Cinecittá

Discussions on all aspects of Italy under Fascism from the March on Rome to the end of the war.
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Pedro Ruíz
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Cinecittá

#1

Post by Pedro Ruíz » 11 Feb 2015, 03:14

Hello dear Sirs:
I am new in this Forum.I study from enough years the history of Italy under the Fascism.I have studied military questions and I know that this Forum is specialized in a military question.More forward,I am sure,I shall can put postings about the military questions,I am not an expert,I am simple small "student".

To Mussolini liked very much the cinema,he saw all nights one movie,she liked very much the movies of Greta Garbo although he saw a lot of movies.I know few the world of the Italian cinema specially under the fascism.Mussolini said that the cinema was a great weapon of propagandist of his regime,but I have studied some movies made during the Fascism and these haven´t any fascism message said clearly.

For to compete with the Northamerican giant,Mussolini decided to build in Roma a giant cinema studios that were named Cinecittá.Really the starting of the cinema in Italy comes of the final of S. XIX when the Lumiere brother invented the camera of cinema,from the first moment of the appears of the cinema,this had great influence on the Italian people and in Naples was created a school of cinema,back of the School of Naples is the beginning of the Neorrealism in the Italian cinema after of the Second World War.

I wanted to open here a posting for the study of the Italian cinema during the Fascism.Is clear that the cinema was a civil project,isn´t a military project although after during the War,the cinema put to the service of the War and the Italian Forced Armed and had great movies as Giarabub,Squadrone Bianco,A pilota ritorna......some of these movies were made by Roberto Rosellini.The director of cinema preferred by Mussolini was Augusto Genina,he made a great movie titled "Sin novedad en el Alcázar" ,this movie was situated in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39,in the siege of the fortress of the Alcázar de Toledo (the infantry academy of the Spanish Army) situated in the town of Toledo (center of Spain).

Would be very interesting to speak here about of the Studies of Cinecittá,how were,the actors and actress,the directors (reggia),the movies.

In the cinema during the Fascism,Mussolini (I believe) or Alesandro Pavolini,his minister of Culture,gave the order not to make any type of dubbing of the Italian movies to the other languages.This is a measure for the protection of the Italian cinema and also was a measure for to get that foreign people that want to see the Italian movies had to learn the Italian language,was a form to expand the Italian culture to the other countries and also to expand the Fascism.

Best wishes

Pedro

durb
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Re: Cinecittá

#2

Post by durb » 12 Feb 2015, 18:06

I think that Ossessione (1942/1943, directed by Visconti) is the best "Postman calls Twice" film adaptation which I have seen. But it was not liked by fascist authorities.

Vittorio Mussolini is perhaps a character that deserves attention when it comes to Cinecitta during the Fascist era. He was also an aviator - I wonder if he sponsored some films focusing on aviation. I have seen one Italian wartime movie which featured a bomber pilots (like Mussolini brothers) during a Greek campaign. In the film were featured also some British characters (as the main character was shot down and a spends short time as war prisoner).

From the other aviation related Italian films I know only some Luce propaganda films related to Aviazione Legionaria during the Spanish Civil War. The quality of surviving film copies is excellent (better than the German Wochenschau material of the same time). Most known of these type of Luce films is probably Los novios de la muerte. Propagandistic for sure, but still somewhat interesting.


Pedro Ruíz
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Location: Spain

Re: Cinecittá

#3

Post by Pedro Ruíz » 12 Feb 2015, 23:34

Durb hello:
Yes,the movie that you say is "A piloto ritorna",I saw this movie,is very good.Is situated in the campaign of Greece in the winter 1940-41,in a mission of bombardment made by heavy bombers of Regia Aeronautuca,concretly the Italian bombers were three-engines Cant Z 1007-bis (I believe) one of them was shot down,I don´t remember how -if was by AA or Greek or British fighters-.The Italian crew had to jump of the bomber and in land they were taken prisoners by the Australians troops,then the Italian crew were sent to a prisoner camp,it was very near of a airfield used by the RAF,owed to be one advanced airfield situated near of the front line.In a moment of carelessness of the Australians guardians,one Italian pilot of the bomber (the protagonist) got to flee and he took one Hurricane and he could flee of Greece and he went to Italy across the Adriatic Sea.This movie is very good,is a movie of adventures,I saw dubbed to Spanish language.The history of this movie is enough curiosity,it was lost from the years of the Second World War and was discovered by chance form by a lover of the cinema in Switzerland.

Yes,the documentaries of LUCE are very good,their images are very good.In youtube there are several documentaries about LUCE treats the Regia Aeronautca mainly.In the Second World War,Italy made great movies typicals of the time of war,but these were movies with high quality,for example Bengazhi or the siege of Giarabub in Lybia.The regime fascist put to Italy in the vanguard of the cinema in the World in 1930s,1940s and after of the end of Second World War.Join with England perhaps the European country that have had the best cinema has been Italy and this was owed to Mussolini and his son Vittorio,Vittorio was director of cinema.Is sad that this theme is few known,is one of the aspects most interesting of the Italian Fascism,the culture and the cinema in the Fascism.

Best wishes

Pedro

durb
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Re: Cinecittá

#4

Post by durb » 13 Feb 2015, 16:35

Well, movie makers in Italy had to adapt to certain limitations of censorship during the dictature era - for example a movie like Ossessione got through the censorship only by "an accident" if I have understood correctly.

The state censorship did limit considerably the possibilities of expression of film makers. It would be interesting to see movies of the era which were extending to the very limits of censorship.

The other question is that in the fascist era the state sponsored film making, did put up studios and provided technical equipment for Italian movie makers and kept the film makers continually employed by governement projects (propaganda, newsreels etc). This perhaps enabled to many Italian movie makers to learn a lot about the technical process of film making and perhaps therein lies the very base for the later "golden age" of Italian cine of postwar years (neorealism etc).

Would Italian movie industry developed without fascism and state support? - I guess that yes, but in slower time.

When it comes to propaganda films and media image, I think that B. Mussolini was the first modern "media-dictator". He clearly understood the importance of movie industry, well made newsreels and the media image. In the photos of early 1930´s we can see him as a pilot, good family father, skiing, swimming and working in buildings as well as helping to collect the wheat harvest. There have been other statesmen and politicians doing the very same things up to our modern days.

By the way - are there any surviving Italian films (newsreels) or movies about Football World Championship 1934?

Pedro Ruíz
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Location: Spain

Re: Cinecittá

#5

Post by Pedro Ruíz » 14 Feb 2015, 02:33

Durb hello,you have all right.Without the support of the fascist regime to the cinema is possible that the Italian cinema wouldn´t have had the degree of develop that this had it in 1930s and after of the Second World War.Mussolini saw the cinema as a very gigantic weapon of propaganda,he knew to see all their possibilities and he put it in exploitation,therefore he gave priority to those directors to make documentaries in which not only he appeared himslef without to can show to the rest of the world the military power of Italy,their lethal efficiency of their bombers and their fighters.Also documentaries in which made great military parades in which the Italian infantry troops defiled to the "Roman Pass" with the new helmets model-1933.

In youtube there are some documentaries about some football match of the Football World Cup 1934 played in Italy in which the Italian team gained the World Cup.

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tigre
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Re: Cinecittá

#6

Post by tigre » 31 Oct 2018, 04:57

Hello to all :D; a complement...............

Leda Gloria.

Italian theatrical and cinematographic actress, during whose career she performed in more than seventy films released between 1929 and 1965.

Source: Ali di Guerra No. 2 - June 1941

Cheers. Raúl M 8-).
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Leda Gloria (August 30, 1912 - March 16, 1997). The beautiful and remarkable actress that the aviators remembered particularly for the movie L'armata azzurra that honored the Italian aviation of the early thirties...........................
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tigre
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Re: Cinecittá

#7

Post by tigre » 21 Jan 2019, 02:18

Hello to all :D; more...............

Doris Duranti.

Doris Duranti (Livorno 1917 - Sto Domingo 1995) was an Italian film actress. He appeared in 43 films between 1935 and 1975. He had a relationship of several years with Alessandro Pavolini, a fascist politician, journalist, and essayist who in 1945 was executed in Como by Italian partisans; His body was hung with that of Benito Mussolini.

Source: Ali di Guerra No. 5.

Cheers. Raúl M 8-).
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Doris Duranti in the Lion of Damascus.......................
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tigre
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Re: Cinecittá

#8

Post by tigre » 05 Feb 2019, 04:52

Hello to all :D; more..............

Andreina Pagnani.

Andreina Pagnani was born on November 24, 1906 in Rome, Lazio, Italy as Andreina Gentili. She was well known for her work in The Consultations of Commissioner Maigret (1964), The Rattlesnake (1935) and La Maestrina (1934). She was married to Federico Franco Pagnani. He died on November 22, 1981 in Rome. For a long time she worked with the great Italian actor Alberto Sordi.

Source: Ali di Guerra No. 10 - October 1941
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656512/bio ... _ov_bio_sm

Cheers. Raúl M 8-).
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The Italian actress Andreina Pagnani.................
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