Itala Film (often referred to simply as Itala ) is an Italian film house specializing in the production and distribution of films that was active as early as the mute period .
The beginnings and Carlo Rossi & C.
The Carlo Rossi and Guglielmo Remmert founded a film company in Turin under the name Carlo Rossi & C. from a previous wireless telegraphic communication company 1 .
The company hired certain Pathé technicians , for example Charles-Lucien Lépine , general manager of the Pathé, hired as artistic director, the operators Raoul Comte , Georges Caillaud , Eugène Planchat and the Swiss technician Ernest Zollinger.
Although the production of the Carlo Rossi & C. , which consisted mainly of documentaries and short films with subject, was rather supported, it was interrupted after only eight months as a result of disputes between the partners 2and the company was put in liquidation .
Birth of Itala Film
The engineer Carlo Sciamengo, who was responsible for the liquidation of Carlo Rossi & C. , and the young accountant Giovanni Pastrone 2 restructured the company and renamed it Itala Film in September 1908 . In this new structure Sciamengo took the position of executive director and executive producer while Pastrone became managing director and animator 3 . In the early days production was limited to documentaries and short films
Most of Carlo Rossi & C.’s employees remained loyal to Itala Film , for example Oreste Mentasti , principal director and artistic director , and operator Giovanni Tomatis , joined by painter Luigi Romano Borgnetto , who was active at the beginning. as a set designer and also as a director and scriptwriter .
The young Itala Film continued the political line of the Carlo Rossi & C. and contracted with various French actors like the comedian André Deed , interpreter of several films of the series Cretinetti , very appreciated by the public and which contributed greatly to the receipts of the company and allowed him to assert himself at the European level. A few years later she contracted another French actor, Émile Vardannes , performer of the comic series Totò .
From 1910 the company embarked on new genres. In addition to comic films, she made dramatic , historical and comedy films , often inspired by literary works. Among them are Count Ugolin (Il conte Ugolino) ( 1908 ) and La maschera di ferro ( 1909 ), which was an international success 4 ), both lasting about ten minutes.
Very quickly Itala Film became the third Italian film house in terms of the number of films produced 5 and one of the most productive at the international level. In 1911 the company became a company in my collective and took the name Itala Film – Ing. Sciamengo & Pastrone: snc and its capital was increased. It establishes numerous subsidiaries abroad, in Europe and in both Americas .
New artists, technicians and intellectuals were engaged: the French Alexandre Bernard , Vincent Dénizot , Gabriel Moreau , Victor Vina , the Italians Emilio Ghione , Giovanni Casaleggio , Sandro Camasio , Nino Oxilia , Adriana Costamagna , Domenico Gambino , Dante Testa , Augusto Genina , Ernesto Vaser , Febo Mari , Felice Minotti , Gero Zambuto , Oreste Bilancia , the great divasItalian silent cinema Italia Almirante Manzini and Pina Menichelli , and sisters Lidia , Letizia and Isabella Quaranta , Teresa Marangoni (already active in Carlo Rossi & C. ). Later Ermete Zacconi, his wife Ines , Umberto Mozzato and Ruggero Ruggeri were added .
When she was at the peak of her success, namely between 1910 and 1918 , She produced major films like Father (Padre) ( 1912 ), Farewell, Youth (Addio giovinezza!) ( 1913 ), The Fire (Il fuoco) ( 1916 ), Royal Tiger (Tigre Reale) ( 1916 ) and the monumental success Cabiria ( 1914 ).
External links
- Rossi e C. [ archive ] on the Internet Movie Database
- Itala Movie [ archive ] on the Internet Movie Database
- Itala Film GmbH [ archive ] on the Internet Movie Database
Notes and references
- ↑ ( it ) Cfr. GP Brunetta, Guida alla storia del cinema italiano: 1905-2003 , Einaudi, 2003, p. 426
- ↑ a and b ( it ) Cfr. A. Bernardini, Cinema muto italiano: Industria e organizazione dello spettacolo 1905-1909 , Laterza, 1980, p. 107
- ↑ ( in ) “The ‘Pastrone System’: Itala Film from the Origins to World War I” – Jstor.org [ archive ]
- ↑ ( it ) Cfr. P. Cerchi Usai, Giovanni Pastrone , ed. Nuova Italia, 1985, p. 22
- ↑ ( it ) Cfr. P. Cerchi Usai, Giovanni Pastrone , La Nuova Italia, 1985, p. 33