Editing Cinema of Italy (section)

===1920s===
[[File:Rosè Angione as Nanninella in ‘A Santanotte (1922). ITB.jpg|thumb|right|''<nowiki>'</nowiki>A Santanotte'' by [[Elvira Notari]] (1922)]]
[[File:Sole1929 vaser+costantino+s.jpg|thumb|''[[Sun (film)|Sun]]'' by [[Alessandro Blasetti]] (1929)]]

With the end of World War I, Italian cinema went through a period of crisis due to many factors such as production disorganization, increased costs, technological backwardness, loss of foreign markets and inability to cope with international competition, in particular with that of Hollywood.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=I|page=245|title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref> The main causes included the lack of a generational change with a production still dominated by filmmakers and producers of literary training, unable to face the challenges of modernity. The first half of the 1920s marked a sharp decrease in production; from 350 films produced in 1921 to 60 in 1924.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=III|page=57|title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref>

Literature and theatre are still the preferred narrative sources. The [[Serial (literature)|feuilletons]] resist, mostly taken from classical or popular texts and directed by specialists such as [[Roberto Roberti]] and the religious blockbusters of [[Giulio Antamoro]]. On the basis of the latest generation of divas, a sentimental cinema for women spread, centred on figures on the margins of society who, instead of struggling to emancipate themselves (as happens in contemporary Hollywood cinema), go through an authentic ordeal in order to preserve their own virtue. Protest and rebellion by the female protagonists are out of the question. It is a strongly conservative cinema, tied to social rules upset by the war and in the process of dissolution throughout Europe. An exemplary case is that of ''[[A Woman's Story]]'' (1920) by [[Eugenio Perego]], which uses an original narrative construction to propose a 19th-century morality with melodramatic tones.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero|last=Brunetta|title=Cinema muto italiano|publisher=Laterza|year=2009|page=56|isbn=978-8858113837|language=it}}</ref>

A particular genre is that of a [[Verismo (literature)|realist]] setting, due to the work of the first female director of Italian cinema, [[Elvira Notari]], who directs numerous films influenced by popular theatre and taken from famous dramas, Neapolitan songs, appendix novels or inspired by facts of chronicle.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gwendolyn Audrey|last=Foster|title=Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1995|pages=282–284|isbn=978-0313289729}}</ref> Another film with a realist setting is ''[[Lost in the Dark (1914 film)|Lost in the Dark]]'' (1914) by director [[Nino Martoglio]], considered by critics as a prime example of neorealist cinema.<ref>Callisto Cosulich, ''Primo contatto con la realtà'' in ''Eco del cinema e dello spettacolo'', n.77 on 31 July 1954.</ref>

The revival of Italian cinema took place at the end of the decade with the production of larger-scale films. During this period, a group of intellectuals close to the fortnightly ''cinematografo'' led by [[Alessandro Blasetti]] launched a program that was as simple as it was ambitious. Aware of the Italian cultural backwardness, they decided to break all ties with the previous tradition through a rediscovery of the peasant world, hitherto practically absent in Italian cinema. ''[[Sun (film)|Sun]]'' (1929) by Alessandro Blasetti shows the evident influence of the Soviet and German avant-gardes in an attempt to renew Italian cinema in accordance with the interests of the fascist regime. ''[[Rails (film)|Rails]]'' (1929) by [[Mario Camerini]] blends the traditional genre of comedy with [[kammerspiel]] and realist film, revealing the director's ability to outline the characters of the middle class.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero|last=Brunetta|title=Cinema muto italiano|publisher=Laterza|year=2009|pages=59–60|isbn=978-8858113837|language=it}}</ref> While not comparable to the best results of international cinema of the period, the works of Camerini and Blasetti testify to a generational transition between Italian directors and intellectuals, and above all an emancipation from literary models and an approach to the tastes of the public.