“Pillole” from the Istituto Luce archive

(edited by Nathalie Giacobino – film editing by Patrizia Penzo)
 

In 2017, Cinecittà - its legendary Studios, “the dream factory,” the ideal home for Federico Fellini and Italy’s collective imaginary - turned 80. This is an important birthday and the Istituto Luce Cinecittà absolutely had to celebrate it. In Venice, too, where, for several years now, the Pillole d’Archivio (“Archive Capsules) have been sparking the curiosity, the surprise and the applause of audiences before the screening of a number of films in the Festival’s official selection. Audience are offered 18 short films which weave together Italy’s dreams and its history, such as the black and white film of the Studios’ founding in 1937; Scipio the African, the first blockbuster shot at Via Tuscolana; Cinecittà’s history enters the sound stages, which after the war were turned into a city-dormitory for displaced people; the stupendous take borrowed from Visconti’s Bellissima starring Anna Magnani who, in 3 seconds and with a hand in her hair, shows what it means to be an actress. Kim Novak appears on another set: Cinecittà has become Hollywood’s sister. A legend returns with an “imperial” Totò as he struggles with Maciste; Charlton Heston is eternally Ben-Hur, all the way to the magical set of Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. Speaking of magic, there is also Comencini’s Pinocchio and his enormous cardboard whale, and the master of the house, Federico Fellini, happily lost in the fog, the lights, and the fire of his imaginary city. To paraphrase a quote: the world is big and Cinecittà is even bigger. These capsules show us how its dream hasn’t aged over these past 80 years.

80 years of Cinecittà

1) In studio 8 at Cinecittà, Ildebrando Pizzetti records a chorus for Scipio the African (Scipione l’Africano) by C. Gallone (1937)

2) Benito Mussolini inaugurates the new city of cinema:  Cinecittà (1937)

3) Movie makeup lessons at Cinecittà (1938)

4) The Seige of the Alcazar (L’assedio dell’Alcazar, 1940) comes back to life in the film by Augusto Genina

5) In studio 7, The Iron Crown (La corona di ferro, 1940), by Alessandro Blasetti and starring Gino Cervi, is being shot  

6) The city of cinema is transformed into a refugee camp. Studio 5, organized as a dormitory (1943-47)

7) Anna Magnani’s first takes in Bellissima (1951) by Luchino Visconti

8) The director Carmine Gallone on the set of his final film, The Affairs of Messalina (Messalina, 1951)

9) Anna Magnani directed by Jean Renoir in the film The Golden Coach (La carrozza d'oro, 1952)

10) The legendary Sins of Rome (Spartaco, 1953) by Riccardo Freda is being shot

11) On the sets of Cinecittà: Lualdi and Interlenghi in Non c’è amore più grande, Dapporto and Delia Scala in Giove in doppiopetto, and Kerima and Gian Gaspare Napolitano in the film Tam Tam Majunba (1955)

12) Kim Novak arrives on the set of The Awakening (Suor Letizia, 1956) by Mario Camerini, starring Anna Magnani

13) Big sets and staging for the blockbuster Ben-Hur directed by William Wyler (1959)

14) Anita Ekberg stars in the film Sign of the Gladiator (Nel segno di Roma, 1958) by Guido Brignone

15) Totò vs. Maciste (Totò contro Maciste, 1962), the new movie by Fernando Cerchio

16) In the Cinecittà swimming pool, the whale is launched for the TV movie The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio, 1972) by Luigi Comencini, starring Nino Manfredi and Gina Lollobrigida

17) Federico Fellini and Cinecittà: Fellini’s Casanova (Casanova, 1976), and And  the Ship Sails On (E la nave va, 1983) 

18) On the set of the film The Last Emperor (L’ultimo imperatore, 1987) by Bernardo