Italian film industry began in the early 20th century and developed several styles of its own such as Neorealism and Spaghetti Westerns to name a few.
The Italian movie-making started around 1903 and 1908 with the main organization located in Milan, Rome, Turin, Naples. Some of the movies produced in these studios will soon be seen around the world. In 1993, during the fascist era under Benito Mussolini, Cinecitta is born and begins large scale productions including american movies such as Ben-Hur and later on some Federico Fellini's masterpieces.
The late 1950's saw a change in the mood of movie making and also because of the strong economic growth and post war peace, Italians wanted to be entertained by happier and romantic movies and so the Italian comedy came to life.
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I just took notice that you have several blogs on italian cinema and such and it makes sense since we've been viewing so much italian artwork through montclairs program "an italian sense of place" but i like your blog and how it took a turn toward italian film. what i'm personally interested in is italian horror. it may not be known by many but italian horror has influenced all horror you see today. unfortunately it's influence can't save all horror films evidently with the lack of horror films coming out recently. however such films as the dead series and living dead which i'm sure most all are aware of are from italian horror, i'd recomment anything by either Freda, Bava, and Argento; all three of whome can be contributed to the history and development of italian horror.
"Though the U.S. horror market has dwindled to a handful of remakes and sequels to films from the eighties, the genre is alive and well in Italy and most of Europe. While Hollywood insists on directing all of their horror films toward pubescent teens, the Italian market is open to intelligent, psychological, and adult-oriented horror with one foot in the present and the other firmly in the past that brought us the gothic horrors of the 1950s and 1960s.
Phil Hardy's indispensable horror film encyclopedia duly credits Italians Ricardo Freda and Mario Bava with lighting the fuse for the explosion of horror films that began in the mid-1950s with their film I VAMPIRI (1956). The history of Italian horror is a history of stylish sub-genre cycles ranging from repulsively gory jungle cannibal tales and zombie gut-munchers to supernatural gothics, and, best of all, the uniquely Italian giallo (literally: "yellow"). As European Trash Cinema's Craig Ledbetter explains, "It was the lurid yellow covers of [certain] Italian mystery novels that now designates a certain type of thriller film." To reach beyond this basic definition, we urge the reader forth to explore the giallo and enter the multi-faceted nightmare world of the Italian fear film. Once the taste for these rich Italian horrors develops, there are numerous fringe-dwelling mail order sources upon which to feed. For the first course, however, we offer the following films by two of Italy's most accomplished and influential directors: Mario Bava and Dario Argento."
http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0696June/Automedia/italhorror.html
"I Vampiri AKA The Devil’s Commandment (1956): The Italian Horror film was "invented," in 1956, by film-maker and sculptor Riccardo Freda"
http://www.horror-wood.com/italianhorror1.htm
by the way my i've created a new blog for the class so please ignore the link on the mass email that tom sent everyone. instead check out the blog in which i'm sending this comment. thanks
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