The beginnings of a history of Italian cinema
As early as 1896, the Lumière operators travelled to the large cities of northern Italy, where the diffusion of the first films was exponential. It was in Turin that the very first projection in the history of Italian cinema was organized, and there that the first movie theaters, then the first studios, were set up. In Venice, the Frenchman Alexandre Promio made the Panorama of the Grand Canal from a boat in 1896. Forty seconds of cinema that are also an opportunity to discover the almost timeless Venetian Grand Canal. In Genoa, the early filmmakers captured the nautical jousts in 1904. Then, in 1912, the entire city was the subject of a documentary, where you will discover Piazza Corvetto, the Lanterna and the Genoa Castle as they were more than a hundred years ago. Italian cinema will soon become one of the most prolific in Europe, if not the world. It was in Italy that the first historical films in costume were made, soon followed by the peplums. Quo Vadis (1913) and Cabiria (1914) are the two most important films of this period. In addition to being among the first feature films in the history of cinema, the ambition and means used to make these films are beyond comprehension, and will inspire dozens of filmmakers like David W. Griffith. At the same time, there were many film adaptations of theater, both dramatic and comical. The Commedia dell'Arte is not far away. Little by little, and with the rise of Mussolini's fascism, the cinema will move closer to Rome, and the production companies will gradually desert Northern Italy. After the war, film production was concentrated around Cinecittà.
De Sica, Fellini, Rossellini, Visconti and others
There is no shortage of books on the great masters of Italian cinema, and most of them set their cameras in the cities of northern Italy. Thus, Vittorio De Sica shot his first feature film Children are Watching Us in the seaside resort of Alassio, in 1943 and 1944. A human drama, the film already heralded the neorealist vein of the director of The Bicycle Thief (1948), to name but one of his masterpieces. Three years later, he was in Milan to shoot Miracle in Milan, a fable of poverty and wealth, with all the poetry that is the strength of the artist. The final scene, shot on January 5, 1951 in Piazza Duomo with hundreds of amateur actors and extras, is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of Italian cinema: the grandiose closing of a film that would earn De Sica the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. Also in Milan, Luchino Visconti shot Rocco and His Brothers (1960), with Alain Delon, Annie Girardot and Claudia Cardinale. A rereading of the city from the point of view of the survivors of the Second World War, forced immigrants in this city that does not want them. Among the most recognizable places, you will find the Central Station of Milan, the Duomo on top of which Rocco and Nadia meet, but also the piazzale Lugano. The two lovers will also spend two days resting at the Hotel Gran Bretagne, in Bellagio, on the shores of Lake Como. In Milan again, Antonioni directed The Night in 1961, followed by Pier Paolo Pasolini for his impressive Theorem in 1968. Highly iconoclastic, this film was censored in many countries. In the East, Venice and Trieste each welcomed Visconti for the superb Death in Venice (1971). The action of this gripping drama adapted from the work of Thomas Mann takes place mainly in the lake city, but Visconti will also use the Campo Marzio train station in Trieste to represent the old train station of Venice. In Umbria, it is the region of Perugia that is the main muse of filmmakers, starting with Fellini. In 1952, he included the opera of Spoleto in his film The White Sheik. In 1966, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Vittorio De Sica both filmed near Perugia. The former directed The Birds, Small and Large (1966), with Totò in the main role, while the latter directed The Fox Escapes at Three (1966), with the great Peter Sellers(Doctor Strangelove, The Pink Panther, among others). We are not far from the 1970s, with a new generation of filmmakers and new styles. Dario Argento and his colleagues launched the giallo movement, Nanni Moretti and Roberto Benigni revisited the Italian comedy each in their own way. It is true that Italian cinema no longer has the resources of yesteryear, but certain figures are still exported internationally. Recently, Paolo Sorrentino's La Grande Bellezza (2014) won the Oscar for best foreign film, while the works of Matteo Garrone or Luca Guadagnino move crowds and delight critics.
Movie sets at every corner
In Venice, you won't know where to turn your head as each building will remind you of the great scenes of the many international films that have made a stop in the city. In fact, not one, but two James Bond episodes were filmed in Venice, Moonraker in 1979 and Casino Royale in 2006. Jean-Paul Belmondo also stopped in Venice for the filming of Guignolo, also 1979, while Tom Hanks treads the Piazza San Marco several times in Inferno (2016), adapted from the book of the same name by Dan Brown.
In neighboring Trieste, James Bond also appeared, under the guise of Timothy Dalton for To Kill is not to Play (1987). Bond ventures into the Passo di Pramollo, on the heights of Udine, for a chase that only the saga has the secret. A few years earlier, the mythical Godfather II (1974), shot between Italy and the United States, used Trieste as a setting. Instead of the immigration office at Ellis Island, the old market of the Pescheria Centrale, on the Trieste Riviera, was used as the location for this key scene in Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece. Recently, the series Borgias (2014) was set in two of the castles of the region, in Villalta and Gorizia.
Want to continue your journey in the footsteps of Agent 007? Go to the shores of Lake Como, where many productions have also brought their teams. Villa del Balbianello was one of the main settings forAttack of the Clones (2002), episode 2 of the Star Wars saga. Four years later, it was Daniel Craig and Eva Green's turn to relax there in Casino Royale, again. Proof if any were needed that this villa - accessible to the public - is a true haven of peace. A few kilometers away, Villa Balbiano was the location for the filming of Ridley Scott's House of Gucci (2021), where Lady Gaga stars with Al Pacino and Jared Leto. Beyond Lake Como and Lake Garda, head to the nearby province of Cremona, where director Luca Guadagnino directed his biggest hit to date, Call Me by Your Name (2017). An international co-production with Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet in the lead roles, which won the Oscar for best screenplay after pocketing four nominations including best film. A beautiful love story set in Italy in the 1980s, where the filmmaker uses all the beauty of the Lombardy landscape, from the Caves of Catullus in Sirmione to the beauty of the Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Prati in Moscazzano and the urban settings of Bergamo, Lodi and the city of Crema itself. While walking through the streets of Crema, stop and have a drink in front of the Arch of Torrazzo, just like the protagonists of the film. You are not at the end of your cinema journey in Italy.
From museum to red carpet
Inaugurated in 1953, Turin's National Cinema Museum, housed in the Mole Antonelliana, is the largest institution of its kind in Europe. With over 1,800,000 admissions, the museum is full of nuggets for film buffs, including the original idol used in Cabiria. Its panoramic elevator is simply spectacular, and you can lose yourself for hours in the corridors of this magical place. Turin has also been hosting one of the biggest film festivals in Italy for the past 40 years. A winter event, far from being the only one of its kind in the region. From Liguria to Marche, you will not be short of cinema. A very wide range, from the summer open-air screenings in Sestri Levante to the dark rooms of Milan's Cinema Mexico, otherwise known as the Rocky Horror Picture House, where this cult film has been shown every Friday since 1976.
But the most prestigious event in the region is undoubtedly the Venice Film Festival, held every year in the city at the end of the summer. The oldest festival in the world, the Mostra was founded in 1932 and will soon celebrate its ninetieth anniversary. It is one of the most critically acclaimed festivals in the world, on par with Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. And its highest award, the Golden Lion, is one of the most coveted by filmmakers around the world. The Palazzo del Cinema, which has been the festival's home since 1937, is one of Italy's most important film venues, perched on the Lido. However, you will need to be patient if you want to walk the red carpet. With more than 60,000 festival-goers and 2,000 journalists, seats are expensive to discover the films that will soon delight lovers of auteur and independent cinema. This does not prevent you from meeting the great names of the seventh art on a terrace or on the vaporetto that links the city to the Lido. A unique cinema experience.
