Italian Cinema under Fascism

  • Mario Camerini – Il signor Max AKA Mister Max (1937)

    1931-1940ComedyItalian Cinema under FascismItalyMario CameriniRomance

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    Synopsis:
    Vittorio De Sica, heir to a large sum of money and owner of a newspaper vending stall, makes enough money out of his business to take a vacation at a fashionable resort. He is given a cruise ticket by an aristocrat who is an old school friend, and is mistaken for the aristocrat when he uses a camera that has his friends name on it. Assia Noris plays a maid who falls in love with him because of who he is and not who others think he is.

    Remade as Il Conte Max with Alberto Sordi in the De Sica role and the latter as the uncle.Read More »

  • Giuseppe Amato & Vittorio De Sica – Rose scarlatte AKA Scarlet roses (1940)

    1931-1940ComedyGiuseppe AmatoItalian Cinema under FascismItalyRomanceVittorio De Sica

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    SYNOPSIS
    Respectable bourgeois wife (Renee Saint-Cyr) turns out a mysterious bunch of scarlet roses and yields to temptation of adultery. Vittorio de Sica’s director debut (with supervision by Giuseppe Amato); light but already a little bitter comedy based on skillful Aldo de Benedetti’s stage hit. Naturally, superstar De Sica playing the main role himself – and is on the top of his charm here.
    Sadly, there is only Spanish theatrical release (from that time), with Spanish dubbing and titles.Read More »

  • Mario Camerini – I grandi magazzini aka Department Store (1939)

    Italy1931-1940ComedyItalian Cinema under FascismMario CameriniRomance

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    Romance between a saleswoman and a driver of the Department Store. Charged with a petty theft, she is blackmailed by the chief of staff to enjoy her favors, but the driver, after doubting her, discovers the real culprits.Read More »

  • Mario Camerini – Il Cappello a tre punte aka Three Cornered Hat (1934)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyItalian Cinema under FascismItalyMario Camerini

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    Synopsis:

    Also known as Three-Cornered Hat, this Italian comedy is based on a Spanish folk tale, which had previously been adapted as a ballet by Manuel de Filla. Director Mario Camerini and his team of screenwriters have refashioned the material as a vehicle for the popular De Filipo brothers, Peppino and Eduardo. The story is a mistaken-identity affair, predicated on the fact that a pompous governor is the exact look-alike of a poor miller. Much of the fun is derived from the efforts to pass off the miller’s homely wife as the governor’s gorgeous spouse. Described by one Mario Camerini devotee as “pretty, noisy and accomplished,” ‘Il Cappell a Tre Punte’ was filmed in 1934, and released in the U.S. two years later.Read More »

  • Roberto Rossellini – La vispa Teresa (1939)

    1931-1940ArthouseFantasyItalian Cinema under FascismItalyRoberto Rossellini

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    Quote:
    Scalera had obtained backing for a series of animal shorts and needed someone to make them. Roberto plunged in enthusiastically. He arrived at Ladispoli with animals of all sorts distributed among pockets and cages and started sixteen documentaries, no less, all at once. A slew of titles were annouced. La foresta silenziosa (“The quiet forest”), Primavera (“Spring”), Re Travicello, and La merca; and perhaps ll brutto idraulico (“The ugly plumber”). Fellini recalls finding Roberto at Scalera kneeling under small reflectors. “Inside a small enclosure made of nets and rope were a turtle, two mice, and three or four roaches. He was shooting a documentary about insects [La vispa Teresa?], doing one frame a day, very complex and laborious, with great patience.”
    “He kept shooting for months,” Fellini adds, probably with his customary exaggeration. For in fact Roberto’s enthusiasm flagged quickly.Read More »

  • Alessandro Blasetti – Resurrectio (1931)

    1931-1940Alessandro BlasettiClassicsComedyItalian Cinema under FascismItaly

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    PLOT SYNOPSIS:
    Desperate because abandoned by his lover (V. Alexandrescu), orchestra conductor hesitates: to kill himself, or kill her? He simply shoots the portrait of the lover and returns to conducting, helped in his “resurrection”, by a cute girl (L. Franca), who restores his will to live.
    Second film by Blasetti, after the silent “Sun” (1929), and the only one for which he signs the script himself. Produced by Cines, it is the first Italian sound film but, deemed not commercial enough, was released after La canzone dell’amore (1930) by Righelli.
    It is interesting at stylistic level, for the ambitious mixage of dialogs, music (Amedeo Escobar) and noises in parallel with experimental visual inventions.Read More »

  • Vittorio De Sica – Maddalena, zero in condotta AKA Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyItalian Cinema under FascismItalyVittorio De Sica

    Miss Elisa teaches commercial correspondence in a girls’ school, where, customarily, all the letters are sent to a certain Mr. Hartmann of Vienna, who actually does not exist, at an address just as non-existent. But Elisa is a true romantic, and she entrusts her dreams to the letters she writes to the phantasmal Hartman. And one of them is found by Maddalena Lenci, whose girlfriend, thinking to do well, mails it. But Carlo Hartman, who really exists at this address and so receives the letter, leaves for Rome to meet this Elisa…
    But in Rome there is also his cousin, who falls for Maddalena mistaking her for Elisa…Read More »

  • Alessandro Blasetti – 4 passi fra le nuvole AKA Four Steps in the Clouds (1942)

    1941-1950Alessandro BlasettiClassicsDramaItalian Cinema under FascismItaly

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    Quote:
    Originally released in 1942, Four Steps in the Clouds (Quattro Passi fra le Nuvole) was a major stepping stone in the starring career of Gino Cervi. The story begins as young unwed mother-to-be Maria (Adriana Benetti) desperately casts about for a means of avoiding disgrace. Making the acquaintance of good-natured Paolo Bianchi (Cervi), Maria persuades him to pose as her husband and meet her family.

    Immediately ingratiating himself with Maria’s parents, Paolo plays his part so well that only a completely unforeseen disaster could spoil the charade. And when that disaster inevitably arrives, it is Paolo who comes to the rescue… Four Steps in the Clouds was superbly remade by Alfonso Arau in 1995 as A Walk in the Clouds, with Keanu Reeves in the Gino Cervi role Read More »

  • Max Ophüls – La signora di tutti AKA Everybody’s Woman (1934)

    1931-1940DramaItalian Cinema under FascismItalyMax Ophüls

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    Plot & review:
    From a novel by Salvator Gotta, scripted by the director with Curt Alexander and Hans Wilhelm.
    Under anesthesia, after a suicide attempt, Gaby Doriot, movie star, relives her life and her unlucky loves, sprinkled with violent deaths. The end of the commemoration coincides with that of the surgery.
    The first and only Italian film by M. Ophüls, in exile from Nazi Germany and called to Rome by Angelo Rizzoli.
    Despite the exaggerated romanticism and the vehement acting “Italian style”, it is a cooled melodrama (with veins of Pirandello) that anticipates the themes of later Ophüls’ films, especially Lola Montès (1955).
    M. Benassi heatedly over the top, and a memorable I. Miranda, poised between Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich.
    Awarded at the Venice Film Festival.
    MorandiniRead More »

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