The Good News: American Filmmakers have discovered Cinecittà
The Bad News: Italian Filmakers being pushed aside.
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Thanks to Ben Lawton
AN  AMERICAN SEQUEL TO CINECITTA'S DOLCE VITA
New York Times
By Jason Horowitz
June 25, 2003

ROME,  — It has been nearly 10 years since Cinecittà Studios here held a wake for its favorite director, Federico Fellini. A somber and surreal occasion, with an honor guard standing between a wooden coffin and a cloud-spotted blue screen, it seemed to suggest an eternal bond between Fellini and the cinematic world he forged here.

But the ceremony also seemed to mark the passing of the remnants of that studio's glory days, its dolce vita years, the 50's and 60's, when Fellini and directors like Luchino Visconti made Italian cinema and the studio where they created it matter. They were followed by decades of forgettable movies and personalities.

Then in 1997, four years after Fellini's death, the government, which had controlling interest, turned over most of the failing studio to private companies, led by Diego Della Valle, who runs J. P. Tod's, the Italian shoe company, and who owns about a quarter of the studio. Since then, companies have invested about $25 million in Cinecittà (pronounced chee-nay-chee-TAH), or Cinema City, making it a bustling cinema capital again. Fueling this resurgence are Americans moviemakers, bringing creative energy and money.

An unfurled American flag adorns part of the set that studio officials call Broadway, built for Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," the filming of which dominated the studio for eight months in 2001. That major artery leads to the film's drained New York Harbor, which will soon be refilled with water, and trained dolphins, for Wes Anderson's next film, an adventure about a Jacques Cousteau-type character, to be filmed in September.

Nearby stand Mel Gibson's gates of Jerusalem for "The Passion," his elliptic film in Latin and Aramaic, without subtitles, about the last hours in Jesus' life.

"Cinecittà has grown up," said Luigi Abete, the studio's president, who is more Wall Street than Sunset Strip. He lamented that the studio, built in 1937 by Mussolini as a propaganda instrument, is too often seen as a relic, fettered to Fellini and his peers: "It should be seen as a current place, full of people who will be in the cinema tomorrow, not decades ago. Now the most important are the Americans."

Many American productions have used the studio recently, and not just Italian-themed films like "Under the Tuscan Sun," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "My House in Umbria," but also "Exorcist: The Beginning." Even "Angels in America" and "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" used the studio's equipment when they came to shoot on location in Italy.

To attract American productions, the studio established an international marketing department two years ago, and this year opened offices in New York and Los Angeles to entice productions interested in leaving the United States to cut costs. Marketing officials here contend that Cinecittà is 30 percent cheaper than other major studios, because of special set construction machinery, smaller salaries and rents dwarfed by the prices at British and American studios.

"If people are willing to leave, hell, the food is a lot better here," said Carole Andrè-Smith, director of international marketing for the studio, comparing dinners in Rome with their British and Eastern European counterparts. She emphasizes more bang for the buck, movie mythology and experienced artisans.

"You have enough crews to shoot nine major films like 'Gangs of New York' at the same time," Ms. Andrè-Smith said. "They've also been working here since `Cleopatra' and 'Ben-Hur' " — the American epics filmed here and released in 1963 and 1959, respectively. "If it's not them it's their grandchildren," she added.

But some European competitors said they had no interest in being the cheapest studio in Europe. "I don't take that as a main attraction," said Nick Smith, director of group sales and marketing for Pinewood Studios in Britain. That studio has been used by major American productions like the second "Tomb Raider" movie, coming out this year, and the "Iliad" epic, "Troy," starring Brad Pitt....

To lure international productions, British studios like Pinewood offer government tax incentives to big spenders, while Cinecittà merely supplies financial advisers to help guide producers through the maze of Italy's tax system.

Despite that, Cinecittà said its competitive prices with studios in Germany, Canada, Australia, Britain and the United States have paid off, if only modestly. Cinecittà earned about $3 million last year, but Mr. Abete says heavy investments in management, infrastructure and special-effects technology, along with plans for pay-per-view television and a Cinecittà theme park, will help it earn up to about $30 million within four years.

A major component in the revamped studio is Cinecittà Digital, which recently acquired advanced postproduction technology and is attracting the attention of small, independent American producers.

"People are just starting to realize what they have to offer," said Anne Chaisson, a producer of the independent "Roger Dodger" last year, who may try out Cinecittà for the postproduction of her next film to save money. "The word of mouth is spreading," she said.

David Bush, director of Cinecittà Digital, said the studio's technology had made enormous strides. He remembered making rudimentary effects for cheap Italian films in the 1980's, like paparazzi emerging from the sea on the backs of dolphins to snap photographs of unclad boaters.

"We're no longer underdeveloped," he said.

Cinecittà also has an on-site special-effects company, which is working on the "Exorcist" prequel; it is the first time an Italian effects company has worked on a major American production.

But the studio's resurgence does not bode well for Italian productions, which are traditionally small and risk being pushed off their turf. Mr. Abete said that Italian films must eventually find other places to shoot.

The portents are gathering against them. The studio space that played host to the 2001 presentation of Italy's version of the Oscars became the costume department for "Gangs of New York."

"International productions are naturally more important to Cinecittà," Mr. Abete said. "Unfortunately, Italian film is not as big a client."

Fellini made nearly all his movies in Stage Five, which is the largest soundstage in Europe. But one of the more memorable Italian productions to come out of it has been a commercial for bottled water. It relied heavily on nostalgia for "La Dolce Vita," the 1960 film, by using a plastic foam copy of the Trevi Fountain.

On the other hand, American productions have been busy on Stage Five, loading it with water for the submarine drama "U-571," planting olive gardens for "The Passion" and building an underground city for "Gangs of New York."

Nicoletta Andreini, an officer in Cinecittà's international marketing office, expressed excitement about what may be the yardstick of true studio success.

"We're trying to get golf carts," she said.

An American Sequel to Cinecittà's Dolce Vita
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/25/movies/25CINE.html?th