Italy

Italy

By Kallan Benjamin

Though much critical attention to Italian cinema centers on select neo-realist films made towards the end of and following WWII, those films make up only a small portion of what constituted Italian cinema in the early and mid 20th century. In the 1930s, for example, Benito Mussolini’s fascist government both funded and censored domestic film production, leading to overt propaganda films as well as conservative escapist productions—called “white telephones” (telefoni bianchi) for their lavish sets featuring wealthy characters making calls to each other. Cinema (1939–1948) was published by the National Fascist Federation of Italian Industrialists, with Vittorio Mussolini, son of Benito, serving as its director. It largely focuses on Italian films, though even this nationalistic publication includes coverage of other European and American productions and stars. As the run of Cinema Illustrazione (1930–1935) included here demonstrates, films from other national industries were popular in Italy in the early 1930s; the magazine includes articles on, for example, the German Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg, the French René Clair, and countless Hollywood stars. La Critica Cinematografica (1946–1948) also features criticism and articles related to both Italian and other national cinemas. Also included in this collection are reports from the Prix Italia (1945–1956), an international radio award, and a book on the history of Italian Cinema published (in English) in 1955.