I.

Introduction

Italian Cinema, historical development of the cinema in Italy. The first period of glory enjoyed by the Italian cinema was in the early 1910s when it pioneered the feature-length historical spectacular. Up to then the Italian industry had been a pale shadow of the French, borrowing from its more advanced neighbour not only ideas but also stars (Italy’s most popular early comedian, Cretinetti, was in fact a Frenchman, André Deed, who was known there as Boireau). However, with The Fall of Troy (1911), and even more with Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei (1913; The Last Days of Pompeii) and Cabiria (1914), Italian companies such as Ambrosio and Cines successfully projected an entirely new form of spectacular cinema on to the world market, including the United States. No less successful, at least for audiences at home, were melodramas starring the famous “divas” Lyda Borelli (Fior di Male, 1915) and Francesca Bertini (Assunta Spina, 1915).

World War I brought a sudden end to this brief period of glory. In 1919 a flood of imports from the United States brought the Italian industry to the verge of bankruptcy. Production dwindled throughout the 1920s and by the end of the decade only a handful of feature films was being made each year.

Matters improved in the 1930s. The coming of sound created a demand for Italian-language films, and the Fascist government, which had previously shown no interest in the cinema except as a vehicle for propaganda in newsreel and documentary, belatedly intervened to support the industry. Unlike its German counterpart, Italian Fascism did not attempt to stage-manage the cinema as a nationalistic spectacle. Although a few overtly Fascist films were made, beginning with Alessandro Blasetti’s Sole in 1929, for the most part the government contented itself with encouraging the industry to be economically self-sufficient. Massive new studios were built. Directors who had emigrated, such as Augusto Genina and Carmine Gallone, returned home, and the German-Jewish director Max Ophuls made the exquisite La Signora di Tutti in Italy in 1934. Comedies and melodramas were particularly popular, and in Mario Camerini (1935; Darò un Milione, which starred the young Vittorio De Sica) Italy produced a master of comedy to rank alongside Frank Capra or Preston Sturges.