Cinecittà Studios, is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres, it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constructed during the Fascist era as part of a plan to revive the Italian film industry.
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 leading 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 struggling industry in the late 1920s.
The Iron Crown is a 1941 Italian adventure written and directed by Alessandro Blasetti, starring Massimo Girotti and Gino Cervi. The narrative revolves a sacred iron crown and a king who is prophesied to lose his kingdom to his nephew. It blends motifs from several European myths, legends and modern works of popular fiction. The film won a Coppa Mussolini award, which is the ancestor to the Golden Lion.
Sun is a 1929 Italian silent drama film directed by Alessandro Blasetti and starring Marcello Spada, Vasco Creti and Dria Paola. The film was set around the planned draining of the Pontine Marshes by Benito Mussolini's Fascist government. It was shot partly on location, which added a sense of realism. Mussolini was impressed by the result and described it as "the dawn of the Fascist film".
Dria Paola (1909–1993) was an Italian stage and film actress. She played the female lead in Alessandro Blasetti's late silent Sun (1929). In 1930 she starred in the first Italian sound film The Song of Love.
Mino Doro was an Italian actor who appeared in more than a hundred films between 1932 and 1970. Doro generally played supporting and character roles. He appeared as a blackshirt in the 1934 Fascist propaganda film The Old Guard.
The Wolf of the Sila is a 1949 Italian drama film directed by Duilio Coletti and starring Silvana Mangano, Amedeo Nazzari and Vittorio Gassman. Much of the film was shot on location around La Sila in Calabria.
Under the Southern Cross is a 1938 Italian drama film directed by Guido Brignone and starring Antonio Centa, Doris Duranti and Enrico Glori. The film is set in Italian-occupied Abyssinia following the recent Italian victory there. It was one of a sequence of eight films set in Italy's African Empire during the Fascist era that were released between 1936 and 1939. The film is a propaganda piece designed to support Fascist policy on empire and concerns about inter-racial romances.
Hollywood on the Tiber is a phrase used to describe the period in the 1950s and 1960s when the Italian capital of Rome emerged as a major location for international filmmaking attracting many foreign productions to the Cinecittà studios. By contrast to the native Italian film industry, these movies were made in English for global release. Although the primary markets for such films were American and British audiences, they enjoyed widespread popularity in other countries, including Italy.
Seconda B is a 1934 Italian comedy film directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and starring Sergio Tofano, Dina Perbellini and María Denis. It was screened at the Venice Film Festival where it was awarded a prize. It started a trend for "schoolgirl comedies" during the Fascist era, targeted primarily at girls and young women audiences. The title itself refers to a school class. The film is set in the early 1910s.
The Telephone Operator is a 1932 Italian comedy film directed by Nunzio Malasomma and starring Isa Pola, Mimì Aylmer and Luigi Cimara. It was a remake of the German film Wrong Number, Miss, released the same year.
Mother Earth is a 1931 Italian drama film directed by Alessandro Blasetti and starring Leda Gloria, Sandro Salvini and Isa Pola. It was made at the Cines Studios in Rome. Along with Blasetti's other early films, it shows a strong influence of Soviet-style realism. A country landowner decides to sell up and move to the city, but later has a change of heart. It was part of Fascist Italy's promotion of rural over urban values.
The Fornaretto of Venice is a 1939 Italian historical drama film directed by Duilio Coletti and starring Roberto Villa, Elsa De Giorgi and Clara Calamai. It is an adaptation of the 1846 play of the same title by Francesco Dall'Ongaro, which has been adapted into films on several occasions. It was made at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome.
Tortured Soul is a 1919 Italian silent film directed by Mario Caserini and starring Maria Jacobini, Andrea Habay and Alberto Collo. Alessandro Blasetti, a leading Italian director of the Fascist era, had his first contact with filmmaking by appearing as an extra.
The Tirrenia Studios are a film studio complex located in the Italian coastal town of Tirrenia in Tuscany. The studios were constructed between 1933-1934 and intended, along with the Fert Studios in Turin, to provide northern competition to the increasingly dominant Cines Studios in Rome. Tirrenia was a new town which had grown with the support of Italy's Fascist regime. Although Italian film production was booming following an early 1930s slump, Tirrenia quickly faced increasing competition from the large Cinecitta studios in Rome which had been opened in 1937 as part of the Fascist's attempt to centralise film production in the capital. Nonetheless, the studios continued to be used, sometimes facilitating location shooting nearby.
Gino Sensani (1888–1947) was an Italian costume designer who worked on over eighty films during his career.
Gemma Bolognesi was an Italian actress. She appeared in more than thirty films from 1916 to 1954.
Tough Guys is a 1960 Italian comedy film directed by Camillo Mastrocinque and starring Fred Buscaglione, Totò, Paolo Panelli and Scilla Gabel.
The Ungrateful Heart is a 1951 Italian melodrama film directed by Guido Brignone and starring Carla Del Poggio, Frank Latimore and Gabriele Ferzetti. It takes its name from the Neapolitan song "Core 'ngrato". It was released in West Germany in 1953.
Stephen Gundle, is a British cultural historian and film scholar. He is a Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick. He is best known for his books and articles on Italian culture, politics and the mass media.
