The National Cinema Museum's programmes and events for Italia 150

WE BELIEVED. The Risorgimento according to Martone

The exhibition at Mole Antonelliana

March 10 - May 15, 2011

The principal characters, locations, scenes and moments in the production of Mario Martone’s film on the complex and often dramatic events of Italy’s risorgimento movement, a film that has already won fame following the critical acclaim received at the Venice Film Festival and its even greater success among cinema audiences. This is an attempt to revisit a fascinating work which combines the complexity of historical assessment with a narrative voice of rare expressive power and the exemplary direction of the film’s actors. The 170 stills and photographs are on display at the Mole Antonelliana, supported by a catalogue which raises many issues.

CAMERA! ACTION! ITALY! Our great films

Workshop at O.G.R.

March 17 – November 20, 2011

The National Cinema Museum is organising Motore, Ciak, Italia! Il nostro grande Cinema (Camera! Action! Italy! Our great films) film workshops for schools at the OGR. The workshop involves producing a short sequence taken from Mario Monicelli’s film I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) using a proper film set.The workshop designed for families and members of the public will recreate a scene from another great Italian film, Dino Risi’s Il sorpasso, using the chroma-key technique. The footage produced can be viewed on the Comitato Italia 150 website: www.italia150.it.

Presentation of the new restored version Luchino Visconti’s "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard")

Cinema Massimo

March 24, 2011 – h. 20.30

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, we present the restoration of Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece, based on the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. The Leopard made history with its sumptuous scenes, the scathing irony of some of its dialogue and its sophisticated colours, but it owes its success to ViscontiÂ’s extraordinary ability to describe an era of change and strong political convictions, where an old-fashioned sense of nostalgia clashes with the urgent necessities of the present.

A CENTURY LATER. THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FILM COMPETITION, Universal Exposition of 1911.

The award-winning films in restored versions
Cinema Massimo
March 30, 2011 – h. 20.30
During the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy in 1911, an extraordinary World’s Fair was held in Turin. Among the most important events held at the time was a film award, which included several different categories. The winners were Luigi Maggi’s Nozze d’oro, Roberto Omegna’s La vita delle farfalle and Il tamburino sardo. A century later, the National Cinema Museum is showing these films once more, now in their restored versions, with a piano accompaniment by Stefano Maccagno, followed by a screening of extremely rare footage shot during the 1911 World’s Fair.

MAKING ITALIANS: The history of Italy in the cinema
Cinema Massimo
March 24 – November 14, 2011
Starting in April, the National Cinema Museum is organising a series of fortnightly events which will run in conjunction with the great exhibition Making Italians, held in the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR). The festival will feature 26 films that reconstruct the history of our country from the Risorgimento to the present day. A must for all those who would like to see some of the greatest masterpieces of Italian cinema again. These will often be screened in their restored versions.

THE BIRTH OF A NATION? The Risorgimento in Italian film

Cinema Massimo

May 17 – September 30, 2011

A festival that focuses on the depiction of the Risorgimento movement in Italian cinema, featuring films that told the story of the long struggle that led to the Unification of Italy. The festival, organised by Sergio Toffetti, has been prepared in partnership with Rome’s Casa del Cinema and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (The Experimental Cinematography Centre)-National Film Archive.

MAGNUM ON SET. Cinema seen by great photographers

The exhibition at Mole Antonelliana

May 26 – September 25, 2011
Reporters from the biggest photographic agency in the world often recorded the production work that went into the classics of film history. The exhibition uses 140 shots – most of which have become world famous – to take us back to the sets of great masterpieces such as Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight, Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch, Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, Orson Welles’s The Trial, John Huston’s Moby Dick, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point and many others.