Besides the Bookshop, the Cabiria Café and the panoramic lift, the ground level also hosts an informative area dedicated to the characteristics of Antonelli’s building. This area, which is accessible to the sight impaired, features a three-dimensional wooden model of the Mole Antonelliana and panels with relief drawings and explanations in Braille of the various construction phases of the building. A Loges tactile path gives sight-impaired visitors autonomous access into the Mole Antonelliana, while a panel at the Museum’s entrances with a relief map indicates the various services located on the Welcome Level.

^ close

The stairway leads to the Archeology of Cinema, located on the first floor. This hands-on exhibit teaches visitors about the various discoveries, shows and experiments which preceded and accompanied the inventions of Edison and the Lumière brothers: the shadow theatre, the camera obscura, the optical box, the stereoscope, the magic lantern, chronophotography, the kinetoscope and, finally, the cinematograph. Numerous showcases along the external corridor feature many of the most precious objects and devices from the Museum’s historic collection. Informative panels, some of which have touch screens, let visitors learn more about the history of the objects on view and how they work. The exhibit concludes with the projection of a series of early short films made by the pioneers of the seventh art.

^ close

At the center of the Mole Antonelliana, the visitor enters the grand Temple Hall, the spectacular heart of the Museum. The crystal lift located at its center takes visitors straight up to the small panoramic temple located 85 meters higher up. The Temple Hall is surrounded by small chapels dedicated to the cult of cinema, with fascinating sets illustrating some of the major themes and genres of the seventh art: animated films, cinema of the absurd, horror and fantasy, mirror films, westerns, musicals, science fiction, experimental cinema, family films, melodramas of love and death, catastrophe movies. The last two chapels are dedicated to the Italian silent film masterpiece Cabiria by Giovanni Pastrone and to Torino City of Cinema.
Visitors can stretch out on the chaises longues and watch three films that are projected onto the giant screens: the first is a selection of narrative and documentary images dedicated to Torino’s great season of silent films, the other two films are edited by Gianni Amelio and feature the best dancing sequences in the history of Italian films (Ballabile in bianco e nero and Ballabile a colori). Each film lasts 20 minutes.
At regular intervals the projections are interrupted by a brief and fascinating son et lumière show projected onto the cupola.
In 2007, on the occasion of the donation of director Marco Ferreri’s personal archives to the Museum, the Ferreri Corner was inaugurated in the Temple Hall. This area features a wooden sculpture by Marcello Ceroli, a portrait of Ferreri by the Milanese artist Silvio Pasotti and a painting that was made for the set of Christopher Lambert’s apartment in the film I Love You.

^ close

The Temple Hall gives access to the helicoidal ramp which, like a piece of film, unrolls as it leads visitors upward to the cupola, giving visitors a spectacular and breathtaking aerial view of the Temple Hall. This is where the temporary exhibits are hosted.
The last portion of the ramp features an exhibit dedicated to Cinema and Television (Level + 25) which was inaugurated in 2004 as part of the event “Luci del teleschermo. Cinquant’anni di televisione italiana.”
Six “alcoves” recreate typical family scenes from different eras, illustrating how TV technology has transformed the way images are used and consumed: a 1950s kitchen, a 1960s den, a living room from the 1980s-‘90s, a vaguely futuristic “home cinema.” The television screens are of different shapes and sizes – from the earliest small wooden boxes to the 16/9 plasma screens of today – and project short edited images of films representing half a century of “made for TV” cinema and the evolution of the film language and its domestic usage. The first alcove introduces visitors to this voyage through time and the last one is an invitation to reflect on the future of television.

^ close

An lift takes visitors up to the level of the Cinema Machine, the exhibition area dedicated to the various components of the film industry and the phases involved in making a movie: production companies, film directing, screenplays, actors and the star system, costumes, sets, storyboards, cinemas. Unusual sets, production documents, props, photographs, sketches and famous film clips accompany the visitor on a journey that starts with an original idea and ends with the production and the distribution of a film.
A brief educational side trip, created by Davide Ferrario expressly for the Cinema Museum, introduces visitors to the secrets of filmmaking and illustrates the different elements of the cinematographic language: shots, lighting, editing, soundtracks, special effects. At the end of the exhibit, three alcoves offer an interactive approach to the evolution of special effects, from the “falling” effect developed by George Méliès to the technique of matt painting created in the 1960s and the new possibilities offered by contemporary digital technology.

^ close

The Movie Factory leads to the Poster Gallery. Organized like a series of phantasmagorical and colorful screens of different sizes, the posters displayed trace the history of cinema and its most significant films and directors, illustrating the evolution of figurative trends, graphics and publicity poster art.

^ close