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'
Considered by many critics to be Visconti's greatest work, follows a mother and her four sons as they move from rural Italy to the slums of Milan. Ala... Read more
Sophia Loren won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a mother ravaged by war as she and her 13-year-old daughter become the focus of attack by retre... Read more
A cinematic "cry" from one of the most revered of all auteurs, Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni (L'avventura, La notte, Il deserto rosso) depict... Read more
Aka 'White Nights'. Marcello Mastroianni, as a lonely city transplant, and Maria Schell, as a sheltered girl haunted by a lover's promise, meet by cha... 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
De Sica once again returns to poor, post-war Italy to tell the small and unpretentious story of a young newly-wed couple. Having no money, they first... Read more
A graceful depiction of an eroding marriage that reaches its crisis as the couple holiday in Southern Italy. Roberto Rossellini directed his then-wif... Read more
From the Director of 'Death in Venice' and 'The Leopard' comes this extravagantly romantic story about the tempestuous affair between an Italian count... Read more
AKA 'The Road'. Fellini's Oscar-winning study of a brutish carnival strongman (Anthony Quinn) who uses a simple minded girl (Giulietta Masina) to serv... Read more
Italy's favourite comic son, Toto, stars as Salvatore Loicano, a convict who has just been released from prison after 22 years behind bars. The former... Read more