The birth of cinema (video)
Italian neorealism
POLAND
GERMANY
FRANCE
ROMANIA
ITALY
SPAIN
GREECE
TURKEY
 Pedro Almodóvar, born on September 25, 1949 in Calzada
de Calatrava, La Mancha, Spain.
By the time he moved to Madrid in the late
1960s,the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had
shut down the national film school, fearing
creative dissent. So instead, Almodovar forged
ahead with his own education by watching
countless movies at the local theatre. While he
earned money working a day job at Telefonica,
Spain's national phone company, Almodovar
bought a Super-8 camera and began making
numerous short films.
 After graduating , Almodovar
broke through with his first
commercial film, "Pepi, Luci,
Bom and Other Girls Like Mom"
(1980), a low-budget satire about
female friendship and solidarity
in the face of an oppressive
society that was a success in
Spain due to its campy style,
outrageous humor and unbridled
sexuality - all resulting from the
newfound freedom of Franco's
death.
 In 1986 it was the turn of "Matador".
The following year, with his brother Augustin,
founded his own production house, 'El Deseo'.
In 1988 he signed his first great success,
"Women on the Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown", followed by, among others
"Ties" (1990), "Live Flesh" (1997),
"All About My mother "(1999, winner of the
2000 Oscar), " Talk to Her “, which earned him
an Oscar in 2003 for best Original
Screenplay.
His success continued with "La Mala
educación" in 2004 while in 2006 he won the
Cannes award for best screenplay with
"Volver".
FIRST ASSIGNMENT
The year 1957 was an important one for him: he married
Madeleine Morgenstern, the daughter of an important
film distributor, and founded his own production
company "Les Films du Carrosse"; named after Jean
Renoir's La carrozza d'oro (1952)(The Golden Coach).
He also directed Les mistons (1957), considered as the
real first step of his cinematographic work.
“LE CINEMA SELON HITCHCOCK”
This is a book of interviews of
Alfred Hitchcock, in which he was
one of the first to show how Hitch
was a real author: first published
1966 "Le cinema selon Hitchcock" A
compilation of some of his movies
critiques "Les films de ma vie"
Hitchcock/Truffaut: The definitive
study of Alfred Hitchcock by
François Truffaut" (Revised
Edition).
“THE 400 BLOWS”
It was released in 1959 and the primary
focus of This work is on the life of a young
character by the name of Antoine Doinel.
This film follows this character through his
troubled adolescence. He is caught in
between an unstable parental relationship
and an isolated youth. The film focuses on
the real life events of the director, François
Truffaut. From birth Truffaut was thrown into
an undesired situation. He was registered as
"A child born to an unknown father" in the
hospital records. The 400 Blows marked the
beginning of the French New Wave
movement.
 Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders born in Düsseldorf on
14 August 1945; is a German film director, playwright,
author, photographer and film producer. Wenders
failed his entry test at France's national film school
IDHEC (now La Fémis), and instead became an
engraver in the studio of Johnny Friedlander, an
American artist, in Montparnasse. During this time,
Wenders became fascinated with cinema and attended
the University of Television and Film in Munich from
1967 to 1970 . Since 1996, Wenders has been the
president of the European Film Academy in Berlin.
 Maybe Wenders most famous Film.
 It is a poetical description of the
city seen through the eyes of two
angels.
Der himmel uber berlin(1987)
 Wenders began his career during
the New German Cinema era of the
late 1960s, making his feature
directorial debut with Summer in
the City (1970).
 In 1971, together with fourteen other
German filmmakers, he started a
production and distribution
cooperative called "Filmverlag der
Autoren". That company became
the nucleus of the “New German
Cinema”.
 Wim Wenders became a member of the Academy of
Arts Berlin in 1984. He was awarded honorary
doctorates at the Sorbonne University in Paris (1989),
the Theological Faculty of the University of Fribourg
(1995), the University of Louvain (2005) and the
Architectural Faculty of the University of Catania
(2010). Currently he is teaching film as a professor at
the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg.
 "Lightning over Water" is a
film about the life of his
friend, and art director
Nicholas Ray
 "The State of Things", won
him the Golden Lion at the
Venice Festival of 1982, the
first in a series of prestigious
international
acknowledgments.
 The director was also in Italy, for example
in Bolzano to commemorate the death of
his friend and colleague Pina Bausch,
with whom he was filming a movie
about her life.Wenders was also at
Badolato - the province of Catanzaro,
extreme south of Italy- during the
"Tarantella power", where he screened
Flight, dedicated to the immigrants ,
and then just Badolato,
where first the door to the
"stranger" (the Kurds)had been opened, and Statues,
about another small town nearby, where today there are different
nationalities, languages, cultures and traditions.
 Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933 . His father, was
Polish and his mother, Russian. After going back to his father’s
hometown, Krakow, he experienced the most terrible years of
world war II. Since his father had Jewish roots, his whole
family was deported to concentration camps, from which he
and his son managed to escape. By the end of this harsh time,
Roman Polanski found himself really keen on everything that
had to do with Cinema. He began his career as a Film director.
His most successful movies are: Rosemary’s baby, Chinatown,
and The Pianist. Unfortunately his life wasn’t only marked by
massive achievements, but even shocking experiences: his
second wife was murdered 1969 while he was in London
shooting Rosemary’s baby.
ROSEMARY’S BABY
Rosemary’s baby is adapted from the horror novel of the
same name written by Ira Levin. The main character is
Rosemary Woodhouse In the story, Guy,her husband lets
Satan conceive a baby in her wife’s womb in exchange of
great success in the acting field. This horror/thriller
movie was shot in USA and was a lot appreciated from
the critics. The exemplary acting of Mia Farrow and John
Cassavetes makes the film captivating and mysterious,
which is exactly the intent of the director.
With this movie, Roman Polanski’s career takes off and it
represents a turning point in his life.
CHINATOWN
Chinatown is the story of a private investigator, J.
J. Gittes, who is hired by a woman who identifies
herself as Evelyn Mulwray. She demands to
investigate on her presumed husband, Hollis
Mulwray. When the detective finds Mr. Mulwray
with a young woman, and publishes the pictures of
the scandal, the real Evelyn Mulwray shows up in
Mr. Gittes’ office and threatens him of a lawsuit.
Mr. Mulwray’s is found lifeless and Mr. Gittes
decides to look deeper into this story.
This is the last movie that Roman Polanski shot in
USA. Right after directing this film, he went back
to Europe.
THE PIANIST
This is one of the most significant and successful
movies that Roman Polanski has ever directed.
The plot is set in Warsaw in 1939,just after the
war has started and the pianist Władysław
Szpilman, tries to survive. There are people who
are enslaved, others who are deported in
concentration camps, . He is trying to stay alive
like everyone else, with only one difference: he is
accompanied by music, his dearest friend. And
Music is what saves him. The German officer
Wilm Hosenfeld discovers that Władysław is
hiding in a house, and saves him because of his
music . When Warsaw is getting cleared of Nazi
Germans by Polish and Soviet troops, Mr.
Hosenfeld is captured and dies in Soviet captivity.
On the other hand, Wladyslaw Szpilman dies at
the age of 88 in 2000.
 Constantinos Gavras was a greek-
born naturalized french filmmaker,
best known for films with political
themes.
Gavras was born in Loutra Iraias ,
Arcadia. His family spent the Second
World War in a village in the
Peloponnese, and moved to Athens
after the war.When he finished high
school Costa Gavras went to
France,Paris, where he began his
studies of law in 1951 at the
Sorbonne. Like other young
cineastes such as Francois Truffaut
and Jean-Luc Godard, he haunted
the Cinematheque Francaise and
the Left Bank repertory film
theaters.
 Former pupil of the Institute of High
Cinematographic Studies (IDHEC) it
was on a trip to Greece that he
discovered Z, the Vassilis Vassilikos
book about the assassination of a
leftist leader covered up as an
accident during the military junta.
Gavras came to France at 20 years
old for the music: his fascination for
French literature and for the magic
word "Louvre". He also draws a
parallel between producing a film
and a luthier's work.
 The most important film of Gravas are:
 Z (1969); L’aveu (1974); Section speciale (1975).
FIRST ASSIGNMENTS
After receiving stage experience with
Julian Beck’s Living Theatre, he
moved to the cinema , by working
as a director assistant to Massimo
Troisi, Maurizio Ponzi, Ricky
Tognazzi, Sergio Citti and
Francesco Nuti. His first work was
as Troisi’s assistant director for
“Scusate il ritardo”, followed by
Ponzi’s “Sono contento,” where he
had a small role performing as a
“madonnaro”.
His directorial debut was with the film
“Hamam”, an Italian, Spanish and Turkish coproduction. The movie, released 1997, was
presented at the 50th edition of the Cannes Film
Festival.In 1999, he directed Harem Suare, set in
his native land of Turkey, telling the tormented
love story between the sultan’s favourite, Safiye,
and the eunuch Nadir, with the fall of the
Ottoman Empire in the background. The story was
written by Özpetek himself in collaboration with
Gianni Romoli, who also produced the movie with
Tilde Corsi and their R&C Production company.
The film was presented in the Un Certain Regard
section at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as at
the London Film Festival and at the Toronto
International Film Festival.
In 2001, Özpetek directed His
Secret Life (Le Fate Ignoranti),
starring Margherita Buy and
Stefano Accorsi, a sweet and
easy to watch drama about
homosexuality and bonding
and friendship of several kinds
of outsiders. The movie won
numerous awards including
three Globi d’oro and four
Nastro d'Argento awards.
Saturno Contro was released
in 2007.This film focuses on
contemporary 30- and 40-somethings
trying to make sense of their lives in an
age in which the old certainties have
disappeared. Lorenzo (Luca Argentero)
and Davide (Pierfrancesco Favino) make
their lives together within a circle that
includes Antonio (Stefano Acorsi) and
Angelica (Margherita Buy), married with
children; Nerval (Serra Yilmaz) and her
policeman husband.
 Federico Fellini (Rimini, Italy- 20 January, 1920/Rome,
31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and
screenwriter. It is widely regarded as one of the
greatest and most influential filmmakers in the
history of world cinema. He won four Academy
awards in the Best Foreign Language Film for his work
as a director in 1993, he was awarded the Oscar for
Lifetime Achievment. He also received the Palme
d’OR at the Cannes Film Festival(For the film “La
dolce vita”) in 1960 and many other Italian Awards
I VITELLONI
( 1953)
Remembering his youth spent in
Rimini here Fellini gives a pitiless
and sarcastic picture of a certain
kind of lazy and aimless young
men in their wonderings on the
streets of Italy during the 50s
LA STRADA
(1954)
The film portrays the journey of its
two main characters: the brutish
strongman played by Anthony
Quinn and a naïve young woman
(Giulietta Masina) on the road of
Italy during the 50’s.
“LA DOLCE
VITA”(1960)
starring Marcello Mastroianni and
Anita Eckberg
has become the Symbol of an age
and made Via Veneto famous all
over the world.
AMARCORD
(1973)
It is a surrealistic movie and one of
his most famous.It is full of
memories about his youth in
Rimini mixed with dreamlike
images.
“THE CITY OF WOMEN
“The city of women” (1980),
accepted with respect, is
described as “tipically
Fellini”, “ a catalogue of
directing evolution”, “a game
with some gaps”.
Presented out of competition
at the XXXIII Cannes Film
Festival , it receives a rather
negative criticism.
E LA NAVE VA…(1983)
A surrealistic film
defined by Fellini
a “Picassian movie,
set on a ship sailing
from an imaginary
Italian port during
World WAR I.
 VITTORIO DE SICA was born in Sora (FR) in 1901 but moved
with his poor family in Naples where at only sixteen started his
career as actor in theatre.In 1933 he founded his own theatre
company.
 In 1939 he began to direct films which started the Italian
neorealism.In them he showed with brilliant skill the Italian
middle and low classes of the time which were strifing to free
themselves from poverty and injust privileges.He died in France in
1974.
LA CIOCIARA
(1960)
with Sophia Loren,
Jean Paul Belmondo
Raf Vallone.
It showed with harsh realism the
atrocities of the II world war.
SCIUSCIA’(1946) The title
comes from the English word shoeshine and indicated the job made by
poor children after the war in the
streets of Naples.
Ladri di biciclette (1948)
ONE of the most famous films in the
history of cinema .It is the sad story
of a father and his son looking for their
stolen bicycle in the streets of Rome full
of poor people who live a hard life just
after the II World War.