The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is widely considered one of the birthplaces of art cinema, and the stylistic aspect of Italian film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such as Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948). He is also known for his films starring Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli (1950), Europe '51 (1952), Journey to Italy (1954), Fear (1954) and Joan of Arc at the Stake (1954).
Italian neorealism, also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema, was a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They primarily address the difficult economic and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, representing changes in the Italian psyche and conditions of everyday life, including poverty, oppression, injustice and desperation. Italian Neorealist filmmakers used their films to tell stories that explored the contemporary daily life and struggles of Italians in the post-war period. Italian neorealist films have become explanatory discourse for future generations to understand the history of Italy during a specific period through the storytelling of social life in the context, reflecting the documentary and communicative nature of the film. Some people believe that neorealistic films evolved from Soviet montage films. But in reality, compared to Soviet filmmakers describing the people's opposition to class struggle through their films, neorealist films aim to showcase individuals' resistance to reality in a social environment.
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr. was an American film and television producer, director and screenwriter, who was the founder of the namesake Hal Roach Studios.
Alessandro Pavolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and essayist. He was notable for his involvement in the Italian fascist government, during World War II, and also for his cruelty against the opponents of fascism.
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.
Lux Film was an Italian film distribution company founded by Riccardo Gualino in 1934.
We the Living is a two-part 1942 Italian romantic war drama film, based on Ayn Rand's 1936 novel of the same name. It was originally released as two films, Noi vivi and Addio Kira. It was directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and produced by Scalera Film, and stars Alida Valli as Kira Argounova, Rossano Brazzi as Leo Kovalensky, and Fosco Giachetti as Andrei Taganov.
Hollywood on the Tiber is a phrase used in a June 26,1950 Time magazine article 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 market for many of these films was primarily American, they enjoyed widespread popularity in other countries, including Italy.
Stefano Pittaluga was an Italian film producer, one of several figures who helped revive Italian film production in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Tragic Night is a 1942 Italian drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Doris Duranti, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi. It is based on a 1928 novel La trappola by Delfino Cinelli. After being released from prison, a poacher seeks revenge on the gamekeeper who put him there. It was made at the Scalera Studios in Rome. It belongs to the movies of the calligrafismo style.
The Innkeeper is a 1944 Italian historical comedy film directed by Luigi Chiarini and starring Luisa Ferida, Armando Falconi and Osvaldo Valenti. The film is an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's 1753 play The Mistress of the Inn, one of a number of times the work has been turned into films. It belongs to the movies of the calligrafismo style.
The Tyrant of Padua is a 1946 Italian historical film directed by Max Neufeld and starring Clara Calamai, Carlo Lombardi and Elsa De Giorgi. It is an adaptation of the 1835 play Angelo, Tyrant of Padua by Victor Hugo. It is set in Padua in the 1540s.
Giuseppe Barattolo (1882–1949) was an Italian lawyer, politician and film producer. In 1913, during the silent era, Barattolo founded Caesar Film. Caesar made a series of popular films, some of which starred Francesca Bertini. In 1919 he joined and became an influential figure at the conglomerate Unione Cinematografica Italiana which dominated Italian film production during the early 1920s, but this came to an end following the box office failure of Quo Vadis (1924). In the early 1930s he tried to re-establish Caesar Film as a serious force in Italian production, but this also failed.
The Società Italiana Cines is a film company specializing in production and distribution of films. The company was founded on 1 April 1906.
The Unione Cinematografica Italiana (UCI) was an Italian film production and distribution consortium of the silent era. Following the end of the First World War, a group of eleven leading Italian companies joined forces in a single conglomerate which would be better able to compete with rival films from America, Britain, France and Germany. The driving force behind UCI was Baron Alberto Fassini, who had previously headed the Cines studio.
The Cines Studios were film production studios located in the Italian capital Rome. They were established on Via Veio in 1930 by Stefano Pittaluga, head of the Cines film company, at the beginning of the sound era. It produced Italy's first sound film The Song of Love the same year. For several years it was the leading studio complex in Italy, until September 1935 when it suffered a major fire and was largely destroyed. This became a spur for the Italian government of Benito Mussolini to invest in the construction of a new development Cinecittà, the largest studio in Europe which opened in 1937.
André Paulvé was a French film producer. He established his own production and distribution company DisCina with Michel Safra in 1938. During the German Occupation of France after 1940 he based himself at Nice in the Unoccupied Zone. He was a pioneer in co-productions with Italy, establishing a link with the Cinecitta Studios in Rome.
Apparition is a 1943 Italian comedy film directed by Jean de Limur and starring Alida Valli, Massimo Girotti and Amedeo Nazzari. It was shot at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. The film's sets were designed by the art director Piero Filippone.
