project promoted by
movies screened in 35 mm film
Following the wake of our dazzling Cine70 and Cine60 retrospectives, our journey through the decades into the world of the Italian cinema continues with the masterpieces of the 1950s. We enjoy walking backwards like shrimps because it helps us to delve down and to get our roots into perspective, discovering for example that today's desolation bears a close resemblance to the images of postwar destruction: now, as then, we need to rebuild. And if we are guided in our task by the greatest masters in the history of the cinema, the experience becomes enlightening. It was in these years that Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Rossellini, De Sica and Germi fine-tuned their talent for expression and transfigured the language of the cinema the world over. Encapsulating and transcending the Neo-Realist revolution, their genius opened up the screen to subjective reality, defining the individual crises and contradictions of a rapidly developing society. One masterpiece after another, the cinema of the 'fifties marked the turning-point of modernity. But at the same time, after the wretched poverty of the postwar era, the Italian people rediscovered a new sense of self-confidence and the will to enjoy themselves. This was the season that witnessed the birth of comedy Italian style, with such brilliant directors as Monicelli, Steno, Risi and Comencini supported by such giants as Totò and Alberto Sordi, transformed into prototypes of the country's collective identity. We have set Sunday afternoons aside for these irresistible funnies, with the Palazzo delle Esposizioni's theatre seats taking the place of the armchairs and sofas in the sitting room at home where the whole family would gather together to join in the laughter and the mirth in those far-off days.
Info
Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Sala Cinema
scalinata di via Milano 9 a, Roma
Admission free while places last
Seats assigned from one hour before the start of each screening. Reservations may be made by membership card holders only. There will be no further admission once the show has started.