1309a

Saturday, December 27, 2003
TURIN trying to bring back 100yr old Cinematic Tradition
The ANNOTICO Report

The relationship between Turin and cinema began at the end of the 19th century with Vittorio Calcina. He was a pioneer of Italian filmmaking.

Proper Italian filming was to begin a few years later. In 1904, Arturo Ambrosio, owner of a optics and photography shop, decided to film a documentary of the Susa-Mocenisio car race, and one featuring the Alpini soldiers: These were a great novelty, the first of their genre to be seen in the country.

Cinema production in Turin began to die out with World War I. The post-war depression, plus the development of Hollywood movies and their dominant American films after World War II, helped the slow decline of Turin as a cinema fulcrum. The last studio to die out was Fert in 1973.

Turin is betting on both it's film-making history and its geographical position, more central to the rest of Europe than is Rome.

The first project was setting up of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte, intended to make filming easier by providing assistance with logistics,bureaucracy, and local suppliers, and services.

The second project was the creation of the Virtual Reality Multi Media Park, offering courses plus research and development in the latest communication technologies.
It offers courses to create a local industry of technicians to operate in the virtual reality and multi media fields and creates up-graded programs both in the world of computer games and in television and cinema production and post-production.
========================================================
Thanks to Walter Santi

TURIN HOPES TO BRING BACK ITS 100-YEAR-OLD CINEMATIC TRADITION

Piedmont once held film-making pioneers; now it's inviting them back to the studio

By Sara Carobbi
Special to Italy Daily
Saturday, December 27 2003

When a foreigner thinks of Italian films today, the names Roberto Begnini and Federico Fellini often are the first to come to mind.

Any American who has seen "Life is Beautiful" but has never been to Italy would probably think the whole country looks like Arezzo, where most of Begnini's film was set. And films such as Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" or the Hollywood production "Roman Holiday" have done wonders for the foreign image of Rome.

Rome still has the stranglehold on film-making in this country with its Cinecittà studios, where some of Benigni's films, for example, have been shot. And it even draws foreign directors: Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" was done there last year.

But 100 years ago, when the moving picture was born, Italian cinema was synonymous with the very un-Tuscan and un-Roman surroundings of Turin.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the Turin Film Festival, which each year awards prizes to young and emerging artists. It is also the second year that the Mole Antonelliana, the spired symbol of the city, has housed the cinema museum, with its great repertoire of posters and strips of unforgettable films. They are just two monuments to the city's recent effort to bring Italian movie-making back to Piedmont, where it was born some 100 years ago.

In 1994, coinciding with the centenial anniversary of cinema, the city of Turin launched the Film Commission Torino Piemonte. Since the commission started drawing producers and directors to northwestern Italy in Sept. 2000, there have been 53 films and two soap operas produced in Piedmont.

Among the most famous Italian directors to set up stage lighting there are Dario Argento, of horror-film fame, and Marco Ponti , director of last year's soccer comedy, "Santa Maradona." The movie was made entirely in Turin and was one of the most successful Italian box-office hits in 2001.

Some foreign directors have also decided to use Turin for their productions, such as British film director Peter Greenaway, who will start rolling the cameras there for a new production to begin in March 2003.

The relationship between Turin and cinema began at the end of the 19th century with Vittorio Calcina. He was a pioneer of Italian filmmaking. In 1896, Calcina recorded a few experimental documentaries by filming the King and Queen of Italy, Umberto and Margherita di Savoia. Still, these were still a little static and closer to a series of photographs than a real film.

Proper Italian filming was to begin a few years later. In 1904, Arturo Ambrosio, owner of a optics and photography shop, decided to film a documentary of the Susa-Mocenisio car race and one featuring the alpini soldiers: These were a great novelty, the first of their genre to be seen in the country.

In his 20-year career, Ambrosini produced more than 1,500 films.
In 1917, he set up one of the biggest and best studios in Europe. There were already many competing studios by then in Turin, among which the Fert (which lasted the longest) and Itaca. In 1914, the latter produced the colossal "Cabiria," which premiered in Turin but was exported worldwide. It was screened for a year in New York.

The film's director, Giovanni Pastrone, a Turin native, is credited with the invention of the tracking shot, that is, passing from far-away shots to close-ups without interruption.

Apart from its duration - two hours, a massive length of tape at the time - the stage design for "Cabiria" was also considered extraordinary. The total cost of production was the equivalent of €1 million today.

The screenplay was attributed to the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, remembered as the father of Italian Futurism, although all he did was invent the characters' names and write the stage directions. For that ,he was paid 50,000 lire in gold, but his real wish, he said, was to make a film for an intellectual audience.

In 1994 the city of Turin proposed a new project of development in multimedia, audio-visual arts and cinema. Organizers were betting on both Turin's film-making history and its geographical position, more central to the rest of Europe than is Rome.

The FIRST project was the realization of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte. This was financed by the city and the region as a state-owned business but with an independent administration.

Its main job was to make a producer's life easier. It was designed to deal with all the logistic and bureaucratic problems that producers are paid to sort out themselves. "The directors we have worked with in the past two years have complimented us for the attitude of availability in problem solving at a structural and logistic level," said Marzia Milanesi, a spokeswoman for the Commission. "It is a support structure they know they can count on."

Essentially, it eliminates the sometimes lenghty permitting process to film in a public building - in some cases, it still costs the production company to film in public buildings, in others, it doesn't - and puts the producer in touch with local film troupes, studios and suppliers to bring business to the local economy.

"Between two producers, we prefer to choose one who will use a greater number of technicians and artists who come from Turin rather than one who takes all his staff with him from home," Milanesi said.

She added, " While the material industry is in trouble, the immaterial industry is growing," perhaps a reference to Turin's largest employer, Fiat, which is in the throes of a financial crisis.

The SECOND project the city set up is the creation of the Virtual Reality Multi Media Park. Housed in the old Fert studios, the project is partly carried both by the public sector and the private, offering courses plus research and development in the latest communication technologies.

It offers courses to create a local industry of technicians to operate in the virtual reality and multi media fields and creates up-graded programs both in the world of computer games and in television and cinema production and post-production.

Turin's task is not an easy one. Italian movies have not been as popular as they would like to be, snubbed for the more spectacular Hollywood productions.

Up until October of this year and excluding Benigni's "Pinocchio" nor the two most commercial Italian films, "Merry Christmas" and "Il Principe ed il pirata," the next most-watched Italian film was at No. 26, the film "Un Viaggio Chiamato Amore" by Michele Placido.

And then Italy skips to 32nd position with "Casomai."

In 2001 the situation was better: "Ultimo Bacio" won first position at the box office (more than 13 million euro), the follow up was La Stanza del Figlio (more than 6 million euro) and then Santa Maradona (3 million euro) all made in Italy.

However, the city is positive about its future in the cinema world" The hope is that the structures that have been set up will have a natural and more and more wider development" says. Maria Bruna Pocaterra from the cinema office of the municipality of Turin. " In the sphere of production the reinforcement of a real productive and distributive industry is necessary, as well as a group of famous artists tied to the city and regional territory."

ItalyDaily - Turin hopes to brings back its 100-year-old cinematic tradition
http://www.italydaily.it/Art_e_culture/Features/2003/Cinema_TO.shtml

On December 8th, I reported that in GENOA, more than €230-million have been spent on embellishing the city and on organising 150 special events and conferences marking its status as European City of Culture 2004.

That was in addition to a little more than ten years ago, when the port of Genoa was entirely renovated by world-famous architect Renzo Piano, to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery. Expo 1992 was also hosted here that year. One of Piano's additions included "il Bigo", a surreal steel construction with a glass elevator that provides visitors with a breathtaking view of the city.

Then on December 15th, I reported that in VENICE $90 million had been spent to rebuild it's beloved and revered La Fenice Opera House, which just reopened.
Venice of course is still struggling with a solution to the surging tides and sinking city.