Editing Cinema of Italy (section)

====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.