The idea for the National Cinema Museum was conceived in 1941 when Maria Adriana Prolo planned the creation of a space totally dedicated to the documentation of Torino’s film industry.
Over the years, a rich and organized heritage has been created. One which tells the complete story of the “cinematographic spectacle” and which has guaranteed the position of the Museum as one of the most important institutions of its kind in the world. Its collections comprise a wide variety of media including:
Films
Books and magazines
Archived documentation
Photography
Posters and advertising material
Film apparatus
Sketches, costumes, props
Sound archives
The collections document two key themes:
Pre-cinema and early photography
The National Cinema Museum’s collection of artifacts and objects from the pre-cinema era is one of the world’s most important and offers a panoramic view of the technical, scientific and artistic paths that led to the birth of cinema. In addition, there is also a rare collection of objects dealing with the history of photography, a discipline that Maria Adriano Prolo considered to be the trait-d'union between the pre-cinema era and the so called “seventh art,” cinema. This collection ranges from the very beginning of photography to the developments of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth.
The History of Cinema
Created with the aim of documenting cinema in its entirety, the patrimony formed by M. A. Prolo is a comprehensive encyclopedia. Documentation of all types that illustrates the development of the cinematographic industry has been included, with particular importance given to the correlation between different mechanical and production processes. This includes books and magazines, archived documentation, images of every type (photographs, posters and advertising pamphlets), machines and accessories, set materials (set design sketches, models, props and costumes), recorded material (audio and visual) and, last but not least, original gadgets made by the film industry to promote particular films or stars.
