The collection amounts to roughly 530,000 items and includes posters, playbills and various other promotional materials. From the very first pre-cinema shows right through to modern feature films, this collection documents the history of cinema and of its poster art. The Prolo fund makes up the majority of the collection, material which she began gathering right from the very first days of the Museum, often through direct contact with the protagonists of the world of cinema and their heirs or through contacts with the then newly-born collector’s community.
In the 1980s, Lorenzo Ventavoli, a well-known distributor and tradesman in Torino, made a substantial donation to the section dedicated to the period between the 1960s and the ‘80s. During the 1990s, the National Cinema Museum association left in trust promotional material for more than 30,000 films from the period between 1950 and 1970. The poster collection has been greatly expanded throughout the years by numerous other acquisitions, which have joined the three principal funds. The Museum aims to continue this tradition by adding new and precious examples to its already vast collection.
Pre-cinema
Perhaps the most precious items in this collection are the posters dedicated to the photography and spectacles that predate cinema: approximately 40 lithograph prints of which two merit particular attention, Blanc et Noir and Pantomimes Lumineuses. These are world-famous examples of the work of one of the fathers of French lithography, Jules Chéret. Such a collection would surely not be complete without the posters created to publicize the birth of cinema: the two versions of the poster for Cinématographe Lumière. True raritiescreated by the artists Brispot and Auzolle, the first “draftsmen for cinema” par excellence.
Silent films
The collection dedicated to silent films is of particular interest and features over 200 posters, both Italian and foreign. The section devoted to silent films from Torino (including such masterpieces as Cabiria and Il fuoco) and Rome (such as Quo Vadis and Thaïs, whose poster was drawn by the futuristic painter Prampolini) holds a special place in the archives. The most prized foreign posters in the collection include some for the films of Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino (including the extremely rare first American edition of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). This collection also includes a rich collection of material produced for the silent films made by Pathé and Gaumont.
Sound films
The most consistent part of the entire archives is, naturally, dedicated to posters made to publicize sound films. Following in the paths of great poster artists we can retrace some of the golden moments of Hollywood: Sunset Boulevard and Citizen Kane by Brini, The Lady from Shanghai and Stagecoach by Ballester, Casablanca and The Big Sleep by Martinati, Limelight and Singing in the Rain by Nano and Gilda by Capitani. These are just some examples of cinematic and, at the same time, masterpieces of graphic art.
Alongside the cinema of Hollywood, there are also posters of French, English, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, and naturally, Italian films. Italy’s greatest directors are, in fact, on full display in the collection: Rossellini and his films Rome, Open City, Paisan and Germany Year Zero; De Sica’s Umberto D and Two Women;De Santis’ Bitter Rice and Under the Olive Tree; Fellini’s films I Vitelloni, The Road and La dolce vita; Antonioni’s Story of a Love Affair, The Adventure, Blowup; Bertolucci’s 1900, Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist;, Visconti’s Ossessione, Senso, The Leopard; and Pasolini’s films Accattone! and Mamma Roma. A long list to which one could easily add the posters for the films of Blasetti, Camerini, Monicelli, Olmi, Taviani, Risi, Pontecorvo, Rosi, Steno, Lizzani, Comencini, Soldati, Germi, Scola, Moretti, Ozpetek and Muccino. A list that clearly proves the pedigree of this truly unique collection.
Brochures
The brochures section of the archives is not to be missed since it features a collection of publicity material illustrating the glories of silent films from Italy (Tigre Reale, Nerone e Agrippina, Satana, Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei, and naturally Cabiria) and abroad (including Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis andGriffith’s The Birth of a Nation).
The section on sound films includes the original American brochures for Gone with the Wind by Fleming, A Place in the Sun by Stevens and My Darling Clementine by Ford. The French are also present here with the original brochures for Orphée by Cocteau and Sous les toits de Paris by Clair.
Naturally, there is ample space for Italy in this section as well. Two examples say it all: Story of a Love Affair, drawn by Vespignani, and above all, the famous brochure for Bitter Rice drawn by Guttuso, proof that even the greatest of painters can be attracted to the world of cinema. |
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Nicoletta Pacini
Tel. +39 011 8138 523
Fax +39 011 8138 575
pacini@museocinema.it
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