Fifty years of Italian cinema (1955)

44 who was then just an unknown young man, but who was soon to achieve world fame — Renato Castellani. Few film-makers have the brilliant sense of construction and rhythm in film narration as Castellani. It is just this quality which is lacking in Blasetti. He, on the other hand, is excellent and sometimes even magnificent in directing actors and crowd scenes, and is a master of settings and lighting equalled by few of his colleagues. In spite of Italy's entry into the war, film production did not lessen during 1940 — ■ Eightyone films ! Renato Poggioli, who died a few years later in an accident, began his short but brilliant career as a director with Addio, giovinezza (I^arewell to Youth), made from a tender play of Camasio and Oxilia. The scene was a university after the First World War, and the film was intepreted by four young actors under the masterly direction of Poggioli. Mario Soldati gave proof of his skill and taste in the wonderful Piccolo Mondo Antico (Little Old World). This film, taken from the novel by Fogazzaro and starring Alida Valli, again demonstrated clearly that some Italian producers were interested in raising the standards of filmmaking. Soldati had a writer worthy of the greatest respect, Emilio Cecchi, as his collaborator. He was also aided by well-trained and enthusiastic devotees of the film, such as Alberto Lattuada and Mario Bonfantini. Little Old World was somehing new in Italian cinema — it was not only a real film, but a guide for young energies which dreamed of goals to be reached. Another of 1940's films which deserves mention is La peccatrice (The Sinner), one of the last films of Amleto Palermi. Its cast included a notable group of oustanding actors, among whom were Vittorio De Sica, Gino Cervi, and Fosco Giachetti. The older film-makers, too, began to feel the need of creating more substantial works, and this effort of Palermi is proof of this attitude. He wisely gathered about him some of the finest teachers at the Experimental Center as his collaborators, thus gaining the advantages of that school which had trained young exponents of the new cinema. In the same year, Luigi Chiarini, director of the Center, made Via delle cinque lune (Five Moon Street) with students and teachers as his collaborators. 1941. The war which was supposed to be a blitzkrieg had become a war of attrition. Nevertheless, Italian production totalled eighty-nine films. Renato Castellani made his debut with the faultless and stylized Colpo di pistola (Pistol Shot). Vittorio De Sica began with Maddalena zero in condotta (Madeline, Zero for Conduct) and the unbridled Un garibaldino al convento (A Garibaldino in the Convent). And Roberto Rossellini got his career under way with Nave bianca (The White Ship) a feature-length documentary on hospital ships. This was also the year Mario Camerini happily concluded the riskiest experience of his professional life, / Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). Five outstanding films in a difficult year ; but five films which give indication that the right road had been found. Renato Castellani's Pistol Shot, based on a story by Pushkin, marked the debut of a higly trained youth who already possessed the architectural secrets of film-making and rhythmic narrative. De Sica's two films, Madeline, zero for Conduct and A Garibaldino in the Convent — fresh, spirited and entertaining comedies — showed what reserves of talent this excellent actor had on tap. Even working under another's guidance, he was able to make a direct and personal experience out of the film narrative, as he was to demonstrate even more forcefully later in his career. The White Ship, Rossellini's documentary, was reminis