter, in 1948 he debuted as a director with the drama Immigrants, in the 1950s and 1960s he was often paired on the screen with Totò and with Peppino De Filippo. In 1964 he got a large success on stage with the musical comedy Rugantino, he toured across Europe, in Latin America. Fabrizi was married to the singer Beatrice Rocchi, best known with her stage name Reginella and his sister Elena Fabrizi was also an actress. He was also awarded at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival for best screenplay for Cops, in 1990 Poste italiane issued a stamp in his honor
4.
Alessandro Blasetti
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Alessandro Blasetti was an Italian film director and screenwriter who influenced Italian neorealism with the film Quattro passi fra le nuvole. Blasetti was one of the figures in Italian cinema during the Fascist era. He is sometimes known as the father of Italian cinema because of his role in reviving the industry in the late 1920s. Blasetti was born in Rome, where he also died, after studying law at university, Blasetti chose to become a journalist and film critic. He worked for film magazines and led a campaign for national film production. In 1919 he made a foray into acting when he appeared as an extra in Mario Caserinis Tortured Soul. In 1929 Blasetti made his debut with Sun, a fictional story set against the ongoing draining of the Pontine Marshes. The film was received at a time when there were few Italian films being made. Benito Mussolini described it as the dawn of the Fascist film, like many of his early productions, it had elements that were a precursor to neorealism. The strong reception for Sun, led to Blasetti receiving an offer from Stefano Pittaluga, Pittaluga had recently converted his Rome studios for sound films. Blasetti directed what would have been the first Italian sound film Resurrection, in 1934 Blasetti directed the play 18 BL a mass theatre performed outdoors with 2,000 amateur actors. Blasetti was a force in the revival of the Italian film industry in the 1930s, having lobbied for greater state funding. One outcome was the construction of the large Cinecittà studios in Rome and he was President of the Jury at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. His 1969 film Simón Bolívar was entered into the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, theatre and War, 1933-1945, Performance in Extremis. Re-Viewing Fascism, Italian Cinema,1922 to 1943, alessandro Blasetti at the Internet Movie Database
5.
Luchino Visconti
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Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo, was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti was born into a prominent noble family in Milan, one of seven children of Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone, Duke of Grazzano Visconti and Count of Lonate Pozzolo, and his wife Carla. He was formally known as Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, during World War II, Visconti joined the Italian Communist Party. Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality and his last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in Viscontis film The Damned. Berger also appeared in Viscontis Ludwig in 1972 and Conversation Piece in 1974, Visconti suffered a stroke in 1972, but continued to smoke heavily. He died in Rome of another stroke at the age of 69, there is a museum dedicated to the directors work in Ischia. He began his career as an assistant director on Jean Renoirs Toni and Partie de campagne, thanks to the intercession of their common friend. Together with Roberto Rossellini, Visconti joined the salotto of Vittorio Mussolini, here he presumably also met Federico Fellini. In 1948, he wrote and directed La terra trema, based on the novel I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga, Visconti continued working throughout the 1950s, although he veered away from the neorealist path with his 1954 film, Senso, shot in colour. Based on the novella by Camillo Boito, it is set in Austrian-occupied Venice in 1866, in this film, Visconti combines realism and romanticism as a way to break away from neorealism. However, as one biographer notes, Visconti without neorealism is like Lang without expressionism and he describes the film as the most Viscontian of all Viscontis films. Visconti returned to once more with Rocco e i suoi fratelli. In 1961, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival, throughout the 1960s, Viscontis films became more personal. Il Gattopardo, is based on Lampedusas novel of the name about the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy at the time of the Risorgimento. It starred American actor Burt Lancaster in the role of Prince Don Fabrizio and this film was distributed in America and Britain by Twentieth-Century Fox, which deleted important scenes. Visconti repudiated the Twentieth-Century Fox version and it was not until The Damned that Visconti received a nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Screenplay. The film, one of Viscontis best-known works, concerns a German industrialists family which slowly begins to disintegrate during the Nazi consolidation of power in the 30s and its decadence and lavish beauty are characteristic of Viscontis aesthetic. Viscontis final film was The Innocent, in which he returns to his recurring interest in infidelity, Visconti was also a celebrated theatre and opera director
6.
Il Messaggero
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Il Messaggero is an Italian newspaper based in Rome, Italy. Il Messaggero was founded in December 1878, on 1 January 1879 the first issue of Il Messaggero was published under the management of Luigi Cesana. The paper aimed at being the newspapers of newspapers and at providing its readers with all opinions, the first four copies of the paper were delivered as free samples to the subscribers of the newspaper, Il Fanfulla. Since its inception Il Messaggero has been owned by different companies, one of the former owners is Montedison through the Ferruzzi Group. In 1996 the paper was acquired by Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and he founded the Caltagirone Editore in 1999. The company is the majority owner of the paper which has its 90% and its leaders include Azzurra Caltagirone, the partner of the political leader Pierferdinando Casini, on its board. The company also owns Corriere Adriatico and Il Mattino, the publisher of the daily is Il Messaggero S. p. A. Il Messaggero is published in format and is based in Rome. In addition to its edition the paper has 12 local editions, including those for the regions of Lazio, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo. The daily has a left political leaning. The 1988 circulation of Il Messaggero was 370,000 copies and it was the sixth best-selling Italian newspaper in 1997 with a circulation of 256,400 copies. The paper had a circulation of 288,000 copies in 1999, in 2000 the circulation of the paper was 292,000 copies. Its circulation was 293,000 copies in 2001 and 258,538 copies in 2002, the circulation of the paper was 252,000 copies in 2003 and 240,778 copies in 2004. The paper had a circulation of 230,697 copies in 2005 and its circulation was 216,000 copies in 2007. In 2012 Il Messaggero sold 91,012,767 copies
