Film Archives

The Museum’s film collection, a rare and precious heritage, started in 1942 when Maria Adriana Prolo bought the first film for 30 liras. Today it has more than 30,000 films, representative of the most diverse eras and filmographies, from Giovanni Pastrone to Werner Herzog; a collection that continues to grow through acquisitions, donations and trusts. The core of the collection is made up by the oldest copies on a nitrate base and collection of silent films - a testimonial of Turin cinema from the early twentieth century when Turin was one of the main production centres of Italian cinema – is of an extraordinary historical value. The film archive is involved in restoration activities, also in collaboration with other Italian and international film archives. Among the most significant initiatives, we can mention the extraordinary intervention on Cabiria - with the parallel recovery of the 1914 version and a sound re-edition from 1931 - which enabled a distribution of the film worldwide.  Since 1953, the Museum is a member of FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film).

 

Services

The Film Archive provides preserved materials for consultation and loan and provides advice for historical, archival and cultural planning research. 

Consultation of materials

Consultation methods include viewing materials in equipped areas of the Film Archive and taking items out on loan. The consultation of slow motion films is available in the Film library (via Sospello 195 / A) and is offered to students and researchers, accompanied by a cover letter signed by the teacher or the person in charge at their institution.

Conditions and Fees

DVDs and VHS tapes can be viewed in the  Library/Mediatheque

Loan of materials

The Museum requires some specific guarantees of protection (legal, technical and transport guarantees) and preservation of films that are loaned. In the case of materials on film, the loan is secured to the archives of FIAF members. The loan is subject to the acceptance of the conditions outlined in the document below.

Film loan form

Conditions and fee

Contacts

Film Archive
tel.  +39 011.8138.580
mail: cineteca@museocinema.it