Editing Cinema of Italy (section)

===1890s===
[[File:Finto storpio (Italo Pacchioni, 1896).webm|thumb|thumbtime=1|left|Video of ''Il finto storpio al Castello Sforzesco'' ("The fake cripple at the [[Castello Sforzesco]]") by [[Italo Pacchioni]] (1896)]]

The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the French [[Auguste and Louis Lumière|Lumière brothers]], who made the first [[public screening]] of a film on 28 December 1895, an event considered the birth of cinema, began motion picture exhibitions.<ref name="catalogue"/><ref name="festival"/> The first Italian director is considered to be [[Vittorio Calcina]], a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who became the official photographer of the [[House of Savoy]],<ref name="civico20news">{{cite web|url=https://www.civico20news.it/sito/articolo.php?id=27219|title=31 dicembre 1847: nasce a Torino Vittorio Calcina|access-date=2 January 2022|language=it}}</ref> the [[Kingdom of Italy|Italian ruling dynasty]] from 1861 to 1946. In this role he filmed in 1896 the first Italian film, ''Sua Maestà il Re Umberto e Sua Maestà la Regina Margherita a passeggio per il parco a Monza'' ("His Majesty the [[Umberto I of Italy|King Umberto]] and Her Majesty the [[Margherita of Savoy|Queen Margherita]] strolling through the [[Monza Park]]"), believed to have been lost until it was rediscovered by the [[Cineteca Nazionale]] in 1979.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,7/articleid,1069_01_1979_0023_0008_19167695/|title=Cineteca: pericolosa polveriera per 50 anni di cinema italiano|access-date=13 January 2022|language=it}}</ref>

The Lumière brothers commenced public screenings in Italy in 1896 starting in March, in [[Rome]] and [[Milan]]; in April in [[Naples]], [[Salerno]] and [[Bari]]; in June in [[Livorno]]; in August in [[Bergamo]], [[Bologna]] and [[Ravenna]]; in October in [[Ancona]];<ref>{{cite book|first=Valerio |last=Angelini|author2=Fiorangelo Pucci|title=1896–1914 Materiali per una storia del cinema delle origini|year=1981|publisher=Studio Forma|quote=... allo stato attuale delle ricerche, la prima proiezione nelle Marche viene ospitata al Caffè Centrale di Ancona: ottobre 1896|trans-quote="... The present state of research, the first screening will be hosted in the Marches of Ancona at the Café Central: October 1896"|language=it}}{{No ISBN}}</ref> and in December in [[Turin]], [[Pescara]] and [[Reggio Calabria]].<ref name="docsity">{{cite web|url=https://www.docsity.com/it/storia-del-cinema-italiano-37/4587025/|title=Storia del cinema italiano|access-date=9 January 2022|language=it}}</ref> Not long before, in 1895, [[Filoteo Alberini]] patented his "[[kinetograph]]", a shooting and projecting device not unlike that of the Lumières brothers.<ref name=katz /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aicine.com/pubblicazioni/i_cineoperatori_vol1_2000.pdf|title=Fernaldo Di Giammatteo (1999), "Un raggio di sole si accende lo schermo", in I Cineoperatori. La storia della cinematografia italiana dal 1895 al 1940 raccontata dagli autori della fotografia (volume 1°)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929035334/http://www.aicine.com/pubblicazioni/i_cineoperatori_vol1_2000.pdf|archive-date=29 September 2013|access-date=9 January 2022|language=it}}</ref>

Italian Lumière trainees produced short films documenting everyday life and comic strips in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Before long, other pioneers made their way. [[Italo Pacchioni]], [[Arturo Ambrosio]], [[Giovanni Vitrotti]] and [[Roberto Omegna]] were also active. The success of the short films was immediate. The cinema fascinated with its ability to show distant geographic realities with unprecedented precision and, vice versa, to immortalize everyday moments. Sporting events, local events, intense road traffic, the arrival of a train, visits by famous people, but also natural disasters and calamities are filmed.

Titles of the time include, ''Arrivo del treno alla Stazione di Milano'' ("Arrival of the train at Milan station") (1896), ''La battaglia di neve'' ("The snow battle") (1896), ''La gabbia dei matti'' ("The madmen's cage") (1896), ''Ballo in famiglia'' ("Family dance") (1896), ''Il finto storpio al Castello Sforzesco'' ("The fake cripple at the [[Castello Sforzesco]]") (1896) and ''La Fiera di Porta Genova'' ("The fair of [[Porta Genova]]") (1898), all shot by [[Italo Pacchioni]], who was also the inventor of a [[Movie camera|camera]] and [[Movie projector|projector]], inspired by the [[cinematograph]] of Lumière brothers, kept at the [[Cineteca Italiana]] in Milan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sempreinpenombra.com/2009/09/25/italo-pacchioni-alle-giornate-del-cinema-muto-2009/|title=Italo Pacchioni alle Giornate del Cinema Muto 2009|date=25 September 2009|access-date=21 January 2016|language=it}}</ref>

If the interest of the masses were enthusiastic, the technological novelty would likely be snubbed, at least at the beginning, by intellectuals and the press.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/critica-cinematografica_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/|title=CRITICA CINEMATOGRAFICA|access-date=5 January 2022|language=it}}</ref> Despite initial doubt, in just two years, cinema climbs the hierarchy of society, intriguing the wealthier classes. On 28 January 1897, prince [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel]] and princess [[Elena of Montenegro]] attended a screening organized by Vittorio Calcina, in a room of the [[Pitti Palace]] in [[Florence]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Gian Piero |last=Brunetta|title=Guida alla storia del cinema italiano. 1905–2003|publisher=Einaudi|year=2003|page=425|isbn=978-8806164850|language=it}}</ref> Interested in experimenting with the new medium, they were filmed in ''S.A.R. il Principe di Napoli e la Principessa Elena visitano il battistero di S. Giovanni a Firenze '' ("Their real heights the Prince of Naples and Princess Elena visit the [[Florence Baptistery|baptistery of Saint John]] in Florence") and on the day of their wedding in ''Dimostrazione popolare alle LL. AA. i Principi sposi (al Pantheon – Roma)'' ("Popular demonstration at the their heights the princes spouses (at the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] – Rome)").<ref>{{cite book|first=Elisabetta |last=Bruscolini|title=Roma nel cinema tra realtà e finzione|publisher=Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema|year=2003|page=18|isbn=978-8831776820|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.torinocittadelcinema.it/schedafilm.php?film_id=14&stile=large|title=Riprese degli operatori Lumière a Torino – Enciclopedia del cinema in Piemonte|access-date=5 January 2022|language=it}}</ref>