Saturday 2 December 2017 at 16:30 in Spoleto, Palazzo Leti Sansi (Via dell’Arco di Druso, 37) the XIIIth volume of the “Collana della memoria” titled Spoleto Cinema, 1969-1971. Mito e miti della settima arte nella città del Festival by Antonella Cristina Manni prefaced by Gian Luigi Rondi and postfaced by Marco Rambaldi will be presented.
The author will be flanked by president of the Association “Amici di Spoleto” Dario Pompili, Spoleto mayor Fabrizio Cardarelli, director of Panorama mag Giorgio Mulé, director of Ciak mag and president of the Foundation “Cinema per Roma” Piera Detassis, and cinema producer Maria Carolina Terzi. The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto contributed to the production of the volume.
One year after the passing away of cinema critic Gian Luigi Rondi and three years after that of Loreto Luchetti, the Associazione Amici di Spoleto tributes them with this publication, for their contribution to the cultural development and worldwide promotion of the city of Spoleto.
More than 250 pages, richly provided with pictures and unpublished papers, Spoleto Cinema, 1969-1971. Mito e miti della settima arte nella città del Festival brings back to light a short, yet intense chapter of the Italian cultural history, in which Spoleto played a major role with the involvement of many a VIP. The activity of the body Spoleto Cinema was in fact under the artistic direction of Gian Luigi Rondi, was chaired by Luchino Visconti and its board of directors included Gian Carlo Menotti, Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Massimo Bogianckino, Pierpaolo Pineschi and Mario Natale. The body Spoleto Cinema was established to promote cinema culture in Italy and Italian cinema abroad, and it represented the first actual attempt to spread the great events in the City of the Festival of Two Worlds across the whole year. It was an ambitious project, promoted by Loreto Luchetti, which led Spoleto to host a Golden Globe edition back in 1969, and to the organisation of two editions of the Spoleto Cinema Awards which involved actors Alberto Sordi and Monica Vitti, and directors Gillo Pontecorvo and Ermanno Olmi.
Archival researches also allowed for rebuilding the historical context in which the relation between the world of cinema and Spoleto developed since the early XXth century, including the evolution of cinema facilities in the city and the role the city had as set of some 50 films and fictions during the last 80 years; to name a few: “I pagliacci” with Beniamino Gigli and Alida Valli, “Vita privata” by Louis Malle with Brigitte Bardot and Marcello Mastroianni, “Metti una sera a cena” with Florinda Bolkan and Tony Musante, “Io e mia sorella” by and with Carlo Verdone and Ornella Muti, and last but not least, the most recent “Francesco” by Liliana Cavani and “Don Matteo” featuring Terence Hill.
