The history of Italian cinema began with a few seconds footage of Pope Leo XIII blessing the camera. Historical dramas were most popular in these early years before sound. During and after WWI, funds were short and nothing much of interest was made until the 1920s. With the rise of fascism the film industry was encouraged and in 1937 Cinecitta was built on the outskirts of Rome. Literally a 'cinema city', it contained everything a film maker could need or want, including theatres, and even a cinematography school. The slogan on posters at the time read "Cinema is The Most Powerful Weapon". Newsreels and propagandistic documentaries were filmed here but by 1939, feature film productions were underway. Visconti ('Ossessione'), Rossellini (Rome, Open City') and De Sica ('Bicycle Thief') all began their careers here. Post-war, two distinct trends emerged in Italian cinema: on the one hand, the neo-realist films of Rossellini and De Sica, made chiefly on location in the streets of Rome and surrounding towns; and on the other, the American megaproductions, filmed almost entirely on sets constructed in the Cinecitta studios. In 1948, 'Quo Vadis?', 'Roman Holiday (1952), 'Three Coins in a Fountain' (1954), 'Farewell to Arms' (1957), 'Ben Hur' (1958) and 'Cleopatra' (1961), to cite only the most famous. Federico Fellini shot most of his films, at least in part at Cinecitta and to this day the studios are used for television and film productions. Mention must also be made of Pasolini, Bertolucci, Zeffirelli, Antonioni, Sergio Leone - Italy has given cinema some of its greatest individuals and auteurs. Pictured: The lost kisses from 'Cinema Paradiso'
Acclaimed director Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso") reunites with renowned composer Ennio Morricone for this dramatic mystery set in the high-st... Read more
'A landmark of cinematic social comment,' wrote one critic about Fellini's journey through a decadent Rome. Banned by the church in many countries, th... Read more
Aka "Novecento". This sweeping chronicle of 20th century Italy focuses on the sons of two contrasting families; the landowner's son (Robert De Niro) a... Read more
For decades, journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the glittering nightlife of Rome. Since the legendary success of his o... Read more
Rosi's BAFTA-winning epic stars Gian Maria Volonte as Carlo Levi, an artist and political exile banished to a southern Italian village by Mussolini's... Read more
Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life. One of the greatest films about... Read more
The third of Fellini's trilogy of solitude. 'Nights of Cabiria' features Giulietta Masina as an impoverished prostitute living on the outskirts of Rom... Read more
The #1 smash-hit comedy success of the 2015 Lavazza Italian Film Festival, this wildly entertaining and multi award-winning debut feature is the story... Read more
Director Gillo Pontecorvo brilliantly recreated the street riots and other events that led up to Algeria's independence from France in this astonishin... Read more
Derived from the novel by Alberto Moravia, acclaimed director Bernardo Bertolucci's visually electrifying masterpiece about sex, politics, repression... Read more