cinema2020

cinema The complex of artistic, technical and industrial activities that contribute to the realization of cinematographic shows (films) and also all of them, as a total work, as a concrete expression of art in the field of fantasy or information tool, of scientific documentation, for educational, informative and recreational purposes.

1. C. and art

Not long after the invention of the new medium, a theoretical debate opened up in the world of culture, very lively in the 1920s, on how to define c., On what its areas and prerogatives should be. A theory of c was consolidated. as an artistic expression, as a new language destined for great results and developments. The temptation of many, however, was to apply to c. the same theories already consolidated for other arts rather than investigating its autonomous characteristics and there was no lack of controversy on the part of those who denied c. character of art, or they considered it a simple reproduction technique. Reflections of a more strictly aesthetic nature were accompanied by considerations on the obstacles represented by the economic apparatus, as well as lazy resistances with respect to the cinematographic metaphor that was too far removed from the ways and forms already consolidated for the other arts. There were those who argued that films could only narrate, represent the chain of events, but the cinematographic language expanded in fields unknown to the word, without any subordination to theater, literature or other forms, with an autonomy that soon brought in search of its characteristic stylistic components: movement, the particular use of time, the visuality ( J. Epstein , L. Delluc ), up to formulate hypotheses of c. 'pure', free from any relationship with reality. The concept of editing, especially among Soviet and later French authors and theorists (e.g., LV Kulešov , J. Mitry), was another much discussed topic, due to the effects produced by the juxtaposition of the shots in the construction phase of the film, through the manipulation of the material shot.

2. The birth of cinema

2.1 The originsThe origins of c. must be traced in the numerous experiments on the vision of moving objects that developed during the 19th century. starting from the studies started (1824) by the English physicist PM Roget. A major turning point occurred with the adoption of the transparent and sensitive film roll (film), developed by G. Eastman (1888), and above all with the inventions of TA Edison , who, driven by properly industrial interests, built in 1889 the kinetoscope, which allowed the viewing, through a slot protected by a lens, of a photographic film (at the speed of 48 images per second) and which soon spread to the showrooms of the main American and European cities. In the following years there were numerous attempts to project the films of the kinetoscope on the screen: especially in America where CF Jenkins made the first animated projection show in 1894, followed in 1895 by W. Latham and T. Armat , which however reported little favor of public; inGermany in the meantime there were the screenings of the Anschütz brothers, M. Skladanowski and O. Messter. 

Un successo assai maggiore riportò il cinematografo di Louis Lumière (coadiuvato dal fratello Auguste), tanto che usualmente si fa cominciare la storia del c. proprio dalla sua prima proiezione di fronte a un pubblico pagante, effettuata il 28 dicembre 1895 nel Salon Indien del Grand Café del Boulevard des Capucines a Parigi, di una serie di film-documentari di 16 o 17 m (della durata di un paio di minuti ciascuno), la cui finalità preminente era quella di cogliere scene movimentate. Il cinematografo, che in breve si diffuse in tutto il mondo (e il cui nome si estese pertanto a significare l’intero campo di attività), era contemporaneamente macchina da presa, proiettore e macchina da stampa, capace di riprendere e proiettare le immagini fissate sul nastro sensibile mediante un sistema ottico-meccanico a movimento intermittente; esso deve gran parte del suo successo alla tecnica assai raffinata di L. Lumière, uno dei fotografi più celebri del suo tempo, e alla sua scelta di soggetti tratti dalla vita quotidiana, che ebbero la capacità di affascinare il pubblico, attratto dall’apparizione sullo schermo di ambienti e facce familiari o ingenuamente impaurito dal progressivo ingrandirsi sullo schermo di una sopraggiungente locomotiva. 

A questo tipo di c. d’attualità si contrappose ben presto, in un’antitesi mai definitivamente superata, il c. fantastico di un altro pioniere francese, G. Méliès, volto al contrario a realizzare una sorta di teatro filmato: è a Méliès, soprannominato il ‘Giulio Verne’ della cinematografia, che si deve l’ideazione della maggior parte dei trucchi cinematografici (sostituzione per arresto, sovrimpressioni, dissolvenze, composizioni fotografiche, esposizioni multiple, sdoppiamento dei personaggi, modellini, riprese attraverso un acquario ecc.), e la costruzione nel 1897 del primo teatro di posa, dove girò la quasi totalità dei suoi film e da cui non si staccò più, fino a perdere i contatti con le ulteriori evoluzioni, che si susseguivano peraltro senza sosta, dell’ancor giovanissima settima arte, come fu soprannominato il cinema. 

Fattore determinante di tale continua trasformazione dell’arte cinematografica (fenomeno che si protrae ancora ai giorni nostri) è l’aspetto eminentemente industriale del c. (a causa dell’alto costo di un film), che spinge pertanto alla ricerca di tecniche e di risultati sempre nuovi, capaci di conquistare il favore del pubblico; di conseguenza la storia del c. non può prescindere dall’analisi dei suoi aspetti industriali e quindi economici, tecnici, sociali.

2.2 Le prime cinematografie nazionaliA partire dal 1896 si costituirono le prime grandi case di produzione, dapprima in Francia e negli Stati Uniti (Pathé, Gaumont, Éclair, Lumière, Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph), poi negli altri paesi, favorendo così il sorgere di cinematografie nazionali. 

Dopo Méliès, la Francia continuò a distinguersi con le opere dell’abile e prolifico F. Zecca, il regista della Pathé, di L. Feuillade, il regista della Gaumont, con i primi film d’arte, che tentavano di nobilitare il c. avvicinandolo al teatro, e soprattutto con i suoi attori comici: André Deed, noto in Italia con il nome di Cretinetti, e Max Linder, che alle complicate gag di Deed sostituì l’assai più delicata comicità dell’imprevisto e dell’equivoco. 

In Inghilterra si ebbero i film di W. Paul e quelli della scuola di Brighton (J. Williamson, G.A. Smith, A. Collins), che, girati per lo più in esterni, mostravano un particolare interesse verso la realtà sociale e adottavano tecniche d’avanguardia, quali l’alternanza tra primi piani e piani generali (nei celebri inseguimenti tra vittime, persecutori e salvatori), che diverranno poi patrimonio del genere western. 

Negli Stati Uniti E.S. Porter, riprendendo in gran parte gli insegnamenti della scuola di Brighton, realizzò film a evoluto impianto narrativo, mentre W. McCutcheon e J.S. Blackton girarono numerose opere di tipo realistico. 

Il c. danese fu caratterizzato dalla realizzazione di drammi mondani (diretti da A. Blom, U. Gad, H. Madsen), nei quali si impose per la prima volta il divismo su scala internazionale (in particolare con l’attrice Asta Nielsen del film Abisso, 1910). 

Il c. svedese fu dominato dalle figure dei due registi-attori V. Sjöstrom e M. Stiller, entrambi volti alla creazione di uno stile nazionale, nel quale grande importanza aveva il paesaggio, e presso i quali si formarono attori che in breve raggiunsero una celebrità internazionale (G. Molander, E. Erastoff, L. Hanson, G. Ekman, G. Garbo); in Svezia si recarono nel 1920 anche i due principali registi danesi, B. Christensen e C.T. Dreyer, che vi realizzò solo un film prima di trasferirsi a Berlino. 

In Italy, where several production houses were set up (Cines, Ambrosio, Itala, Pasquali), the achievements of a historical nature predominated, which culminated in the production of G. Pastrone with the first colossals in the history of the c .: The fall of Troia (1910) and especially Cabiria (1914), in which the complexity of the technical devices (especially in the use of the tracking shot) and of the assembly anticipate the subsequent evolutions of c. US; greater authenticity reached c. by N. Martoglio , mainly attentive to social problems, in which the effectiveness of contrast editing was experimented, while worldly dramas progressively prevailed (directed by N. Oxilia , M. Caserini ,E. Ghione , C. Gallone , A. Genina ), which lent themselves well to enhancing the often slightly emphasized skills of the stars of the time: I. Almirante Manzini , L. Borelli , F. Bertini , L. Cavalieri , A Capozzi , M. Bonnard , E. Ghione ,A. Novelli, to remember only some of the most famous. The rapid flowering of c. Italian decayed after the war.

2.3 The supremacy of c. USIn the United States, the Edison-Biograph trust (the Motion Picture Patent Company) dominated under the leadership of Jeremiah Kennedy; it is in this context that DW Griffith , one of the fathers of the c.was formed: after about 400 films shot between 1908 and 1912 as artistic director of Biograph (in which he discovered and trained actors such asM. Sennett, M. Pickford , L. Gish ), moved to Triangle Film together with TH Ince and M. Sennett, and it is thanks to these three names that c. American reached its apogee. Griffith made Birth of a nation (1915), a film inspired by a clearly racist vision, which however had the merit of revolutionizing the painting of c. American, both for the complexity of the narrative plot, and above all for the gigantic commercial success, which gave way to sumptuous creations, of very high cost. In the next film, Intolerance (1916), his masterpiece, Griffith perfected the technique of alternate editing, but reported a resounding failure of the audience, perhaps due to the technique too advanced in relation to the times. Ince knew how to give an artistic dimension to the western genre, both as director and as supervisor of his collaborators (in particular R. Barker, in whose films WS Hart, one of the greatest actors of the c. western). Sennett created his own comic style, between grotesque and nonsense (also taking advantage of a refined editing technique), and was an exceptional discoverer of talents, including:M. Normand , R. (Fatty) Arbuckle , L. Fazenda, B. Keaton , M. Swain, G. Swanson , H. Lloyd , H. Langdon, B. Crosby and above all a young English mime on tour in the United States, C. Chaplin , who, signed in 1914, was able to win the favor of the public, perhaps like no other. Since his first rehearsals, Chaplin, also for the typically theatrical training, privileged the role of the actor and the acting towards the gag: this is already visible in the role of Charlie Chas (played during the period with Sennett), but it appears all the more evident with the creation in 1915 of the character of Charlot, the coherence of which became one of the keys to understanding the succession of events over more than forty years: the social satire of the first short films was followed by works of greater complexity, in which the exaltation of intelligence and good feelings merged with the denunciation of social injustice in a poetics of sentiment, almost always devoid of indulgent tearfulness. Coinciding with the First World War and the consequent crisis of c. European, American cinema acquired an undisputed commercial supremacy: the production companies expanded and gave rise to concentration phenomena, such as Paramount, Fox, Universal, and above all United Artists formed by the three major stars of the time ( M. Pickford , D. Fairbanks ,C. Chaplin), which Griffith also joined. 

To the success of c. United States, which was reflected in the exceptional development ofHollywood, a town on the outskirts of Los Angeles intended almost exclusively for the production of films (in 1920 about 800 feature films were produced), both the technical superiority of the products of the United States contributed, and above all the extraordinary success that the star system achieved, for which the success of the films was entrusted not as much to the value of the directors as to the celebrity of the actors, who embodied stereotypical roles: W. Hart and T. Mix were the heroic cowboys, M. Pickford (the 'girlfriend of America') the naive and cheeky young girl, D. Fairbanksthe athletic and acrobatic swordsman, R. Valentino the fatal lover, Fatty the fat guy a little dumb and good-natured. CB De Mille particularly affirmed himself among the young directors , who in his very large and mainly commercial production knew how to make use of the cinematographic language perfected by Griffith.

3. The c. between the two wars

3.1 The c. expressionistInEuropec. was emerging. German, also as a result of the grouping in 1917 of the major producers in the UFA cartel ( Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft ); moreover the isolation caused by the war and the related technical development (of the optical and electrical equipment, of the Agfa film etc.) favored the formation of a national production. Thus there were on one hand the brilliant comedies and the colossal historical reconstructions of E. Lubitsch , who resumed the theatrical style of his master M. Reinhardt and who, later moved to the United States (1923), churned out elegant cinematic comedies and on the other the most valid proofs of expressionism andKammerspielcinematographic, the 'chamber theater' focused on the inner movements of the soul and on psychological dynamics: these two strands both led essentially to a screenwriter of considerable value, C. Mayer, to whom we owe the scripts of the main German films between 1920 and the

1925. Il gabinetto del Dr. Caligari(1919) fu il primo film espressionista: diretto da R. Wiene, in esso ebbero importanza determinante gli scenografi (i tre pittori espressionisti del gruppo Der Sturm: H. Warm, W. Röhrig, W. Reimann); prospettiva, illuminazione, forme, architettura, tutto fu piegato a descrivere l’inquietudine degli stati d’animo, quasi che il film fosse una serie di ‘disegni vivi’, dominati da una fantasia macabra e ossessiva e resi in forme estremamente stilizzate. Caligari ebbe una forte influenza sulla produzione seguente: Il Golem (1920) di P. Wegener, Destino (1921) di F. Lang, Nosferatu (1922) di F.W. Murnau, Ombre ammonitrici (1923) di A. Robison, Il gabinetto delle figure di cera (1924) di P. Leni. Il Kammerspiel, pur conservando il simbolismo e la stilizzazione propri dell’espressionismo, si definì programmaticamente come un ritorno al realismo, nel rispetto rigoroso delle tre unità della tragedia classica; esso si fondava sulla semplicità della vicenda (ed era pertanto pressoché privo di didascalie), suoi temi ricorrenti erano l’inesorabilità della sorte umana e il crimine. Tra le opere più rappresentative: La rotaia (1921) e La notte di S. Silvestro (1923) del regista di origine romena L. Pick, La scala di servizio (1921) di Jessner e Leni, e in particolare L’ultima risata (1924) di Murnau, sul tema dell’inscindibile rapporto tra l’uomo e la sua ‘divisa’, che segnò l’apogeo e la conclusione del Kammerspiel. Murnau nel 1927 si trasferì negli Stati Uniti, dove realizzò Aurora (1927) e Tabu (1931, in collaborazione con il documentarista R. Flaherty), mentre in Germania proseguiva (fino all’avvento del nazismo) l’opera di F. Lang, volta soprattutto ad analizzare criticamente l’ingiustizia sociale.

3.2 Impressionismo e nuove avanguardie Negli stessi anni in Francia si andò formando una scuola di giovani registi intorno al romanziere, critico e regista L. Delluc, comunemente nota come impressionismo o prima avanguardia: loro intento preminente era quello di sviluppare l’aspetto tecnico-linguistico della cinematografia, oltre a calare la vita nel c. e far penetrare più profondamente il c. nella realtà sociale (furono tra l’altro i primi fondatori di cineclub); tra di essi si ricordano: A. Gance, sperimentatore di tecniche assai ardite e sofisticate; M. L’Herbier, caratterizzato da uno stile assai raffinato e dall’uso cospicuo di trucchi cinematografici; J. Epstein, in seguito autore di film improntati a un estremo sperimentalismo; G. Dulac, nota soprattutto per La souriante Madame Beudet (1922). Alla prima seguì presto la seconda avanguardia, intimamente legata alle correnti d’avanguardia delle arti figurative (in particolar modo al dadaismo): si ebbero così parallelamente ad analoghe esperienze di V. Eggeling in Svezia e di H. Richter in Germania, i film del pittore-fotografo dadaista Man Ray, del pittore cubista F. Léger, e il celebre Intermezzo di R. Clair (1924, su sceneggiatura del dadaista F. Picabia e musiche di E. Satie). È nell’ambito dell’avanguardia francese che prende le mosse la produzione di tre registi di particolare interesse: J. Cocteau, lo spagnolo L. Buñuel e l’olandese J. Ivens. Cocteau, che era anche poeta, pittore, paroliere, attore, realizzò una serie di film estremamente personali, che ben rispecchiavano gli aspetti più tipici della cultura francese, anche se talora appaiono appesantiti da un eccessivo estetismo. Buñuel realizzò i due più importanti film surrealisti (Un chien andalou, 1928, in collaborazione con il pittore S. Dalí; L’âge d’or, 1930). Ivens, al contrario, dall’avanguardia approdò al documentario di impegno sociale, affrontando la realtà di molti paesi, dall’URSS alla Spagna, dagli Stati Uniti a Cuba, al Cile, al Vietnam. Altro esponente di rilievo del documentario fu l’americano di origine irlandese R. Flaherty, soprannominato il ‘J.-J. Rousseau’ del cinema. 

Decisive importance in the history of c. had Soviet production in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution. In 1919 Lenin had nationalized the film industry and had affirmed the priority of c. compared to the other arts, thus favoring the formation on a large scale of experiments and avant-gardes. It is in this context that the cutting system of the montage is perfected, whereby the object takes on life only when it is put in relation with other objects, presented as part of a synthesis of separate images. Unlike the first great father of cinema, Griffith, who based his language largely on the commonplaces of America of the time and used the editing essentially to tie a story together (often in effect), the Soviet message was highly innovative and their editing took on an ideological value. Among the numerous experiences, some retain a paradigmatic value: thekinoglaz (cine-eye) ofD. Vertovit was not a direct grasp of reality, but became "the possibility of making the invisible visible, of making the dark clear"; SM Ejzenštejn signed masterpieces such as Strike (1924), The battleship Potemkin (1925), October(1928) and later films focusing on the relationship between power and the masses, between tyranny and democracy, characterized by great formal accuracy (also taking advantage of Prokof′ev's music, in what was called the 'audio synthesis -visiva '); VI Pudovkin's films essentially deal with the theme of the progressive acquisition of class consciousness by characters carefully delineated in their psychology; the lyrical objectivity of the Ukrainian AP Dovženko well reflected his theoretical claims that "the possibility of making authentic films is given when the film ceases to be the result of a precise ideology". 

In the last years of c. silent continued the supremacy of the Hollywood film industry, financed by economic power by reason of the famous formula ofW. Hays, president of the MPPDA ( Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America ), according to which «the goods follow the film; wherever the American film penetrates we sell a greater quantity of American products ». Alongside a typically cassette production (which had the main exponent in CB De Mille), the works of some European directors who moved to the United States, such as E. von Stroheim and J. von Sternberg , who with L'angelo blue (filmed in Germany in 1930) had created the myth of M. Dietrich (one of the two great divas of these years, together withG. Garbo). It also continued its developmentthe schoolAmerican comedian, where, alongside the Chaplinian production, the figures of H. Lloyd , optimistic and sentimental, H. Langdon, the goofer (directed in his best films by the young F. Capra ), and above allBuster Keaton, the man who never laughs, impassive in the face of bizarre and complex situations in which he hunts. 

3.3 The advent of soundwas marked, in the autumn of 1927, by the American film The jazz singer , directed by a director of little notoriety, A. Crosland , and entrusted above all to the virtuosity of a famous music-hall singer,Al Jolson; the enormous success of this film favored the diffusion of sound and already in 1928 the first entirely spoken film was produced, Lights ofNew Yorkby B. Foy. The sound, which in the early years was severely opposed by a large part of the public and filmmakers, caused profound changes within the c., Opening the doors to the repertoire and the theatrical (and melodrama) style and favoring the development and the rise of new film genres. In fact, the gangster genre received a new impetus (think, for example, of Scarface , 1932, by H. Hawks , later author of other excellent films), as also developed the sophisticated comedy , in which, alongside the successes who continued to produce Lubitsch, a young Sicilian director came to light,F. Capra, who with his confident optimism was able to interpret the climate of the Rooseveltian New Deal ; a type of absurd comedy was also affirmed, in which the word had an important role, withS. Laurel and O. Hardy (Stanlio and Ollio) and especially with i Marx brothers. The sound also favored the resumption of c. national team, decreasing Hollywood's ability to conquer foreign markets, as the dubbing technique has not yet been developed. 

3.4 Il c. di propaganda e nuove tendenzeIn Germania, oltre a F. Lang, si segnalavano G.W. Pabst con Westfront 1918 (1930), sugli orrori della guerra, e L’opera da tre soldi (1931), dall’omonima opera di B. Brecht, L. Sagan con Ragazze in uniforme (1931) e S. Dudow con Kuhle Wampe (1932), sulla disoccupazione giovanile, che fu vietato dalla censura; in seguito la politica culturale del nazismo troncò del tutto l’evoluzione del c. tedesco, ridotto a mera funzione di propaganda. In Francia si andò formando la scuola detta del realismo poetico: ne fecero parte R. Clair, J. Feyder, J. Vigo e J. Renoir, già distintosi nell’epoca del muto. Soprattutto le opere di Renoir hanno influenzato in modo determinante il successivo sviluppo del c. francese e in parte anche di quello italiano. Nell’ambito del realismo poetico si formarono inoltre M. Carné e J. Becker. In Italia, negli anni 1930, a fianco dei film di più o meno esplicita propaganda del regime (diretti da C. Gallone, A. Genina, A. Palermi, G. Alessandrini), le sole opere di un certo valore furono quelle di A. Blasetti e di M. Camerini, specializzatosi nella commedia leggera. Caratteristico lo stile dei telefoni bianchi (1936-43), così chiamato perché spesso nell’arredo di scena compariva un telefono bianco, status symbol del benessere sociale. In Inghilterra vi furono gli interessanti esordi di A. Asquith e di A. Hitchcock e si andò inoltre affermando la scuola documentaristica di J. Grierson, nella quale si formarono numerosi registi (P. Rotha, H. Jennings) e cui aderirono anche R. Flaherty e A. Cavalcanti.

Nel frattempo negli Stati Uniti si misero in evidenza tre registi particolarmente interessanti: l’irlandese J. Ford, che nella sua vastissima produzione (circa 130 film) si è distinto in particolare nel genere western, con film privi di retorica e capaci di mediare buona parte dei valori della società americana del tempo; l’alsaziano W. Wyler, che diresse per lo più film di derivazione letteraria o teatrale, con una grande attenzione formale, compiendo nello stesso tempo una rigorosa analisi della società borghese; l’attore-regista O. Welles, che si impose giovanissimo negli Stati Uniti con film assai validi anche per l’originalità delle soluzioni formali (il campo lungo, flashback, deformazioni fotografiche, inquadrature oblique), e che proseguì in Europa la sua attività, incentrata sulla contrapposizione tra il potere e l’egoismo da un lato e la libertà e l’autenticità dell’esistenza dall’altro. 

Considerable development also reached c. animated , especially with W. Disney , who in 1938 made the first of his many feature films ( Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ). This genre would have had a very articulated path finding great expressions between the 1990s and the new millennium. Great consideration deserves the work of CT Dreyer , master of cinematography, for the isolation in which he conducted his rigorous search for a style that was an instrument of interpretation of human nature, characterized by the close-ups of the faces and the extreme precision of the details .

4. The c. post-war period

4.1 NeorealismIf during theSecond World Warthe c. of the belligerent countries had mainly propaganda purposes, starting from 1942 a school was formed in Italy, cinematographic neorealism , destined to exert a profound influence in the history of cinema. Neorealism as it advocated the creation of a c. 'true', popular and national. In 1943 L. Visconti made Ossessione , where the daily life of the popular classes made its first appearance, narrated in a style that had been able to embrace the lesson of poetic realism (Visconti had long been Renoir's assistant); in the same year they were made (both based on a screenplay by C. Zavattini ) The children look at us by V. De Sica, who criticized the hypocrisy of the Italian family, and Four steps in the clouds by A. Blasetti , who, despite the brilliant comedy, denoted the assumption of a more popular and realistic style. Of fundamental importance in the history of neorealism wasRomeopen city (1945) by R. Rossellini , shot immediately after the liberation of Rome on the very places of the action, which imposed itself precisely because of its relevance and authenticity; Rossellini was followed by Paisà (1946), who described six episodes of the war in Italy from 1943 to 1945, and then took different paths, always characterized by extreme formal rigor. De Sica and Zavattini gave life to an effective picture of post-war Italy with films in which the authenticity of the description and the incisiveness of the social denunciation were sometimes supplanted by an easy sentimentality and a generic humanitarianism, while an abundant affirmation was asserting resistance production, with epic and spectacular tones ( The sun still rises, 1946, by A. Vergano; The bandit , 1946, by A. Lattuada ; Tragic hunting , 1947, by G. De Santis ). In 1948 Visconti made one of the best films of neorealism with La terra trema (1948), characterized by extreme realism and at the same time by a powerful plastic capacity, which was followed by numerous films, all of excellent quality (mostly transpositions of texts literary), focusing on the relationship between the world of affections and family ties and the social structure. 

In the context of c. the two authors formed a neorealist who, together with Visconti and Rossellini, represent the major personalities of c. post-war period: F. Fellini , who started alongside Rossellini but immediately revealed (from Lo sceicco bianco , 1952, to The Nights of Cabiria , 1957) a personal imagination, a remarkable ability to integrate oneirism and realism, and M. Antonioni , that in the same period (from Cronaca di un amore , 1950, to Il grido, 1956), opened c. Italian to the existential themes of European culture and industrial society creating a completely personal style. In those same years the push for renewal that emerged in the immediate post-war period deteriorated in the costume comedy, in the regional and satirical sketch (of which Totò , creator of a comic heritage of exceptional mimic skills, was the notable protagonist), while new popular genres were growing , like the mythological and the melodrama . At the same time, there was a great development of the film market which saw the establishment of a national star system abroad ( S. Loren , G. Lollobrigida , A. Magnani ). 

4.2 THE INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA. - Meanwhile in the United States the work of the Englishman A. Hitchcock continued, who perfected the genre of suspense films according to modules of narrative elegance, even if mainly commercial, while a generation of young directors was emerging, who advocated a . more adherent to the real and whose activity was therefore initially severely hindered by the Commission for anti-American activities: J. Dassin , E. Kazan , J. Huston , J. Losey , F. Zinnemann , N. Ray , R Brooks , R. Aldrich , B. Wilder. In the mid-1950s, to face a serious crisis in c. American, due both to the poor average level of production and to the ever-growing competition of television, new techniques were introduced (3 D or three-dimensional cinema, cinerama, cinemascope, relief, triple screen, panoramic screens, etc.), which favored the creation of blockbusters ( Vera Cruz , 1955; The Ten Commandments , 1956; Ben Hur , 1959; Lawrence of Arabia , 1962; This mad, mad, mad, mad world, 1963; My fair lady , 1964; Doctor Zhivago , 1965). 

In France, while the activity of poetic realism continued, R. Bresson and J. Tati established themselves . The first, in his creations characterized by an extreme stylistic rigor (it is his definition that cinema "is not a show, but a writing"), essentially addresses the issue of the relationship between reality and individual and religious values;J. Tatihe is the creator of the extravagant Monsieur Hulot , whose delicate sensitivity is contrasted with a rough and superficial society. The suspense films of H.-G. Clouzot . The 1950s also saw the international affirmation of theJapanwith cinema (also called neorealistic) by K. Mizoguchi , H. Gosho , A. Kurosawa and S. Yamamoto .

5. The new c. and its developments

5.1 New trendsThe 1960s saw the affirmation, almost everywhere, of those movements, commonly defined as new c. , which were programmatically opposed to c. traditional; their main characteristics are the refusal of the traditional canons of the cinematographic narrative, the experimentation of new techniques (for example, the sequence plan instead of the short-cut editing), a greater social commitment and the search for an alternative diffusion system, independent of commercial conditions. 

In Francia si formò (attorno al critico A. Bazin e alla rivista Cahiers du Cinéma) il movimento della nouvelle vague. Comprendeva autori piuttosto diversi tra loro e che assai presto presero strade divergenti, accomunati però dalla ricerca di uno stile più cinematografico e meno letterario (rifacendosi pertanto a Renoir, Rossellini, Bresson, Hitchcock); tra questi: C. Chabrol, F. Truffaut, A. Resnais, J.-L. Godard, J. Rivette, L. Malle, E. Rohmer. 

Contemporaneo alla nouvelle vague francese è il movimento del free c. inglese (parallelo a quello degli ‘arrabbiati’ in letteratura), costituito da giovani registi che, continuando (e in parte criticando) la scuola documentaristica di Grierson, realizzarono dapprima documentari sulla vita delle classi popolari inglesi e quindi film più o meno duramente polemici nei confronti del sistema; tra questi: il critico e regista L. Anderson, K. Reisz, T. Richardson, J. Schlesinger. Risultati di maggior valore conseguirono due registi americani trasferitisi a Londra: J. Losey, che analizza con uno stile rigoroso e personale i rapporti umani all’interno di una società profondamente divisa in classi, e S. Kubrick, egualmente impegnato in un’opera di riflessione sulla società moderna. 

In Svezia, I. Bergman nella sua produzione, in cui spaziò da temi metafisici ai problemi della coppia, a riflessioni sull’arte, a temi schiettamente lirici, seppe dar vita a un raffinato stile personale. Accanto a lui fermenti di novità comparvero nell’attività di registi maggiormente politicizzati, quali B. Widerberg, V. Sjöman, J. Troell. 

In Germany, the slogan "freedom from conventional experiences, from industry coercions, from the influences of external groups" was the basis of the Junger deutscher Film of whichA. Kluge, J.-M. Straub, V. Schlöndorff, P. Fleischmann the most interesting personalities appear. 

Commitment, revision of historiographies and official values, courageous experimentation of intertwining and languages ​​characterized Czechoslovakiala nová vlna with V. Chytilova, J. Němec, J. Jrěs, J. Menzel,E. Schorm, I. Passer, S. Uher and, above all, M. Forman (later moved to the United States).

On liberation from all forms of colonialism, social denunciation, a profound link with national traditions was founded in Brazil by N. Pereira's cinema nôvo , G. Rocha (the major theorist and author), L. Hirszman, R. Guerra , PC Saraceni , C. Diegues .

5.2 Towards c. copyrightAll these movements were avant-garde phenomena, which were integrated more or less quickly into the logic of the market. Globally they represent the last significant explosion of formal, productive, ideal research and also the last great reaction of the world of c. in a mass communications system marked by television hegemony. The acquisitions, however, had profound echo: for example. in the influence of a staging based on the uniqueness of the unmounted shot (the plan-sequence ), which found in the cinema of the Hungarian M. Jancsó and the Greek T. Angelòpulos an obsessive and ritual application; in the continuous perceptual experimentation and in the documentary research of new american cinemaand the underground by J. Mekas , R. Kramer, S. Brakhage, A. Warhol , K. Anger ; and especially in the practice of a c. author, capable of communicating knowledge, emotions and ideas before canceling out in the search for entertainment. All this creates the conditions for growth or development of directors such as the Poles A. Wajda , R. Polański , J. Skolimovski, K. Zanussi , the Hungarians A. Kovács and I. Szabó , the Japanese N. Shima, S. Imamura , S. Terayama , Y. Yoshida, the Swiss A. Tanner and C. Goretta , the SpanishC. Saura and L. Berlanga , the Portuguese M. de Oliveira , the Yugoslavian D. Makavejev , the Canadian M. Snow, the Chileans M. Littin and R. Ruiz , the Bolivian J. Sanjinés, the Mexican A. Ripstein, the Filipino L. Brocka, the Iranians D. Mehrjui and S. Shadid-Saless and, finally, for c. Soviet S. Pardzanov, T. Abuladze, VM Šukšin , M. Chuciev, L. Šepitko, O. Ioseliani , E. and G. Šengelaja, A. Končalovskij and, in particular, A. Tarkovskij.

5.3 From costume comedy to crime mysteryIn Italy, where these trends were represented by E. Olmi , M. Ferreri , PP Pasolini , M. Bellocchio , B. Bertolucci , the brothers P. and V. Taviani , the comedy of costume , rich grotesque and satirical kaleidoscope in whichthe rapid transformations of a society that from peasant to industrial becamemirrored (thanks to authors-actors like A. Sordi , N. Manfredi , U. Tognazzi , V. Gassman ). Among the most versatile comedy directors are M. Monicelli, D. Risi , L. Comencini , in addition to P. Germi and A. Pietrangeli , in which there is no lack of veins of skepticism; G. Pontecorvo , F. Rosi , E. Petri worked instead on the path of a denunciation and political and social investigation . The cinema of V. Zurlini and E. Scola , F. Maselli and M. Bolognini , V. De Seta and N. Loy should also be mentioned ; in the context of the so-called Italian western , S. Leone , of the yellow genus ,D. Silver . 

The 1960s were also characterized by a genuine interest in the emergence of new cinemas, from the Indian one (which boasted authors such as S. Ray and M. Sen ), to the Cuban one (with directors such as TG Alea and JG Espinosa), the Chinese one (from the vast market since the 1930s and 1940s), while interesting news came from Africa, where the c. he is taking the initial steps (the first feature is from 1955 and 1963 is Borom Saret by Senegalese U. Sembene ). Among the Arab countries, Egypt was particularly noteworthy with directors such as Y. Chahine , S. Abu Seif, T. Salah, while in Turkey, where c. it was present since before the war, A. Yilmaz emerged.

6. Lights and shadows of the 1970s

In the 1970s the c. of the USA experienced a profound renewal thanks to independent productions and to authors such as J. Cassavetes , D. Hopper , R. Altman , W. Allen , P. Bogdanovich , FF Coppola , B. De Palma , S. Peckinpah , A. Penn , AJ Pakula , W. Friedkin , S. Pollack , B. Rafelson , M. Scorsese , P. Kaufman,M. Cimino. These directors recoded the models of cinematographic fiction (inexhaustibly rethinking and reworking the classic c.) And developed complex representations of contemporary reality affected by European influence, also establishing a new star system ( Al Pacino , R. De Niro , D Hoffman , J. Fonda , R. Redford ) who skillfully integrated the major actors of previous generations ( M. Brando , P. Newman , R. Mitchum ). 

In the international arena, the work of masters of past generations continued such as Hitchcock ( Frenzy , 1972), Buñuel ( The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie , 1972), Bergman ( Scenes from a wedding , 1974), Kurosawa ( Dersu Uzala , 1975). In Germany meanwhile a generation of directors was making headway ( RW Fassbinder , W. Herzog , W. Wenders , M. von Trotta ) who, in the wake of the Junger deutscher Film, imposed itself on the international market with films with a refined and metaphorical style and content often severely polemical towards the German social system. A group of directors of solid professionalism (P. Noyce, B. Beresford, F. Schepisi and P. Weir ) highlightedAustralia. 

In Italy the 1970s saw the great post-war authors still give firm testimony of their presence: from V. De Sica ( Il giardino dei Finzi Contini , 1971) to R. Rossellini who began experimenting historical-didactic programs for television; by L. Visconti ( Death aVenice, 1971) to F. Fellini ( Amarcord , 1973), to Antonioni ( Profession: reporter , 1975), while in the wake of the liberating utopias of the previous decade, directors such as B. Bertolucci ( Last tango in Paris , 1972 ) and M. Ferreri ( The great binge , 1973). In the second half of the decade a new generation of directors such as P. Avati , N. Moretti , P. Del Monte , G. Amelio , S. Piscicelli began, and at the beginning of the following decade a group of authors-actors mostly coming from cabaret and television, likeR. Benigni , C. Verdone , M. Troisi , F. Nuti. 

Common feature of this new c. Italian was finding himself operating in a reality deeply conditioned by the uncontrolled proliferation of television broadcasting liberalized in 1976, to which both the sharp contraction of the market and the considerable difficulty of the experimentation spaces were due. Also in the United States, where during the 1970s production strategies were established that established relations between c. and television, the end of the decade coincided with the prevalence of a purely commercial interest directed in particular to the world of pre-adolescents, the most substantial audience. The great successes that followed (based on special effects and a clever synthesis of fairy tale, adventure and science fiction: from Star Wars ofG. Lucas , 1977, at ET the extraterrestrial of S. Spielberg , 1982) demonstrate how the big screen tended to amplify beyond measure / "> measure its own spectacular resources, while simplifying narrative references. 

The c. elsewhere he was able to make himself a spokesperson for significant socio-cultural transformations (as in the case of the Soviet Union - A. German , G. Panfilov, K. Muratova, E. Klimov , A. Sokurov -  linked to the new political course of Gorbachev ) or witness to painful realities (as in the case of S. Cissé from Mali and the Turkish Y. Güney ).

7. The end of the 20th century

At the end of the first 100 years of life of the c., Contradictory signals were therefore outlined: on the one hand the crisis of the large room appeared an irreversible phenomenon (the collective ritual replaced by the individual consumption of television), on the other the affirmation of a c. of international dimensions, capable of producing shows such as The Last Emperor by B. Bertolucci (1987, 9 Oscar awards) and Balla coi lupi by K. Costner (1990), which was counterbalanced by the affirmation of mirror works of peculiar environments such as The time of the gypsies by E. Kusturica (1988), Red lanterns byZ. Yimou (1991), The thief of children of G. Amelio(1992), sometimes awarded by Oscar as Nuovo cinema Paradiso by G. Tornatore (1987) and Mediterraneo by G. Salvatores (1991). Along with the increasingly rare masterpieces of epochal style and relevance, such as W. Wenders' The Sky Above Berlin (1987) and the K. Kieślovski's Decalogue (1989), the new fictional worlds of the cinema of D. Lynch , the militant cinema of K. Loach , the refined illustration of the British universe by J. Ivory . 

At the same time in Spain the creative flair of P. Almodóvar , the ideal follower of L. Buñuel 's cinema , was affirmed . The author of a female cinema, centered on characters of strong women is the New Zealander J. Campion . A completely unique figure is also that of the Canadian D. Cronenberg , author of experimental films in style and daring in content, rich in philosophical and psychoanalytic implications. Also from Canada comes J. Cameron, the creator of Titanic (1997), a colossal work, the greatest income in the history of cinema, which has stimulated the revival of apparently dormant forms of divism. For several years in the United States an independent production company, Miramax, managed by the brothers B. and H. Weinstein, had begun to offer works of great interest and to launch a new generation of authors, destined to 'colonize' in a short time. Hollywood: Q. Tarantino , K. Smith, A. Minghella , S. Soderbergh, T. Haynes and L. Hallström. Instead, African American cinema developed around the personality of its most significant representative, Spike Lee; alongside him, apart from the isolated cases of two authors such as Mario Van Peebles and J. Singleton, it was some actors who made the African American community within Hollywood increasingly prominent; among them are D. Washington , SL Jackson ,W. Smith, J. Foxx and H. Berry. 

The one of Hong Kong and the Korean one were the other two most lively films on the Asian continent: successful postmoder