Italian Cinema Today

Vittorio De Sica’s 1970 drama “Sunflower” (“I girasoli”) is an emotionally charged and ultimately heartbreaking meditation on the lasting effects of war. Co-written by Tonino Guerra and De Sica’s decades-long collaborator, Cesare Zavattini , the film tells a profoundly human tale that grapples with love, loss and difficult choices. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni star as Giovanna and Antonio, a young Italian couple who marry quickly during World War II in the hopes of delaying Antonio’s deployment. After only a few weeks together, Antonio is sent to the Russian front anyway. When he does not return after the war, Giovanna refuses to accept his presumed death. Her determination to uncover the truth leads her from Italy to the Soviet Union, where she traces his footsteps and discovers that her gut feeling was right. De Sica shows that war’s impact extends far beyond the battlefield. Antonio’s absence is a pain that never goes away, and Giovanna cannot make peace with it. Her des...

He may not be a household name, but he was a major force behind the rise of the neorealism movement and Italy’s Golden Age of Cinema. Screenwriter Cesare Zavattini was born in the region of Emilia-Romagna in 1902, earning a law degree before turning his attention to writing. In 1930, he moved to Milan to work at the Rizzoli publishing company. Five years later, he met Vittorio De Sica . They would go on to make 20 films together, including the neorealist classics “Sciuscià” (Shoeshine) (1946), “Ladri di biciclette” (The Bicycle Thief) (1948), “Miracolo a Milano” (Miracle in Milan) (1951) and “Umberto D.” (1952).    Zavattini worked on more than 80 films with many of the great directors of Italian cinema. Among them was Giuseppe De Santis, who collaborated with Zavattini in 1952 on “Roma 11:00.” A tragic story based on true events, the film follows several young women in post-WWII Rome as they answer a job listing for a typist. With 200 applicants waiting in line for an inter...

During a press event for the 1962 film, “Jessica,” Neapolitan-born actor Antonio Cifariello invites Angie Dickinson to get onto a Vespa. She accepts his invitation and holds onto him for dear life. (Who can blame her?) The two swerve in and out of Rome traffic as two paparazzi follow. They switch and Dickinson gets onto the driver’s seat as the two speed by the arch of Constantine where a police officer writes them a ticket. “Jessica” was directed by Jean Negulesco and Oreste Palella. It stars Dickinson along with Cifariello and Maurice Chevalier. Set in a Sicilian village, the film follows a beautiful widow as the envious locals plot her ruin. Click on the image to stream it on Amazon..   Antonio Cifariello was a prolific actor in the 1950s and ‘60s. Among his early roles is Federico Fellini's  "Agenzia Matrimoniale," a vignette in Cesare Zavattini's 1953  “L’amore in città” (Love in the City).  He tragically died in a plane crash in 1968 at th...

Antonio Cifariello in a scene from Fellini's "Agenzia Matrimoniale" “This reaction — this viewing of the film as monstrous — underlines the fear we feel when called to look at the truth.” Screenwriter and director Cesare Zavattini was truly ahead of his time. I am so fascinated with this 1953 film compilation put together by Zavattini. “L’amore in città” (Love in the City) is a collection of six short film essays directed by Zavattini, Dino Risi, Michelangelo Antonioni , Carlo Lizzani, Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada. The New York Times did a beautiful article on the collection in 2014 referring to Zavattini as “a pioneer of documentary fiction (sometimes called “hybrid cinema”), in which nonactors essentially play themselves, dramatizing their particular situations.” With the exception of Fellini’s short, in which he narrates something that happened to him but uses actors to demonstrate it, this collection is exactly this type of “hybrid cinema”… the situat...

Cesare Zavattini on the set of Vittorio De Sica's "L'oro di Napoli" The Audiovisual Archive Foundation of the Workers' and Democratic Movement (AAMOD) was established in the late 1970s. Filmmaker Cesare Zavattini oversaw operations during its first 20 years with the main goal of researching, collecting and storing historical audiovisual documents such as cinema, newsreels and multimedia. Much of the content includes documentaries and video essays covering numerous topics such as social movements, catastrophic events, post-war conditions and culture. In 1983, the archive was declared a place of “considerable historical interest” by the superintendent of the region of Lazio. Over the last decade, many clips have been uploaded to YouTube. Although most of the clips are in Italian without English subtitles, the site is worth looking through if only to see actual video of life in Italy over the last century captured by photojournalists documenting history. Go to...

Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita Watching an old movie today, Love in the City , I rediscovered the work of Arturo Zavattini. Born in 1930, Zavattini is known for his work as a photographer, cinematographer and director of photography. His father, Cesare Zavattini was one of Federico Fellini's longtime collaborators, so Arturo practically grew up on film sets. He worked as an assistant and camera operator on famous Italian films such as Il Bidone , La Dolce Vita and  Divorce Italian Style . He also worked as an ethnographic photographer, accompanying anthropologist Ernesto de Martino on his infamous expedition to Lucania in 1952, which would later inspire Luigi Di Gianni's debut documentary, Magia Lucana . Matera Being a teenager in Rome during the post-war years, Zavattini was very influenced by the neorealism film movement and that influence was always apparent during the multi-decade span of his career.  His images taken in Rome, Naples and othe...

A brand new exhibit at the Casa del Cinema in Rome tells the story of screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, a boundless creative force behind the rise of the neorealism movement. Zavattini was born in the region of Emilia-Romagna in 1902. He earned a degree in Law but instead devoted his time to writing. In 1930, he moved to Milan to work at the Rizzoli publishing company. Five years later, he met Vittorio De Sica . They would go on to make 20 films together, including the iconic neorealist films "Shoeshine" (1946), "The Bicycle Thief" (1948), "Miracle in Milan"   (1951) and "Umberto D." (1952). During his career, Zavattini made around 80 films and worked with many of the great directors of Italian cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni , Federico Fellini , Pietro Germi , Alberto Lattuada, Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Roberto Rossellini, the Taviani brothers and Luchino Visconti. The exhibit features excerpts from his writings, a documentar...