Italian cinema
The Cinema of Italy: a brief introduction
Italian film industry began in the early 20th Century and developed several styles of its own such as Neorealism and Spaghetti Westerns to name a few.
The Italian movie-making started around 1903 and 1908 with the main organizations located in Milan, Rome, Turin, Naples. Some of the movies produced in these studios will soon be seen around the world.
In 1939, during the fascist era under Benito Mussolini, Cinecittà is born and begins large scale productions including american movies such as Ben-Hur and later on some of Federico Fellini's masterpieces.
During WWII and soon after a new genre is born and it is referred to as Neorealism with directors like Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica and actors like Anna Magnani. Most notably are Open City, Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D.
The late 1950s saw a change in the mood of movie-making and also because of the strong economic growth and post-war peace, Italians wanted to be entertained by happier and romantic movies and so the Italian comedy came to life along with Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Silvana Mangano, Claudia Cardinale, Stefania Sandrelli.
It was during this time that Totò produced many of his famous movies and he is now considered the most popular comic Italy ever had.
In the 1960s we also see new actors like Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi and Nino Manfredi.
Also in the 1960' a new genre of movies was born: The Spaghetti Western. Mostly directed by Sergio Leone this new kind of western movie became popular all over the world featuring actors like Clint Eastwood and the wonderful music of Ennio Morricone; A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly are the most famous along with Once Upon a Time in the West.
In the late 1960s and in the 1970s Dario Argento created some of the most scary movies of all times starting a now famous Horror/Thriller genre Italian style. Other directors include Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and Riccardo Freda.
The 1980s will be remembered as the years of crisis. Except for very few Art films by the Taviani brothers, Ermanno Olmi, Nanni Moretti, Bernardo Bertolucci and Federico Fellini, the rest is filled by so and so comedies and dubious films.
The 1990s saw a rebirth of the Italian cinema by directors like Giuseppe Tornatore with Cinema Paradiso, Gabriele Salvatore's Mediterraneo, Roberto Benigni winning 3 Oscars for Best Actor, Best Foreign Film, Best Music with Life is Beautiful.
More recent movies are Respiro, Facing Windows, The Best of Youth, Bread and Tulips, I'm not scared, Don't move and The son's room.
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