1860 (1934)

Director: Alessandro Blasetti
Starring: Giuseppe Gulino, Aida Bellia, Gianfranco Giachetti, Mario Ferrari
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2007)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo)
Subtitles: English, Italian

Bonus:
* Contains both the 1998 restoration (74 minutes) and the 1951 reissue by Blasetti (69 minutes)
* 1934 alternate epilogue (1 minute)

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

A chronicle of the unification of Italy as seen through the eyes of a young partisan. While the film is sometimes (unhappily) labelled as "propaganda", Blasetti's approach can easily be considered as proto-Neorealist because of its attention on popular participation and historical process. Influenced by Eisenstein and Pabst, the style is in fact anti-rhetorical and even anti-spectacular, but also unexpectedly lyrical and touching. Perhaps, non-Italian viewers may prefer to start with the 1951 version, which has a more declared didactic aim.

Recommendations
...well, a must see.

Screenshots

Borelli Lives!

Update

Ma l'amor mio non muore! is now also available from Amazon.it.
Here you can find my review, written when the disc was still only available from Cineteca di Bologna.

Necropolis (1970)

Director: Franco Brocani
Starring: Viva, Carmelo Bene, Tina Aumont, Pierre Clementi
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2013)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: multilingual (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: English

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Underground film from the 1968 era, clearly influenced by pop art (the color scheme is very Mario Schifano-like) and Warhol's works. The film lacks any kind of storyline, being made up of monologues by such popular characters as Frankenstein's monster, King Kong, Mona Lisa and Bloody Countess Bathory, and these fragments convey an apocalyptic view of our culture, where ideology, religion and love are definitely dead. Great casting, especially for the unforgettable Viva/Bene duet.

Recommendations
...if you want to discover one of our most important underground filmmakers.

Screenshots

Parole dipinte (1940-2009)

Director: Luciano Emmer (often with Enrico Gras and Tatiana Grauding as co-directors)
Label:  Cineteca di Bologna (2010)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: Italian, English, French

Contents:
* Racconto da un affresco (1940-1946)
* Paradiso terrestre (1941-1946)
* Cantico delle creature (1943)
* Guerrieri (1943)
* Destino d'amore, ovvero, Piccolo mondo al platino (1942)
* I fratelli miracolosi (1949)
* L'invenzione della croce (1948)
* L'allegoria della primavera (1948)
* La leggenda di Sant'Orsola (1948, French version also included)
* Isole nella laguna (1948)
* Romantici a Venezia (1948, French version also included)
* Goya. La festa di Sant'Isidoro / I disastri della guerra (1950)
* Leonardo Da Vinci (1952)
* La sublime fatica (1966)
* Il dramma di Cristo narrato da Giotto (1966, French version also included)
* Incontrare Picasso (1954-2000)
* Nostalgie (2001, French version only)
* I magici colori di Napoli (2004)
* La paz y la guerra (2009)
* Le carceri di invenzione (2009)

Bonus:

* Interview with composer Roman Vlad (16 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* Scherzo su Giotto by enrico ghezzi and Luciano Emmer (5 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* Passeggiate con Luciano (12 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* 52 page Italian/French booklet

Available on Amazon.it

What are these films about?

Perhaps today Luciano Emmer is best known for a fistful of comedies shot in the '50s, but in his career he actually worked mainly in non-fictional cinema (educational shorts, spots, TV). His documentaries on art, in particular, represent his most accomplished works and are known to have inspired Alain Resnais' early films. In this wonderful 6-hour boxset Cineteca di Bologna has collected 20 shorts, ranging from Emmer's first attempts to his most recent videos. Notable appearances by Jean Cocteau (La leggenda di Sant'Orsola and Romantici a Venezia) and Picasso (Incontrare Picasso).

Recommendations
...if you want to get in touch with one of Italian greatest documentary filmmakers.

Screenshots

Racconto da un affresco, 1940-1946

Romantici a Venezia, 1948

Incontrare Picasso, 1954-2000