ROMA E L’INVENZIONE DEL CINEMA. Dalle origini al cinema d’autore, 1905–1960

Over sixty years of history, films and passion: the historic Salette di Pio IV in Sant'Angelo Castle hosts ROMA E L'INVENZIONE DEL CINEMA. Dalle origini al cinema d'autore, 1905–1960 (Rome and the invention of cinema. From the origins to arthouse cinema, 1905–1960), an evocative exhibition celebrating the deep bond between the Eternal City and the seventh art.

Ever since the screening of the film La presa di Roma (The Capture of Rome) in 1905, right in front of Porta Pia on the anniversary of the historic event, Rome has been centre stage: not just a set, but the beating heart of Italian cinema. An imposing, lively, monumental, contemporary, and universal city, Rome has learned to tell its story and transform itself through cinema, becoming a timeless universal icon.

Curated by Gian Luca Farinelli, the exhibition path winds through rare and unpublished materials, photographs and film clips, telling a story marked by unforgettable films, legendary faces and directors: from silent film stars to Cinecittà, from Fascist cinema to Neorealism, from Italian comedy to Hollywood on the Tiber during the Dolce Vita, to Fellini's dreamlike universe.

The exhibition is produced by the Pantheon and Castel Sant'Angelo - Direzione Musei nazionali della città di Roma, an institute of the Ministry of Culture directed on an interim basis by Luca Mercuri, together with the Cineteca di Bologna, directed by Gian Luca Farinelli, and is organised in collaboration with the Rome Film Festival, the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, and the Archivio Luce Cinecittà.

Photo: Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg on the set of La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) © Cineteca di Bologna / Reporters Associati & Archivi