1.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
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65th Venice International Film Festival
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The 65th Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was opened on August 27,2008, by Burn After Reading, and closed on September 6,2008. International competition jury, led by Wim Wenders, awarded Leone dOro to The Wrestler, 77-year-old Italian film director Ermanno Olmi received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The festival opened on August 27,2008, with the anticipated film directed by the Coen brothers. Unlike the Cannes Film Festival, American filmmakers have only won the coveted prize at Venice. It is also famine for British films, as none were selected for competition in this years festival, despite the dearth of English-speaking films, several films at the fest are likely to make a splash at this years Oscars in Hollywood. A trend has been several films launched in Venice have gone on to garner multiple Academy Award nominations. In 2005, Taiwan-born director Ang Lees film, Brokeback Mountain earned its director a Best Director Oscar, lee has won the top prize at Venice twice in the past few years. The glamour of the Venice Film Festival as well as the link with the upcoming Academy Awards has helped raise the Venice Film Festivals profile. Nonetheless, the event has a reputation for showcasing emerging cinema, including films from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Festival organizers have announced that the festivals shorts competition will begin on September 1 with Natalie Portmans directorial debut, rising Russian star Kseniya Rappoport will also host the opening and closing ceremonies. German independent film director Wim Wenders will head the Venice film jury, vianello subsequently declared the strike illegal, but if it goes ahead, ordinary festivalgoers may find themselves traveling with the stars. The festival will close on September 6,2008 and this years Venice Film Festivals film selections had been widely criticized as being among the weakest in years, with some publications even describing it as the worst ever. Later showings made It improve from bad to better, but it might have too late. The 65th Venice International Film Festival will be dedicated to the late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, Chahine who died recently at age 82, was a notable in post-war Arab cinema. Festival director Marco Mueller said, Who else could have succeeded in mixing the philosopher Averroes with Fred Astaire, thats what cinema should be about, Mueller said, referring to Chahines film Destiny. Of the 52 films selected to screen at this years Venice Mostra, most of the films at Venice will be world premieres, including the things that go boom psychological thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker. The film deals with the physical and emotional strains faced by EOD bomb squads in Iraq, also premiering at the festival is home-grown favorite Birdwatcher directed by Italys own Marco Bechis. Other strong contenders for the coveted Golden Lion award are the Darren Aronofsky directed film, The Wrestler, with no British pictures and a diminished U. S
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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
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Gianni Amelio
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Gianni Amelio is an Italian film director. Amelio was born in San Pietro di Magisano, province of Catanzaro and his father moved to Argentina soon after his birth. He spent his youth and adolescence with his mother and his grandmother, the absence of a paternal figures will be a constant in Amelios future works. During his university studies of philosophy in Messina, Amelio got interested in cinema, in 1965 he moved to Rome, where he worked as operator and assistant director for figures such as Liliana Cavani and Vittorio De Seta. He also worked for television, directing documentaries and advertisements, Amelios first important work is the TV film La città del sole, directed in 1973 for RAI TV and inspired to Tommaso Campanellas work. This was followed by Bertolucci secondo il cinema a documentary about 1900 shooting, two years later he directed the mystery La morte al lavoro, which won prizes at Locarno and Hyères festivals. Il piccolo Archimede of 1979 was also critically acclaimed, in 1982 he debuted for cinema proper with Colpire al cuore, about Italian terrorism, presented at the Venice Film Festival. 1989s Porte aperte, featuring Gian Maria Volontè, confirmed Amelios status as one of Italys best film directors, the film received also 4 Felix,2 Silver Ribbon,4 David di Donatello and 3 Golden Globes awards. Also successful was Il ladro di bambini in 1992, which won the Special Prize of Jury at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival plus two Silver Ribbon and 5 David di Donatello. In 1994 Lamerica, about Albanian immigration in Italy, repeated the fate, four years later, Così ridevano won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Amelio gained another Silver Ribbon as best director for Le chiavi di casa, inspired to a novel by Giuseppe Pontiggia, Amelio was a member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. In 2006 he released his eighth film, La stella che non cè
5.
Divorce Italian Style
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Divorce Italian Style is a 1961 Italian comedy film directed by Pietro Germi. The screenplay was written by Ennio De Concini, Pietro Germi, Alfredo Giannetti and it stars Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, Lando Buzzanca, and Leopoldo Trieste. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen, Mastroianni was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Ferdinando Cefalù, an impoverished Sicilian nobleman, is married to Rosalia, an unattractive but devoted wife. At a beach, he has a daydream of his wife in quicksand, after a chance encounter with Angela during a family trip, he discovers that she shares his feelings. He then also procures the State Prosecutors friendship with small favors, the final stage of his plan is arranging to have Carmelos constant presence in his house, which is achieved by his interest in having his palace frescoes restored. The plan takes a while to get off the ground, because Carmelo is very shy, Ferdinando is aware of the development of his plan because he has been taping all their conversations and has to ward off the helps infatuation with Carmelo. During his monitoring of the plan, Ferdinando discovers that Carmelo is actually married with three children and a philanderer who could be easily distracted by any other passing skirt. All Ferdinando knows is that it take place the next evening. Ferdinando sneaks out of the theatre and goes back to the palace and he initially has to run out after her but still has to retrieve the gun to kill the couple, and as a result he misses the train and the lovers in it. All the while Angela has been writing to Ferdinando to assure him of her love no matter what, however. At the funeral, Ferdinando is approached by Mrs. Patanè who demands to know what he will do to avenge their situation. Since Ferdinando is still doing nothing, she spits in his face in front of the town, which gives him all that he needed. The local mafia boss offers to find the lovers within 24 hours, as Ferdinando goes to the lovers hideout, he comes across Mrs. Patanè, who has just shot her husband, which actually leaves him in a worse position than before. As he sees no choice, he follows in Mrs. Patanès footsteps. During his trial he is defended by the State Prosecutor who blames the whole thing on Ferdinandos father. He spends no more than three years in jail and finally back home to find a loving Angela waiting for him. In the films epilogue, Ferdinando and Angela are sailing away on a sailboat, Ferdinando states life begins at 40 as the camera pans down, revealing Angela seductively rubbing her feet against the workman steering the boat. This film won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen, the film was also entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best Comedy
6.
Il Sorpasso
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Il Sorpasso is a 1962 Italian cult movie comedy film co-written and directed by Dino Risi and starring Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Catherine Spaak. It is considered Risis masterpiece and one of the famous examples of Commedia allitaliana film genre. The film starts in a hazy, sun-baked and seemingly empty Rome on an August morning during Ferragosto holiday, the young man tells him to come up and make the call himself. Tired of studying for the day and falling prey to Brunos enthusiasm, thus begins a cruise along the Via Aurelia, the Roman road that also gives the name to Brunos beloved car. Roberto is unwilling or unable to part from this casual acquaintance despite having almost nothing in common with him, Bruno is loud, brash, risk taking, a bit coarse and a braggart, to boot. He drives recklessly, speeding and constantly attempting il Sorpasso — the impatient, but he is also charming and likable. And Roberto, being his complete opposite, feels drawn to Brunos impulsive, over two days of highs and lows across the coasts of Lazio and Tuscany, the two men fall into various adventures while gradually managing to learn something of each other. When, for example, the duo spontaneously drops in on Robertos relatives, en route, and later he finds out about Brunos failed marriage and young daughter, revealing a life not nearly as carefree as Bruno pretends to lead. When this free-wheeling road-trip movie crescendos to its ending, the bonding and emerging friendship between the two men is cut short. Spurred on by a seemingly transformed Roberto, Bruno speeds while attempting to overtake another car on the curve of a cliffside road. This risky maneuver results in a fatal accident, the younger man goes over a rocky cliff in the car, leaving a bloodied and shocked Bruno on the curves edge. When a motorway cop arrives and asks Bruno for Robertos last name, the movie is considered as one of the best examples of Commedia allItaliana. The Roman customizer crew Emporio Elaborazioni Meccaniche dedicated a customized bike to the movie and they named a MotoGuzzi V11 cafe racer, Sorpasso
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Four Steps in the Clouds
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Four Steps in the Clouds is a 1942 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Alessandro Blasetti, starring Gino Cervi and Adriana Benetti. It tells the story of a man who agrees to act as the husband of a young pregnant woman who has been abandoned by her boyfriend. Aesthetically, it is close to Italian neorealism, the films sets were designed by Virgilio Marchi. It was nominated for BAFTA as Best Film from any Source, the story deals with a married agent for a candy manufacturer, played by Gino Cervi. He leads a stable, if somewhat boring, family life in an unnamed city in the North of Italy. While travelling on a South bound train on company business, he sees a woman about to be put off by the conductor. She has no ticket and cannot afford to buy one, the agent helps her stay on the train, and she asks if he could do one more favour for her. She has just been abandoned by her boyfriend upon becoming pregnant and she has nowhere else to go but is certain that her father will throw her out as soon as he realizes that she is unmarried. She is terrified and begs the agent to come home with her, the deception need only last a couple of days, after which he can go back to his normal life and job and she can claim to have been abandoned. The agent decides that taking a couple of days off work is a price to pay for saving the girls honour for the rest of her life. Arriving on the farm, the agent finds it hard to maintain the lie, after which, he goes back to his wife and family without mentioning the incident. It was released in the United States on 20 November 1948, so it is pleasant to report that Four Steps in the Clouds rates a round of applause for its sensitive treatment of a thoroughly unspectacular subject. The critic described Cervis performance as a beautifully wrought characterization and Benettis as finely etched, but the fact remains that the director seems to have been carried away by his enthusiasm, although Four Steps in the Clouds is certainly a film of quality. The film was remade several times, as The Virtuous Bigamist in 1956, as A Walk in the Clouds in 1995, as Mungarina Minchu in 1997, quattro passi fra le nuvole at the Internet Movie Database
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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
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Ossessione
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Ossessione is an Italian 1943 film based on the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain. Luchino Visconti’s first feature film, it is considered by many to be the first Italian neorealist film, working under the censorship of the Fascist Italian government, Visconti encountered problems with the production even before filming commenced. Around this time, Visconti uncovered a French translation of Cain’s novel which, Visconti adapted the script with a group of men he selected from the Milanese magazine Cinema. The members of group were talented filmmakers and writers and played a large role in the emerging neorealist movement, Mario Alicata, Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli. Eventually the Fascists destroyed the film, but Visconti managed to keep a duplicate negative from which all existing prints have been made, after the war, Ossessione encountered more problems with mass distribution, this time in the United States. Due to the issues, the film didn’t gain distribution outside of Italy until 1976. The film is the story of a tramp who has an affair with the wife of a restaurant owner. The two then conspire to murder her husband and attempt to live ever after. For the most part, Visconti retained the plot of the novel, in another scene, the three are eating when Bregana comments that a local landowner has been shot from behind by a worker, believed to be the result of the workers love for the landowners wife. In this way, Visconti foreshadows Bregana’s own death and illuminates the study of class tension that is woven fluidly into the film, soon afterwards, Bregana submits to his wifes physical and verbal responses to cats outside crying or due to the heat. He fetches his shotgun and leaves, shortly after his exit, the adulterous lovers huddle close and hear gunshots, thereby hinting at the doom also reserved for two lovers in heat. The landscape itself is realistic, and Visconti takes great care to situate his characters in a rural Italy that remains for the most part unromanticized, nearly the entire story is told using medium and long shots, with Visconti choosing to employ close-ups only at moments of intense emotion. The shift of focus from the novel is clear even in Visconti’s decision to change the title, whereas the novel’s title alludes to the final retribution exacted upon the adulterous couple, Visconti’s header bespeaks the focus of his film, obsessive passion. Despite arguments about how to define neorealist cinema, certainly one of Ossessione’s most poignant aspects is its stark realism, despite being popular actors of Italian cinema, the stars of the film, Massimo Girotti and Clara Calamai, deliver breathtaking performances that are anything but glamorous. The lovers, Gino and Giovanna, played by Girotti and Calamai, first meet in the kitchen of the inn that Giovanna runs with her husband, the fat and dim-witted Bregana. It is in the symbolic and literal center of the sphere, before they ever touch. Their love, tainted as it is by a lie, is difficult for either of them to bear, unable to continue the affair under such pretense but genuinely in love, Gino tries to persuade Giovanna to leave with him. She is clearly tempted but knows of the power the road has over Gino and she ultimately refuses Gino, opting for the security and stability that Bregana has to offer, and he sets out once again unencumbered
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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
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Rome, Open City
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Open City or Rome, Open City is a 1945 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. The picture features Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello Pagliero, the title refers to Rome being declared an open city after 14 August 1943. The film won awards at various film festivals, including the most prestigious Cannes Grand Prize. The landlady warns him in time of the Germans arrival, so that he can elude them by jumping across the rooftops and he goes to the home of another Resistance fighter, Francesco. There he encounters Pina who lives in the next apartment, Pina is Francesco’s fiancée, and is visibly pregnant. She first suspects Giorgio of being a cop and gives him a rough time, Don Pietro is scheduled to officiate at Pinas and Francesco’s wedding the next day. Her son, Marcello, is a sort of reluctant altar boy and he and his friends have a small role in the Resistance planting bombs. Pinas sister Laura stays with her, but is not involved in the Resistance, in fact, she works in a cabaret serving the Nazis and Fascists. She is also an old friend of Marina, a girlfriend of Giorgios who has been looking for him, Marina also works in the cabaret, and as an occasional prostitute. The Gestapo/SS commander in the city, helped by the Italian police commissioner and they conduct a huge raid, pulling out all the people and arresting dozens of men. Giorgio gets away, but Francesco is thrown in a truck with other arrestees, seeing him being taken away, Pina breaks through a cordon of police and runs towards him, but is shot dead. The priest, who was in the building to hide weapons, under the guise of praying for a man, holds her in his arms. The truck drives away in a convoy with military vehicles, but outside of town it is attacked by Resistance fighters, Francesco makes it back into Rome and reconnects with Giorgio. Together they go to the priest, who has offered to them in a monastery. Marina betrays her lover in exchange for drugs and a fur coat. Using information given by Marina, the Gestapo and Italian police capture Giorgio, Francesco is saying goodbye to Marcello, and sees them get picked up and gets away. The defector, fearing torture, hangs himself in his cell and they then force Don Pietro to watch Giorgios torture. When Giorgio dies without revealing anything, Don Pietro blesses his body, realizing that she was responsible for this, she passes out
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Roberto Rossellini
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Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema and his mother was of part French descent, from immigrants who had arrived in Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. He lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had his first Roman hotel in 1922 when Fascism obtained power in Italy. When his father died, he worked as a soundmaker for films and for a time he experienced all the accessory jobs related to the creation of a film. Rossellini had a brother, Renzo, who scored many of his films. On 26 September 1936, he married Marcella De Marchis, a designer with whom he collaborated even after their marriage was over. This was after a quick annulment from Assia Noris, a Russian actress who worked in Italian films, De Marchis and Rossellini had two sons, Marco Romano, and Renzo. Rossellini and De Marchis separated in 1950, in 1937, Rossellini made his first documentary, Prélude à laprès-midi dun faune. After this essay, he was called to assist Goffredo Alessandrini in making Luciano Serra pilota, in 1940 he was called to assist Francesco De Robertis on Uomini sul Fondo. His close friendship with Vittorio Mussolini, son of Il Duce, has interpreted as a possible reason for having been preferred to other apprentices. Some authors describe the first part of his career as a sequence of trilogies, to this period belongs his friendship and cooperation with Federico Fellini and Aldo Fabrizi. The Fascist regime collapsed in 1943 and just two months after the liberation of Rome, Rossellini was already preparing the anti-fascist Roma città aperta, Fellini assisted on the script and Fabrizi played the role of the priest, while Rossellini self-produced. Most of the came from credits and loans, and film had to be found on the black market. This dramatic film was an immediate success, since I do not have the desire to waste my energy in a battle like this, I only use professional actors occasionally. One of the reasons for success is supposed to be Rossellinis rewriting of the according to the non-professional actors feelings. Regional accent, dialect, and costumes were shown in the film as they were in real life, after his Neorealist Trilogy, Rossellini produced two films now classified as the Transitional films, LAmore and La macchina ammazzacattivi, on the capability of cinema to portray reality and truth. In 1948, Rossellini received a letter from a foreign actress proposing a collaboration, Dear Mr. Rossellini, I saw your films Open City and Paisan. Ingrid Bergman With this letter began one of the best known stories in film history, with Bergman
13.
Paisan
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Paisan is a 1946 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini, the second of a trilogy by Rossellini. It is divided into six episodes and they are set in the Italian Campaign during World War II when Nazi Germany was losing the war against the Allies. A major theme is communication problems due to language barriers, the film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Writing and the BAFTA Award for Best Film from any source. It was the most popular Italian film at the box office in 1945-46, during the Allied invasion of Sicily, an American reconnaissance patrol makes its way to a Sicilian village at night. Only one of the Americans speaks Italian, local Carmela agrees to guide them past a German minefield. They take shelter in the ruins of a seaside castle, while the others take a look around, Joe is assigned to keep an eye on Carmela. Despite the language barrier, Joe starts to overcome her indifference, however, he is shot by a German sniper. Before the small German reconnaissance patrol reaches the castle, Carmela hides Joe in the basement, when the Germans send her for water, she sneaks back and checks on Joe, only to find him dead. She takes his rifle and starts shooting at the enemy, the Germans throw her off a cliff to her death and leave. When the Americans return, they find Joes body and assume Carmela killed him, the Allies invade mainland Italy and capture the port of Naples. An orphaned street urchin named Pasquale happens upon Joe, an embittered, when Joe falls asleep, Pasquale takes his boots. The next day, Joe, a policeman, nabs Pasquale in the act of stealing supplies from a truck. Joe demands his boots back, but when the boy takes him to where he lives, Fred is a drunken American soldier in liberated Rome. A young woman, Francesca, takes him to her room and he is not interested and tells her of his futile search for a young woman he met and fell in love with shortly after the liberation of the city, six months before. As he describes the woman, Francesca realizes that she is the woman, Francesca says she knows the woman. When Fred falls asleep, Francesca slips out, asking the building superintendent to give Fred a slip of paper with her address on it when he awakes and leaves. Fred assumes the address is that of a whorehouse, throws the piece of paper away, the next day, Francesca waits in vain in her apartment. The southern half of Florence is freed, but fierce fighting continues in the half, across the Arno river
14.
Shoeshine (film)
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Shoeshine is a 1946 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. Sometimes regarded as his first major work, the film follows two boys who get into trouble with the police after trying to find the money to buy a horse. Two friends, Giuseppe Filippucci and Pasquale Maggi, test-ride horses and it is their dream to own one for themselves. Though they are saving to purchase a horse, it is difficult for them to afford one, one day Giuseppes older brother, Attilio, visits the two boys while they are shining shoes. Attilio tells Pasquale that Panza has some work for them, Pasquale brings Giuseppe along to meet Panza, who gives them two fine American blankets to sell. Giuseppe and Pasquale bring the blankets to a teller, who buys them from the boys after some negotiation. After the sale, Panza, Attilio, and another man bust into the fortune tellers house and they accuse the fortune teller of handling stolen goods, and finding Giuseppe and Pasquale, force them out and pretend to take them into custody. Attilio tells the boys to go away and keep quiet, letting them keep the money as well as 3,000 additional lira. With this money, the boys realize they have enough to buy a horse. After purchasing their horse and spending a great deal of time riding it, there the real police, accompanied by the fortune teller, bring them into the precinct for questioning. The police accuse the boys of stealing over 700,000 lira from the fortune tellers home, the boys deny all charges and do not mention their knowledge of the three true con men. Giuseppe and Pasquale are sent to a detention center. On arrival, Giuseppe and Pasquale are separated, the detention center is divided into three levels/rows of cells with 5 boys in each. Giuseppe is placed in a cell on the floor. The two boys try to remain in contact, but are frequently stifled by the prison guards and they each make new acquaintances in their respective cells. Giuseppe receives a package from his mother filled with food and he tries to share it with Pasquale, still in his cell on the first floor, but he is stopped. Giuseppe instead shares it with his inmates in his own cell. As the meal begins, Arcangeli, one of Giuseppes fellow inmates returning from solitary confinement and it is from Attilios boss, and it instructs him not to expose his brother and comrades regarding the con
15.
Vittorio De Sica
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Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Indeed, the critical success of Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Oscar. These two films generally are considered part of the canon of classic cinema, Bicycle Thieves was cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history. De Sicas acting was considered the highlight of the film, born into poverty in Sora, Lazio, he began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlovas theatre company in 1923. In 1933 he founded his own company with his wife Giuditta Rissone, the company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti. De Sica appeared in the British television series The Four Just Men and his passion for gambling was well known. Because of it, he often lost large sums of money, in 1937 Vittorio De Sica married the actress Giuditta Rissone, who gave birth to their daughter, Emi. In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento, he met Spanish actress Maria Mercader, after divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959 in Mexico, but this union 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, in 1949, a musician, and Christian, in 1951, who would follow his fathers path as an actor and director. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family and he led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Years Eve and his first wife agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father. Vittorio De Sica died at 73 after a surgery at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris, Vittorio De Sica was given the Interfilm Grand Prix in 1971 by the Berlin International Film Festival. Miracolo a Milano Cannes Film Festival Palme DOr Winner Umberto D
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Luigi Zampa
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Luigi Zampa was an Italian film-maker. Son of a worker, Zampa studied film making from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome and he directed several Italian neorealism films in the 1940s. In 1949 he filmed in UK the British film Children of Chance, during the 1950s and 1960s he became a director of several successful films belonging to the Commedia allitaliana genre, some starring Alberto Sordi. Luigi Zampa at the Internet Movie Database
17.
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
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La Terra Trema
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La Terra Trema is a 1948 Italian dramatic film directed by Luchino Visconti. The movie is adapted from Giovanni Vergas novel I Malavoglia for the screen. The picture features, as non-credited non-professional actors, Antonio Arcidiacono, Giuseppe Arcidiacono and it is a docufiction played using the Sicilian language. The story takes place in Aci Trezza, a fishing village on the east coast of Sicily, Italy. It tells about the exploitation of fishermen, specifically that of the eldest son of a very traditional village family. Everything goes well until a storm ruins the familys boat, leaving them with nothing to keep the new business going, the film can be divided into five sections, a prologue, three main phases and an epilogue. Its first phase tells us about the attempt to improve their economic circumstances. In setting the scene, a pig is slaughtered on-camera near the outset, the fishermen demand a better price for their fish, urged by Ntoni, the eldest son of Valastros family, to throw the wholesalers scales into the ocean. The fishermen end up in jail, the wholesalers realize it is more profitable to have Ntoni and his friends fishing, so they have the fishermen released. Ntoni, who lived on the mainland for a time, had some new, open-minded ideas back to Sicily, and he tries to form a cooperative. In deciding to do it on his own, he convinces his family to mortgage their house to buy a boat, a festive mood is present in this sequence, with all the village joining the Valastro family salting fish in laughter and joy. The second part shows the Valastros vulnerability, when they go out in a particularly bad storm, their new boat is severely damaged, and the Valastros have no money to get it repaired. At this point in the film, we see the other fishermen, the third phase of the film affirms the Valastros vulnerability and traces their decline. The social and psychological consequences of the Valastros attempt to change things are gradually revealed and they go out of work, no one wants to give them any opportunities, and the wholesalers are able to set the price for their fish. In the scene showing the increasing the prices yet again. This was quite a feature in neorealist films, and one almost sees this as an awakening of consciousness. The family unit, so strong in the beginning of the film, only the elder sister Mara remains strong, although she loses all hope of ever getting married because her family is now poorer than before. The entire mood of the film becomes oppressive since the camera never leaves Aci Trezza, except in the scenes at sea at the beginning, some allusions to modern Italian history are also there
19.
Bitter Rice
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Bitter Rice is a 1949 Italian film made by Lux Film, written and directed by Giuseppe De Santis. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone, Doris Dowling and Vittorio Gassman, Bitter Rice was a success in Europe. It was a product of the Italian neorealism style, the Italian title of the film is based on a pun, since the Italian word riso can mean either rice or laughter, riso amaro can be taken to mean either bitter laughter or bitter rice. Although Bitter Rice did not win any awards, it was nominated for the 1950 Academy Award for Best Story, the film begins at the start of the rice-planting season in northern Italy. In an effort to escape the law, two thieves, Francesca and Walter, hide amongst the crowds of female workers heading to the rice fields of the Po Valley. While attempting to board the train for the fields, the pair runs into Silvana, Francesca boards the train with Silvana, who introduces her to the planters way of life. Francesca does not have a permit, and struggles with the other illegals to find a place on the rice fields. After initial resistance from documented workers and bosses, the scabs are allowed a place in the fields, at the fields, Silvana and Francesca meet a soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco, who unsuccessfully tries to attract Silvanas interest. Toward the end of the season, Walter arrives at the fields. Excited by his lifestyle, Silvana becomes attracted to Walter. She causes a diversion to help him out the heist. Francesca and Silvana face each other, armed with pistols, Francesca confronts Silvana, in response, Silvana turns her gun toward Walter and murders him. Soon afterward, her guilt leads her to commit suicide, as the other rice workers depart, they pay tribute to her by sprinkling rice upon her body. Her downfall shows director Giuseppe De Santiss condemnation of these products of American capitalism, in addition, Silvana was considered by many audiences to be overly-sexualized. This sexualization and the presence of death and suicide in the film cause it to diverge from typical Italian neorealism. Bitter Rice was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for Best Story in the 1950 Academy Awards. The film was selected as one of 100 Italian films to be saved. The collection was established by the Venice Film Festival in collaboration with Cinecittà and curated by Fabio Ferzetti, with input from Gianni Amelio, many of the films selected represent the Golden Age of Italian cinema, which was manifested in the neorealist movement
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Heaven over the Marshes
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Heaven over the Marshes is a 1949 Italian historical drama film directed by Augusto Genina and starring Rubi DAlma, Michele Malaspina, Inés Orsini and Domenico Viglione Borghese. The film portrays the life of the saint Maria Goretti, Augusto Genina was awarded the Nastro dArgento for Best Director for the film. In 2008 the film was selected to enter the list of the 100 Italian films to be saved, the films sets were designed by Virgilio Marchi. The A to Z of Italian Cinema, heaven over the Marshes at the Internet Movie Database
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Augusto Genina
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Augusto Genina was an Italian film pioneer. He was a producer and director. In 1929 Genina moved to France to direct Louise Brooks in sonorized film Miss Europe and he studied sound techniques and worked in France and Germany in same but alternate languages film versions which were filmed simultaneously, before his return to Italy. He won Venice Film Festival Mussolinis cup for Best Italian Film twice, in 1936 by Lo squadrone bianco and in 1940 by The Siege of the Alcazar, both Fascist propaganda films. In 1953, he filmed Three Forbidden Stories, another version of the tragic accident that Giuseppe De Santis made one year before in Rome 11 oclock. Augusto Genina at the Internet Movie Database
22.
Stromboli (film)
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Stromboli, also known as Stromboli, Land of God, is a 1950 Italian-American film directed by Roberto Rossellini and featuring Ingrid Bergman. The drama is considered an example of Italian neorealism. Bergman plays Karin, a displaced Lithuanian in Italy, who escapes the internment camp by marrying an Italian POW fisherman and he promises her a great life in his home island of Stromboli, a volcanic island located between the mainland of Italy and Sicily. Adding to her difficulties, Karin speaks little Italian and she becomes increasingly despondent and eventually wants to escape the volcano island. The film also features segments about fishing and an actual evacuation of the town after an eruption of the volcano. Most villagers are played by people from the island, as is typical of neorealism. Originally, she had approached Samuel Goldwyn, but he bowed out after having seen Rossellinis film Germany, Year Zero. The terms of Rossellinis contract with RKO stated that all footage had to be turned over to RKO, however, the US version was eventually made without the directors input. Rossellini protested, and claimed that RKOs 81 minute version was different from his original 105 minute version. Rossellini got support from Father Félix Morlión, who had involved in the screenwriting. The conflict eventually led to Rossellini and RKO taking legal action against each other over the distribution rights to the film. This indicates that the differences were resolved rather quickly, the exact date of the Italian release is unclear, modern sources list the release year as either 1949 or 1950. Stromboli is perhaps best remembered for the affair between Rossellini and Bergman that began during the production of the film, as well as the resultant child born out of wedlock. In fact, the affair caused such a scandal in the United States that Bergman was denounced as ”a powerful influence for evil” on the floor of the US Senate by Colorado Senator Edwin C. Johnson. Furthermore, her Hollywood career was halted for a number of years, in Italy, Ingrid Bergman won a Nastro dArgento as Best foreign actress. Initial reception for Stromboli in America, however, was quite negative, the staff at Variety magazine gave the film a mixed review. They wrote, Director Roberto Rossellini purportedly denied responsibility for the film, cut or not cut, the film reflects no credit on him. Given elementary-school dialog to recite and impossible scenes to act, Ingrid Bergmans never able to make the lines real nor the emotion sufficiently motivated to seem more than an exercise
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Chains (1949 film)
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Catene is a 1949 Italian film in the Melodrama genre directed by Raffaello Matarazzo. The film was remade in 1974, the films sets were designed by the art director Ottavio Scotti. A husband kills his wifes ex-boyfriend, who was blackmailing her and he flees to America, but is sent back to Italy to stand trial. The only way he can be set free is if his wife confesses to adultery – so the murder can be considered a crime of passion –, starring Amedeo Nazzari and actress of Greek origin Yvonne Sanson. Maligned by critics because it did not conform to precepts of neorealism, this did not prevent its unexpected box office success
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Raffaello Matarazzo
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Raffaello Matarazzo was an Italian filmmaker. Matarazzo started writing reviews for the Roman newspaper Il Tevere before re-editing scripts for the Italian film company Cines. His first films were comedies until he shifted to making melodramas, with Catene, produced by Titanus in 1949, he became the most successful director in Italy. Critics, however, have tended to disparage his work, saying that Matarazzo films were Neorealismo dappendice, since the 1970s, some film critics have tried to restore Matarazzos reputation. French magazine Positif loved his erotic-historical peplum Ship of Lost Women, raffaello Matarazzo at the Internet Movie Database
25.
Path of Hope
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Path of Hope is a 1950 Italian language drama film directed by Pietro Germi that belongs to the Italian neorealism film movement. It is based on Nino Di Marias novel Cuori negli abissi, the film presents the travel of a group of poor Sicilians to France in their dreams of a better life. Women wait anxiously at a minehead in Capodarso, Sicily, the mine is closing and the miners refuse to come up unless the owner relents. After three days, they give up in despair, in a bar in town, Ciccio is recruiting workers for jobs in France. He can get people over the border — for L20,000 a head, after reaching Naples by train, Ciccio tries to slip away but is grabbed by Vanni. Vanni tells Barbara where to meet at the border if anything should go wrong, in Rome, Ciccio points out Vanni to the police. In the shoot-out, both Vanni and Ciccio escape and they are ordered by the police to return to Sicily or be charged with illegal expatriation. With Saro as leader, and nearly out of money, they head north instead, hardship draws Saro and Barbara closer together
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Pietro Germi
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Pietro Germi was an Italian actor, screenwriter, and director. Germi was born in Genoa, Liguria, to a lower-middle-class family and he was a messenger and briefly attended nautical school before deciding on a career in acting. He studied acting and directing at Romes Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, during his time in school, Germi supported himself by working as an extra, bit actor, assistant director, and, on occasion, writer. Germi made his debut in 1945 with the film Il testimone. His early work, this included, were very much in the Italian Neorealist style. Through the years, Germi shifted away from social drama towards satirical comedies, in the 1960s, Germi received worldwide success with the films Divorce, Italian Style, Seduced and Abandoned, and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians. He was nominated for Academy Awards in both directing and writing for Divorce, Italian Style, and, subsequently, won in the writing category and he also won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Birds, the Bees. His 1968 film Serafino won the Golden Prize at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, Germi collaborated on the scripts for all the films he directed and appeared as an actor in a few of them. He died in Rome of hepatitis on 5 December 1974
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Luciano Emmer
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Luciano Emmer was an Italian film director. He won a Golden Globe in 1951 for Pictura, An Adventure in Art and he has directed more documentaries than fiction pictures, most notably Domenica dagosto and the romance-comedy-drama Three Girls from Rome. Luciano Emmer was the father of mathematician, writer and director Michele Emmer, ci faccio un film 2001 Una lunga, lunga, lunga notte damore 2003 Lacqua. Il fuoco Luciano Emmer at the Internet Movie Database
28.
Story of a Love Affair
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Story of a Love Affair is a 1950 Italian drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Massimo Girotti and Lucia Bosè. Ferdinando Sarmi was, however, a designer rather than a professional actor. Its story was inspired by the James M. Cains novel The Postman always rings Twice, in the film, the camera pans the same street corner in Ferrara, the directors native city, that appears in his film Par-delà les nuages forty-five years later. In 1951 the film won the Nastro dArgento Silver Ribbon Award for Best Original Score, Story of a Love Affair was Antonionis first full length feature film. At a detective agency in Milan, Carloni is looking through photographs of a young woman, Paola Molon Fontana, given to the agency by her wealthy industrialist husband. The couple were married seven years ago, shortly after meeting each other, Fontanas recent discovery of these old photos have aroused his suspicion, and Carloni is hired to uncover whatever he can about Paolas life before her marriage. Carloni travels to the town of Ferrara, where Paola spent much of her youth, the detective soon discovers that she was best friends with two girls in town. When the sullen Matilde arrives home, she refuses to cooperate with Carloni, after the detective leaves, Matilde writes a letter to Guido, alerting him that a suspicious man is investigating Paolas past. Back in Milan, as Paola exits the La Scala opera house dressed in a fur coat with her husband and friends. Later that night, she receives a call from him. At Idroscalo lake, Guido, who is now a car dealer. The thought that someone is digging into their past frightens Paola, with their former attraction rekindled, the two agree to meet again. Meanwhile, Carlonis investigation intensifies, as he finds out more about the accident in the elevator shaft, Paolas sudden disappearance. He learns from Giovannas maid that Paola and Guido were with Giovanna when she fell to her death, and he also learns that Paola left Ferrara two days after the accident and met her future husband shortly thereafter in Milan—never telling him about her friends death. In the coming days, Paola and Guidos once-casual reunion escalates into a passionate affair played out in rented rooms. To help Guido earn money, Paola arranges for him to be the middleman in a car sale that doesnt work out, as their affair progresses, Paolas frustration with her loveless marriage leads her to suggest to Guido that her husbands death would benefit both of them. At first Guido is repulsed by the suggestion, but is influenced by Paolas emotional manipulation, later they meet on a bridge over a desolate canal that Fontana crosses on his way home. Guido plans to him as he approaches the bridge
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Michelangelo Antonioni
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Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, was an Italian film director, screenwriter, editor, and short story writer. He produced enigmatic and intricate pieces and rejected action in favor of contemplation, focusing on image and design over character. His films defined a cinema of possibilities and he is one of three directors to have won the Palme dOr, the Golden Lion and the Golden Bear, and the only director to have won these three and the Golden Leopard. Antonioni was born into a family of landowners in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna. He was the son of Elisabetta and Ismaele Antonioni, the director explained to Italian film critic Aldo Tassone, My childhood was a happy one. Was a warm and intelligent woman who had been a laborer in her youth and my father also was a good man. Born into a family, he succeeded in obtaining a comfortable position through evening courses. My parents gave me free rein to do what I wanted, with my brother, curiously enough, our friends were invariably proletarian, and poor. The poor still existed at that time, you recognized them by their clothes, but even in the way they wore their clothes, there was a fantasy, a frankness that made me prefer them to boys of bourgeois families. I always had sympathy for women of working-class families, even later when I attended university, they were more authentic. While still a child, Antonioni was fond of drawing and music, a precocious violinist, he gave his first concert at the age of nine. Although he abandoned the violin with the discovery of cinema in his teens, I have never drawn, even as a child, either puppets or silhouettes but rather facades of houses and gates. One of my favorite games consisted of organizing towns, ignorant in architecture, I constructed buildings and streets crammed with little figures. These childhood happenings - I was eleven years old - were like little films, upon graduation from the University of Bologna with a degree in economics, he started writing for the local Ferrara newspaper Il Corriere Padano in 1935 as a film journalist. In 1940, Antonioni moved to Rome, where he worked for Cinema, however, Antonioni was fired a few months afterward. Later that year he enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia to study film technique and he was drafted into the army afterwards. During the war Antonioni survived being condemned to death for his membership in the resistance, in 1942, Antonioni co-wrote A Pilot Returns with Roberto Rossellini and worked as assistant director on Enrico Fulchignonis I due Foscari. In 1943, he travelled to France to assist Marcel Carné on Les visiteurs du soir and then began a series of films with Gente del Po
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Variety Lights
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Variety Lights is a 1951 Italian romantic drama film produced and directed by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada and starring Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, and Giulietta Masina. The film is about a beautiful but ambitious woman who joins a traveling troupe of third-rate vaudevillians and inadvertently causes jealousy. A collaboration with Alberto Lattuada in production, direction, and writing, prior to this film, Fellini worked primarily as a screenwriter, most notably working on Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City. Variety Lights is a drama about a group of second-rate theatrical performers on tour. The movie begins with a vaudeville show in a small Italian town. A young woman, Liliana, played by Carla Del Poggio, sits in the appreciate crowd, enraptured by the performers. That evening, as the boards an train, with two of the performers forced to sit in the train toilet to evade paying the fare. During the night, she requests the head of the group, Checco Dal Monte, played by Peppino De Filippo. In the morning when the group realizes it does not have money to pay for a carriage. This saves the group several miles of walking and leads to them accepting her, at the performance that evening, a sparse and hostile crowd mocks each performer in turn. When the local promoter notices that the crowd responds approvingly to Liliana, he interrupts the performance and this leads to repeat performances over the next two days to increasingly larger crowds. After the third and final performance, a wealthy man invites the group to his mansion for dinner. That night Checco realizes he desires Liliana, in the morning, as the group walks towards the train station, Checco abandons his mistress Melina to walk alone with Liliana. When the group arrives in Rome, Checco leaves it in order to form his own troupe featuring Liliana, however, as this new group practices, Liliana arrives to tell Checco she has signed with a competitor. The movie then follows Liliana in her brilliant debut in a minor role, the movie ends with Liliana, sporting an expensive fur coat, boarding a first-class train carriage en route to Milan. On the adjoining track, Checco and his old troupe board a train for Formaggio, in the final scene, the two trains leave the station as Checco, reunited with Melina, begins to flirt with a young woman who sits across the aisle from him. This suggest he is about to begin the cycle once again
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Alberto Lattuada
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Alberto Lattuada was an Italian film director. Lattuada was born in Milan, the son of composer Felice Lattuada and he was initially interested in literature, becoming, while still a student, a member of the editorial staff of the antifascist fortnightly Camminare. and part of the artists group Corrente di Vita. Before entering into the business, Lattuadas father made him complete his studies as an architect even though he recognized his desire to make movies. In 1940 he started his career as a screenwriter and assistant director on Mario Soldatis Piccolo mondo antico. In 1943 he directed his first movie, Giacomo lidealista, luci del Varietà, co-directed with Federico Fellini, was the latters first directorial endeavour. His 1962 film La steppa was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival, in 1970, he was a member of the jury at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1979, New Line Cinema released his erotic film Stay As You Are theatrically in the United States and he died at 90 years old of Alzheimers disease and was survived by his wife of 61 years, actress Carla Del Poggio. He was buried in his familys chapel in the cemetery of Morimondo, Alberto Lattuada at the Internet Movie Database Alberto Lattuada
32.
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
33.
Father's Dilemma
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Fathers Dilemma is a 1950 Italian comedy film directed by Alessandro Blasetti. It won an award at the Venice Film Festival, the voice of the narrator is Alberto Sordi, whose expressiveness permeates the whole film. When Sordi worked on the film he had just finished dubbing the Atoll K with main characters Laurel, prima comunione has been put on the list of the 100 Italian films to be saved
34.
Bellissima (film)
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Bellissima is an Italian neorealism film by Italian director Luchino Visconti. The film, which is a satire of the industry, was shot at the Cinecittà studios. Alessandro Blasetti, a film director, appears as himself. Bellissima is the feature film in Viscontis oeuvre with a predominantly comic tone. Bellissima centers on a mother in Rome, Maddalena, who drags her young daughter to Cinecittà to attend an audition for a new film by Alessandro Blasetti. Maddalena is a mother who loves movies and whose efforts to promote her daughter grow increasingly frenzied
35.
Two Cents Worth of Hope
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Two Cents Worth of Hope is a 1952 film directed by Renato Castellani. It shared the Grand Prix prize with the film Othello at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival, the film is the third in director Castellanis Young Love trilogy. The story concerns the romance between Carmela and Antonio, the ardor is one-sided at first, but Carmela is a determined young woman, willing to scale and conquer any obstacle in pursuing her hearts desire. Once hes hooked, Antonio scurries from job to job to prove his financial viability, faced with the hostility of their parents, Carmela and Antonio symbolically shed themselves of all responsibilities to others in a climactic act of stark-naked bravado
36.
Cops and Robbers (1951 film)
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Cops and Robbers is a 1951 Italian cult comedy film directed by Steno and Mario Monicelli. It stars the famous comedian Totò, and the cinematographer was the film director Mario Bava. It was produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti and its style is close to Italian neorealism. Released in Italian cinemas in November 1951 and shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952, earned the award for Piero Tellini the script and it had trouble with the censor because it portrayed clumsy police and smart thieves, but it was a great success. The film was a success and an unexpected liking by critics. In 2008 the film was selected to enter the list of the 100 Italian films to be saved and it was shown as part of a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. The film is set in Rome during the Marshall Plan, ferdinando Esposito is a small villain who tries to support his family with his tricks. During the distribution of some gift-packs, also Esposito, these recognize, so begins a comical car chase with a fat police officer, Sergeant Lorenzo Buttoni. At first unable to capture him, but then cheated by Esposito, suspended from duty for the protests of Mr. Locuzzo, the agent Bottoni risk of losing their jobs if they fail to stop the thief within three months. Dressed civilian clothes and hid the incident to his family, goes in search of Esposito, find his house and so he knows the family, trying to ingraziarsela with favors and offers of food. Gradually the two become friends, and between his brothers wifes Thief and the daughter of the guard is a sympathy. Comes the day of the meal during which you know the two families and is taken for granted the presence of Esposito, unaware of his identity. Currently dellagnizione, which takes place outside the home, Esposito chides him for having taken away the good faith of his family, a sort of human complicity develops between the two. So the roles are reversed and it is the same Esposito who decided to carry him to prison, in his absence, will be Bottoni to think about the Esposito family. The film was to be directed by Luigi Zampa, so the direction was entrusted to Monicelli and Steno. The film was one of the first to be produced by the production house Ponti-De Laurentiis and was Carlo Ponti had the idea to put together Totò, in real life, the two actors were affectionate friends, but had never worked together. Everyone was worried about what might happen Totò and putting together Fabrizi, however, Totò was a bit hesitant at first, when he was offered the role, because it was very different from the characters he had played before. In more than a scene you can see that the 4 actors, obviously framed from behind, have been replaced by doubles
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Mario Monicelli
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Mario Monicelli was a six times-Oscar nominated Italian director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia allItaliana. Monicelli was born in Viareggio in Tuscany and was the youngest son of the journalist Tommaso Monicelli and his older brother Giorgio worked as writer and translator. Another older brother, Franco, was a journalist, Monicelli lived a carefree youth, and many of the cinematic jokes he later shot in Amici Miei were inspired from his own experience. Monicelli made his first short in 1934, in collaboration with his friend Alberto Mondadori and he followed this work up with the silent film I ragazzi della Via Paal, which was an award-winner in the Venice Film Festival. His first feature length work was made in 1937, in the years 1939–1942 Monicelli also produced numerous screenplays, and worked as an assistant director. Monicelli made his debut as a director in 1949, with Totò cerca casa. From the very beginning of his career Monicellis cinematic style had a flow to it. The duo produced eight successful movies in four years, including Guardie e ladri, from 1953 onwards Monicelli worked alone, without leaving his role as a writer of screenplays. Monicellis career include some of the masterpieces of Italian cinema, while better known in the English-speaking world under the title Big Deal on Madonna Street, the actual translation from the Italian is the usual unknown perpetrators. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 31st Academy Awards, the film, featuring Gassman and the other superstar of Italian comedy, Alberto Sordi, excelled in the absence of rhetorical accents and for its sharp, tragicomical sense of history. Monicelli received two more Academy Award nominations with I compagni and The Girl with the Pistol, larmata Brancaleone is another masterpiece of Italian cinema. The film tells the tale of a Middle Age Italian knight, of uncertain nobility and few means. The film was popular to the point that some lines are turned into well established idiomatic expression. His 1976 film Caro Michele won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival, both films featured Alberto Sordi at his best, the latter leading Monicelli to his third Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. Among the final works by Monicelli are Speriamo che sia femmina, Parenti serpenti and Cari fottutissimi amici, the latter won an Honourable Mention at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival. His 1999 film Dirty Linen was entered into the 21st Moscow International Film Festival and his last feature film was The Roses of the Desert, which he directed when he was 91 years old. In 1991 he received the Golden Lion for Career of the Venice Film Festival, a documentary made by Roberto Salinas and Marina Catucci, Una storia da ridere, breve biografia di Mario Monicelli, appeared in 2008. Monicelli worked also for television and theatre, occasionally as an actor, Monicelli died on 29 November 2010 at the age of 95
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Miracle in Milan
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Miracle in Milan is a 1951 Italian film directed by Vittorio de Sica. The screenplay was co-written by Cesare Zavattini, based on his novel Totò il Buono, the picture stars Francesco Golisano, Emma Gramatica, Paolo Stoppa, and Guglielmo Barnabò. The film, told as a neo-realist fable, explains the lives of a group in post-war Milan. This fantasy tale tells of Totò who, found in a patch, is adopted by Lolotta. When Lolotta dies he moves to an orphanage, at eighteen Totò leaves the orphanage and ends up in a shantytown squatter colony on the outskirts of Milan. Totò is given a magic dove by the ghost of Lolotta, eventually the dove is taken back by two angels who object to a mortal using its magic powers. When oil is found in the shantytown capitalists acquire it and the squatters are taken away ostensibly to prison, on the way, however, the dove is returned to Totò and his wish for the freedom of his friends is granted. They fly away on broomsticks borrowed from the street sweepers in Milans central square and circle around the Cathedral and they greet water with the same pure joy as Saint Francis did. The Milan Cathedral serves as a location in the film. American special effects specialist Ned Mann was hired for the film, the picture would be Manns final project. Vittorio De Sica, in neo-realist fashion, used both professional and non-professional actors, the film premiered in Italy on 8 February 1951. Later it was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in April 1951, in the United States it opened wide on December 17,1951. And although this uncommon vein of fancy is away from De Sicas previous line, performances by pros and tyros alike are flawless. Review website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film has a rare 100% Fresh rating, wins 1951 Cannes Film Festival, Grand Prize of the Festival, Vittorio De Sica,1951. Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, Silver Ribbon, Best Production Design, new York Film Critics Circle Awards, NYFCC Award, Best Foreign Language Film, Italy,1951. National Board of Review, National Board of Review Awards 1951, nominations British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source, Italy, Best Foreign Actor, Francesco Golisano, Italy,1952
