Editing Cinema of Italy (section)

===1930s===
[[File:Dria paola e mercedes brignone.png|thumb|''[[The Song of Love (1930 film)|The Song of Love]]'' by [[Gennaro Righelli]] (1930), the first Italian [[sound film|talking picture]]]] 
The sound cinema arrived in Italy in 1930, three years after the release of ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'' (1927), and immediately led to a debate on the validity of spoken cinema and its relationship with the theatre. Some directors enthusiastically face the new challenge. The advent of talkies led to stricter censorship by the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist government]].<ref name=katz />

The first Italian [[sound film|talking picture]] was ''[[The Song of Love (1930 film)|The Song of Love]]'' (1930) by [[Gennaro Righelli]], which was a great success with the public. [[Alessandro Blasetti]] also experimented with the use of an optical track for sound in the film ''[[Resurrection (1931 Italian film)|Resurrection]]'' (1931), shot before ''The Song of Love'' but released a few months later.<ref name=Gori20>{{cite book|first=Gianfranco|last=Gori|title=Alessandro Blasetti|publisher=La Nuova Italia|year=1984|page=20|language=it}}{{No ISBN}}</ref> Similar to Righelli's film is ''[[What Scoundrels Men Are!]]'' (1932) by [[Mario Camerini]], which has the merit of making [[Vittorio De Sica]] debut on the screens. Historical films such as Blasetti's ''[[1860 (film)|1860]]'' (1934) and [[Carmine Gallone]]'s ''[[Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal]]'' (1937) were also popular during this period.<ref name=katz />

With the transition to sound cinema, most of the Italian silent film actors, still linked to theatrical stylization, find themselves disqualified. The era of divas, dandies and strongmen, who barely survived the 1920s, is definitely over. Even if some performers will move on to directing or producing, the arrival of sound favours the generational change and the consequent modernization of the structures.

Italian-born director [[Frank Capra]] received three [[Academy Award for Best Director|Academy Awards for Best Director]] for the films ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934, the first Big Five winner at the Academy Awards), ''[[Mr. Deeds Goes to Town]]'' (1936) and ''[[You Can't Take It with You (film)|You Can't Take It with You]]'' (1938).

In 1932, the [[Venice Film Festival]], the world's oldest film festival and one of the "[[Film festival#Notable festivals|Big Three]]" film festivals, alongside the [[Cannes Film Festival]] and the [[Berlin International Film Festival]],<ref name=VeniceFilmFest>{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-unveils-lineup-720770 |title=Venice: David Gordon Green's 'Manglehorn,' Abel Ferrara's 'Pasolini' in Competition Lineup |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |last=Anderson |first=Ariston|date=24 July 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160218220740/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-unveils-lineup-720770 |archive-date=18 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IMujCwAAQBAJ&q=Big+three+film+festivals&pg=PA54|title = Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice|isbn = 9781317267218|last1 = Valck|first1 = Marijke de|last2 = Kredell|first2 = Brendan|last3 = Loist|first3 = Skadi|date = 26 February 2016| publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url= https://time.com/3291348/addio-lido-last-postcards-from-the-venice-film-festival/|title=Addio, Lido: Last Postcards from the Venice Film Festival|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]| access-date = 9 September 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=8 September 2007|title=50 unmissable film festivals|url=https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/50-unmissable-film-festivals-1117971644/|access-date=23 June 2020|website=Variety|language=en}}</ref> was established.

====Cinecittà (1930s–present)====
{{main|Cinecittà}}
[[File:Ingressostorico cinecitta.jpg|thumb|Entrance to the [[Cinecittà]] in Rome, the largest film studio in [[Europe]]<ref name="ciakmagazine"/>]]

In 1934, the Italian government created the General Directorate for Cinema (''Direzione Generale per le Cinematografia''), and appointed [[Luigi Freddi]] its director. With the approval of [[Benito Mussolini]], this directorate called for the establishment of a town southeast of Rome devoted exclusively to cinema, dubbed the [[Cinecittà]] ("Cinema City"), under the slogan "''Il cinema è l'arma più forte''" ("Cinema is the most powerful weapon").<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/google-doodle/10792398/Cinecitta-studios-Google-Doodle-celebrates-77th-anniversary.html |title = Cinecittà studios: Google Doodle celebrates 77th anniversary|date = 2014-04-28|last1 = Kinder|first1 = Lucy}}</ref> The studios were constructed during the [[Fascist era]] as part of a plan to revive the Italian film industry, which had reached its low point in 1931.<ref name="Ricci2008">{{cite book|last=Ricci|first=Steven|title=Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922–1943|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tuq7FNacGvgC&pg=PA66|date=1 February 2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94128-1|pages=68–69–}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Re-viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema, 1922-1943|last=Garofalo|first=Piero|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2002|editor-last=Reich|editor-first=Jacqueline|location=Bloomington|pages=223–249|chapter=Seeing Red: The Soviet Influence on Italian Cinema in the Thirties|editor-last2=Garofalo|editor-first2=Piero|isbn=978-0253215185}}</ref>

Mussolini himself inaugurated the studios on 21 April 1937.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PiTBFMc7tp4C|publisher = Continuum|date = 2001|isbn = 9780826412478|language = en|first = Peter E.|last = Bondanella|page = 13}}</ref> Post-production units and sets were constructed and heavily used initially. Early films such as ''[[Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal|Scipio Africanus]]'' (1937) and ''[[The Iron Crown]]'' (1941) showcased the technological advancement of the studios. Seven thousand people were involved in the filming of the battle scene from ''Scipio Africanus'', and live elephants were brought in as a part of the re-enactment of the [[Battle of Zama]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bondanella|first=Peter|title=Italian Cinema From Neorealism to the Present|publisher=The Continuum Publishing Company|year=1995|page=19|isbn=978-0826404268}}</ref>

The Cinecittà provided everything necessary for filmmaking: theatres, technical services, and even a cinematography school, the [[Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia]], for younger apprentices. The Cinecittà studios were Europe's most advanced production facilities and greatly boosted the technical quality of Italian films.<ref name=katz /> Many films are still shot entirely in Cinecittà. Benito Mussolini founded Cinecittà studio also for the production of [[Propaganda in Fascist Italy|Fascist propaganda]] until [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/italians/resources/Amiciprize/1996/mussolini.html |title=The Cinema Under Mussolini |publisher=Ccat.sas.upenn.edu |access-date=30 October 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731200507/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/italians/resources/Amiciprize/1996/mussolini.html |archive-date=31 July 2010}}</ref>

During this period, Mussolini's son, [[Vittorio Mussolini|Vittorio]], created a national production company and organized the work of noted authors, directors and actors (including even some political opponents), thereby creating an interesting communication network among them, which produced several noted friendships and stimulated cultural interaction.

With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is still the largest film studio in [[Europe]],<ref name="ciakmagazine">{{cite web|url=https://www.ciakmagazine.it/news/cinecitta-ce-laccordo-per-espandere-gli-studios-italiani/|title=Cinecittà, c'è l'accordo per espandere gli Studios italiani|date=30 December 2021 |access-date=10 September 2022|language=it}}</ref> and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. Filmmakers such as [[Federico Fellini]], [[Roberto Rossellini]], [[Luchino Visconti]], [[Sergio Leone]], [[Bernardo Bertolucci]], [[Francis Ford Coppola]], [[Martin Scorsese]], and [[Mel Gibson]] have worked at Cinecittà. More than 3,000 movies have been filmed there, of which 90 received an [[Academy Award]] nomination and 47 of these won it.<ref>[https://sites.google.com/site/enciclopediadelcinemaitaliano/home/13-i-film-girati-a-cinecitta Enciclopedia del cinema italiano "i Film girati a Cinecitta' dal 1937 al 1978"]</ref>

====Telefoni Bianchi (1930s–1940s)====
{{main|Telefoni Bianchi}}
[[File:Grandimagazzini-1939-Noris-DeSica.png|thumb|left|''[[Department Store (1939 film)|Department Store]]'' by [[Mario Camerini]] (1939)]]

During the 1930s, light comedies known as [[Telefoni Bianchi]] ("white telephones") were predominant in Italian cinema.<ref name=katz /> These films, which featured lavish set designs, promoted conservative values and respect for authority, and thus typically avoided the scrutiny of government censors. Telefoni Bianchi proved to be the testing ground of numerous screenwriters destined to impose themselves in the following decades (including [[Cesare Zavattini]] and [[Sergio Amidei]]), and above all of numerous set designers such as [[Guido Fiorini]], [[Gino Carlo Sensani]] and [[Antonio Valente]], who, by virtue, successful graphic inventions led these productions to become a kind of "summa" of the petty-bourgeois aesthetics of the time.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=III|page=356| title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero|last=Brunetta|title=Cent'anni di cinema italiano|year=1991|publisher=Laterza|pages=251–257|language=it|isbn=978-8842046899}}</ref>

The first film of the genre Telefoni Bianchi was ''[[The Private Secretary (1931 Italian film)|The Private Secretary]]'' (1931), by [[Goffredo Alessandrini]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/elsa-merlini_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/|title=MERLINI, Elsa|access-date=16 November 2022|language=it}}</ref> Among the authors, [[Mario Camerini]] is the most representative director of the genre. After having practiced the most diverse trends in the 1930s, he happily moved into the territory of sentimental comedy with ''[[What Scoundrels Men Are!]]'' (1932), ''[[Il signor Max]]'' (1937) and ''[[Department Store (1939 film)|Department Store]]'' (1939). In other films, he compares himself with the Hollywood-style comedy on the model of [[Frank Capra]] (''[[Heartbeat (1939 film)|Heartbeat]]'', 1939) and the surreal one of [[René Clair]] (''[[I'll Give a Million (1935 film)|I'll Give a Million]]'', 1936). Camerini is interested in the figure of the typical and popular Italian, so much so that he anticipates some elements of the future Italian comedy.<ref>{{cite book|first=Alberto|last=Farassino|title=Mario Camerini|publisher=Editions du Festival International du Film de Locarno|year=1992|language=fr}}{{No ISBN}}</ref> His major interpreter, [[Vittorio De Sica]], will continue his lesson in ''[[Maddalena, Zero for Conduct]]'' (1940) and ''[[Teresa Venerdì]]'' (1941), emphasizing above all the direction of the actors and the care for the settings.

Other directors include [[Mario Mattoli]] (''[[Schoolgirl Diary]]'', 1941), [[Jean de Limur]] (''Apparition'', 1944) and [[Max Neufeld]] (''[[The House of Shame (1938 film)|The House of Shame]]'', 1938; ''[[A Thousand Lire a Month]]'', 1939). The realist comedies of [[Mario Bonnard]] (''[[Before the Postman]]'', 1942; ''[[The Peddler and the Lady]]'', 1943) are partially different in character, which partially deviate from the imprint of Telefoni Bianchi.

====Fascist propaganda (1930s–1940s)====
{{see also|Propaganda in Fascist Italy}}
[[File:Vecchia guardia 1934.png|thumb|''[[The Old Guard (1934 film)|The Old Guard]]'' by [[Alessandro Blasetti]] (1934)]]
In the [[Propaganda in Fascist Italy|fascist propaganda cinema]], at the beginning, the representations of the squads and the first fascist actions were rare. ''[[The Old Guard (1934 film)|The Old Guard]]'' (1934), by [[Alessandro Blasetti]] evokes the supposed vitalistic spontaneity of squads with populist tones, but is not appreciated by official critics.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero|last=Brunetta|title=Cent'anni di cinema italiano|year=1991|publisher=Laterza|page=194|language=it|isbn=978-8842046899}}</ref> ''[[Black Shirt (film)|Black Shirt]]'' (1933), by [[Giovacchino Forzano]], made for the 10th anniversary of the [[March on Rome]], celebrated the regime's policies (the reclamation of the Pontine marshes and the construction of [[Latina, Lazio|Littoria]]) alternating narrative sequences with documentary passages.

With political consolidation, the government authority required the film industry to strengthen the regime's identification with the country's history and culture. Hence the intention to reread Italian history in an authoritarian perspective, teleologically reducing every past event to a harbinger of the "fascist revolution", in continuity with the historiographical work of [[Gioacchino Volpe]]. After the first attempts in this direction, aimed above all at underlining the alleged link between the [[Risorgimento]] and [[Italian fascism|Fascism]] (''[[Villafranca (film)|Villafranca]]'' by Forzano, 1933; ''[[1860 (film)|1860]]'' by Blasetti, 1933), the trend reached its peak just before the war. ''[[Cavalry (1936 Italian film)|Cavalry]]'' (1936), by [[Goffredo Alessandrini]], evokes the nobility of the Savoy fighters by presenting their deeds as anticipations of squads. ''[[Condottieri (film)|Condottieri]]'' (1937) by [[Luis Trenker]], tells the story of [[Giovanni delle Bande Nere]], explicitly establishing a parallel with [[Benito Mussolini]], while ''[[Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal]]'' (1937) by [[Carmine Gallone]] (one of the greatest financial efforts of the time), it celebrates the [[Roman Empire]] and indirectly the [[Italian Empire|Fascist Empire]].<ref name=Brunetta352>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=III|pages=352–355|title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref>

The [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|invasion of Ethiopia]] gives Italian directors the opportunity to extend the horizons of the settings.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Gian Piero|last1=Brunetta|first2=Jean|last2=Gili|title=L'ora d'Africa del cinema italiano, 1911-1989|publisher=Materiali di Lavoro|year=2000|language=it}}{{No ISBN}}</ref> ''[[The Great Appeal]]'' (1936) by [[Mario Camerini]], exalts imperialism by describing the "new land" as an opportunity for work and redemption, contrasting the heroism of young soldiers with bourgeois fearlessness. The anti-pacifist controversy that accompanies colonial enterprises is also evident in ''[[Lo squadrone bianco]]'' (1936) by [[Augusto Genina]], which combines propaganda rhetoric with notable battle sequences shot in the [[Italian Tripolitania]] desert. Most of the films celebrating the empire are predominantly documentaries, aimed at disguising the war as a struggle of civilization against barbarism. The [[Spanish Civil War]] is described in the documentaries ''Los novios de la muerte'' (1936) by [[Romolo Marcellini]] and ''Arriba España, España una, grande, libre!'' (1939) by [[Giorgio Ferroni]], and is the backdrop for another dozen films, among which the most spectacular is ''[[The Siege of the Alcazar]]'' (1940) by [[Augusto Genina]].<ref name=Brunetta352/>
[[File:Quellimontagna43 cordata.jpg|thumb|''[[Men of the Mountain]]'' by [[Aldo Vergano]] (1943)]]

Films such as ''[[Pietro Micca (film)|Pietro Micca]]'' (1938) by [[Aldo Vergano]], ''[[Ettore Fieramosca (1938 film)|Ettore Fieramosca]]'' (1938), made in the same year by [[Alessandro Blasetti]], and ''Fanfulla da Lodi'' (1940) by [[Giulio Antamoro]] can also be counted as propaganda films (albeit indirect), in which, a pretext for the epic narration of historical events, a clear apology for dedication to the homeland (in some cases even to the point of personal sacrifice) is made in the same vein as colonial films with a contemporary setting.

With [[Military history of Italy during World War II|Italy's participation in World War II]], the fascist regime further strengthens its control over production and requires a more decisive commitment to propaganda. In addition to the now canonical documentaries, short films and newsreels, there is also an increase in feature films in praise of Italian war enterprises. Among the most representative we find ''[[Bengasi (film)|Bengasi]]'' (1942) by Genina, ''Gente dell'aria'' (1943) by [[Esodo Pratelli]], ''[[The Three Pilots]]'' (1942) by [[Mario Mattoli]] (based on a screenplay by [[Vittorio Mussolini]]), ''Il treno crociato'' (1943) by [[Carlo Campogalliani]], ''[[Harlem (film)|Harlem]]'' (1943) by [[Carmine Gallone]] and ''[[Men of the Mountain]]'' (1943) by [[Aldo Vergano]] under the supervision of Blasetti. ''Uomini sul fondo'' (1941) by [[Francesco De Robertis]] is also notable due to its almost documentary approach.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=III|pages=354|title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref>

The most successful film of the period is ''[[We the Living (film)|We the Living]]'' (1942) by [[Goffredo Alessandrini]], made as a single film, but then distributed in two parts due to its excessive length. Referable to the genre of anti-communist drama, this sombre melodrama (set in the [[Soviet Union]]) is inspired by [[We the Living|the novel of the same name]] by the writer [[Ayn Rand]] which exalts the most radical philosophical individualism. Precisely because of this generic criticism of authoritarianism, the diptych could be interpreted as a mild accusation against the fascist regime.<ref name=Brunetta355>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=III|page=355|title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref>

Among the directors who give their contribution to the war propaganda, there is also [[Roberto Rossellini]], author of a trilogy composed of ''[[The White Ship (1941 film)|The White Ship]]'' (1941), ''[[A Pilot Returns]]'' (1942) and ''[[The Man with a Cross]]'' (1943). Anticipating in some ways his works of maturity, the director adopted a modest and immediate style, which does not contrast the effectiveness of the propaganda but neither does it exalt the dominant war rhetoric; it was the same anti-spectacular approach to which he remained faithful throughout his life.<ref name=Brunetta355/>