Editing Cinema of Italy (section)

====Calligrafismo (1940s)====
{{main|Calligrafismo}}
[[File:Tragica notte fotoscena.jpg|thumb|''[[Tragic Night]]'' by [[Mario Soldati]] (1942)]]
[[Calligrafismo]] is in sharp contrast to [[Telefoni Bianchi]]-American style comedies and is rather [[Imitation (art)|artistic]], highly [[Formalism (art)|formalistic]], [[Expressionism|expressive]] in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material,<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=III|pages=357–359| title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref> above all the pieces of Italian [[Realism (arts)|realism]] from authors like [[Corrado Alvaro]], [[Ennio Flaiano]], [[Emilio Cecchi]], [[Francesco Pasinetti]], [[Vitaliano Brancati]], [[Mario Bonfantini]] and [[Umberto Barbaro]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Andrea |last=Martini|title=La bella forma. Poggioli, i calligrafici e dintorni|publisher=Marsilio|year=1992|isbn=88-317-5774-1}}</ref>

The best-known exponent of this genre is [[Mario Soldati]], a long-time writer and director destined to establish himself with films of literary ancestry and solid formal structure. His films put at the centre of the story characters endowed with a dramatic and psychological strength foreign to both white-phone cinema and propaganda films, and found in works such as ''[[Dora Nelson (1939 film)|Dora Nelson]]'' (1939), ''[[Piccolo mondo antico (film)|Piccolo mondo antico]]'' (1941), ''[[Tragic Night]]'' (1942), ''[[Malombra (1942 film)|Malombra]]'' (1942) and ''[[In High Places (1943 film)|In High Places]]'' (1943). [[Luigi Chiarini]], already active as a critic, deepens the trend in his ''[[Sleeping Beauty (1942 film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' (1942), ''[[Street of the Five Moons]]'' (1942) and ''[[The Innkeeper]]'' (1944). The internal conflicts of the characters and the scenographic richness are also recurrent in the first films by [[Alberto Lattuada]] (''[[Giacomo the Idealist]]'', 1943) and [[Renato Castellani]] (''[[A Pistol Shot (1942 film)|A Pistol Shot]]'', 1942), dominated by a sense of moral and cultural decay that seems to anticipate the end of the war.

Another important example of a calligraphic film is the film version of ''[[The Betrothed (1941 film)|The Betrothed]]'' (1941), by [[Mario Camerini]] (very faithful in the staging of [[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|Manzoni's masterpiece]]), which due to the perceived income, became the most popular feature film between 1941 and 1942.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|publisher=Einaudi|year=2002|volume=IV|pages=670 and following| title=Storia del cinema mondiale|isbn=978-88-06-14528-6|language=it}}</ref>