TONINO DE BERNARDI IL CINEMA SENZA FRONTIERE

The Museo Nazionale del Cinema celebrates Turin-born avant-garde filmmaker Tonino De Bernardi with an exhibition exploring his remarkable career and influence on experimental cinema in Italy and internationally. Curated by Alberto Momo, Tonino De Bernardi. Cinema Without Borders will be hosted on the Reception Level of the Mole Antonelliana from 24 April to 9 September 2024 and may be visited free of charge during Museum opening hours.

An iconic figure in independent cinema with deep ties to the city of Turin, De Bernardi is a storyteller who has captured the essence of life through filmmaking that is free, original and never conventional.

Organised in collaboration with the Museum’s Film Archive and Cinema Massimo, the exhibition offers a comprehensive journey through De Bernardi’s creative universe. It forms part of a wide-ranging project encompassing the preservation and digitisation of his body of work, which currently comprises more than one hundred films; an exhibition; a theatrical performance; the publication of a new book; a retrospective; and a selection of subtitled works for wider distribution. Together, they celebrate sixty years of vibrant and thought-provoking cinema.

Divided into two sections, “The Home” and “The World”, or “Here and Elsewhere”, the exhibition presents two complementary aspects of De Bernardi’s cinematic vision. The first section explores the filmmaker’s more intimate side and his early career through a collection of close-ups and portraits highlighting his artistic and profoundly human sensitivity.
The second examines the journeys and experiences that shaped his cinema from a more documentary perspective, exploring his complex relationship with production companies, unrealised projects and photographs taken on set. Together, these materials reveal a clear and distinctive identity grounded in an unconstrained artistic style.
Connecting the two sections is a display of De Bernardi’s working equipment: film cameras designed for different formats, together with analogue and digital video cameras. These objects offer an insight into his filmography through the modest, material qualities of independent filmmaking and sixty years of technological development.

The exhibition is accessible to visitors with sensory disabilities through an introductory video in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and audio content in Italian and English, available via QR codes along the exhibition route.

The tribute to Tonino De Bernardi continues at 8.30 pm on 24 April at Cinema Massimo with a screening of short films offering an ideal journey through his work: Fregio (1968), Ramo secco (1984), Dalle lontane province (1986), Modi di essere. Eroine ed eroi (1988), Uccelli di terra (1992), Terra (2002) and Où en êtes-vous? (2022). A retrospective presenting the most representative works from his entire filmography will take place at Cinema Massimo from 3 to 28 May.

As part of the exhibition, L’Interminabile Illusione will be presented at 5.30 pm on 11 May 2024. Conceived by Giulietta De Bernardi, the live performance is created and performed by Tonino De Bernardi, Caterina Momo and Giulietta De Bernardi.

The project arose from the need to create a space in which three generations—an adolescent, a mature woman and an elderly man—could engage with one another. The performers are connected by family ties: a father and grandfather, a daughter and mother, and a daughter and granddaughter. The project is presented in collaboration with Unione Culturale Antonicelli.
Admission is free, but booking is compulsory. Free tickets will be available from 26 April through the Museo Nazionale del Cinema’s official ticketing platform: https://cinema.museitorino.it/

The same performance will be presented to upper-secondary schools, offering students a unique opportunity to visit the exhibition with Tonino De Bernardi. The school performances are sold out.

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue Tonino De Bernardi. Cinema Without Borders, published by Silvana Editoriale. Edited by Alberto Momo, the volume brings together the voices of many of those who played an active role in the making of De Bernardi’s films: actors, actresses, fellow filmmakers, family members, directors, scholars and people encountered by chance whose presence Tonino De Bernardi transformed through his perceptive gaze. Contributors range from Isabelle Huppert and Bernardo Bertolucci to Enrico Ghezzi, Mario Martone, Iaia Forte and Filippo Timi.

In 2023, Tonino De Bernardi donated his archive to the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, which is committed to preserving it and making it accessible to the public. During this initial restoration phase, the Film Archive launched a major programme to recover, preserve and restore works made by the filmmaker in small-gauge formats.

This extensive filmography has undergone inspection, identification and digitisation. Il bestiario, Fregio ovvero An Angel Came to Me, Donne. I Interni and A Patrizia: l’irrealtà ideale, l’oggetto d’amore are being presented in digitally restored versions.Audio restoration was carried out by Audio Innova in Padua under the supervision of Alessandro Russo. The digital restoration of Fregio ovvero An Angel Came to Me is presented with a new soundtrack created by Tonino De Bernardi and Teresa Momo.

To coincide with the exhibition, Fuori Orario, curated by Fulvio Baglivi, will devote two nights of programming on Rai 3 to Tonino De Bernardi. On Friday 26 April, the films Il quadrato: definizione di spazio (1971–1972) and Ed è così, circa, più o meno (2011) will be broadcast.

On Saturday 27 April, Rai 3 will show Serva e padrona (2003), together with five works made for RAI Piemonte between 1984 and 1985: Intorno alla casa; Zibaldino 84 – Diodata Saluzzo – pt n. 20; Zibaldino 85. Il cammino difficile, prima parte: Felice Fischetti, poeta – pt n. 20; Zibaldino 85. Il cammino difficile, seconda parte: Emilia e la libertà ho trovato il cammino difficile Emilia e la vita – pt n. 21; and Zibaldino 86. Ramo secco – pt n. 20.