Art and Artifice: some thoughts on the ancient Rome set at Cinecittà

Last week I took Bellini Travel clients with a specific interest in cinema on a couple of movie-related jaunts. We first spoke of Cabiria (Pastrone, 1914) and the birth of the historical epic before looking at the origins of Italian neo-realist cinema and visiting locations which featured in Rossellini’s Roma Città Aperta (1945), comparing modern views with stills from the film.

A sort of Forum, Cinecittà Studios 13 July 2024

While in Pigneto we found the house of the eponymous Accattone (Pasolini, 1961) and our way back into the centre of town visited the Scala Santa which features in La Grande Bellezza (Sorrentino, 2013). Other movies which got a mention included Ladri di Biciclette (De Sica, 1947), Roma (Fellini, 1972), La Dolce Vita (Fellini, 1960), Roman Holiday (Wyler, 1953), Una Giornata Particolare (Scola, 1977), Il Pranzo di Ferragosto (Di Gregorio, 2008), Caro Diario (Moretti, 1992), and—one of my favourites—Sacro GRA (Rosi, 2013). An eclectic mix.

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere seen from piazza dei Mercanti in a still from Ladri di Biciclette, one of the sites we visited.

The next day we made a foray to Cinecittà Studios for a private visit. There we spoke of Mussolini’s shrewd appropriation of the new medium of cinema, and of Scipione l’Africano (Gallone, 1937) the first Cinecittà production which, like Cabiria (screenplay by D’Annunzio), used the tales of the defeat of Hannibal to evoke the triumphalist spirit of Romanitas.