CINECITTA 40 yEARS ANNIVERSARY 1977-2017

Filmdirector Guliano Montaldo, 

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               Giuliano Montaldo, Rome

Handwritten letter from Giuliano Montaldo to Harald Jan Dahle below. Click on the letter and see Montaldo's important film "Zacco & Vanzetti", the United States against the two Italian imigrants accused of robbery and murder. The case that shook the entire world!

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Marco Polo A film By Guliano Montaldo

Sacco and Vanzetti A Film By Guliano Montaldo

 Giuliano Montaldo: The kind man and  empathic Film Director

 Film Director Dino Risi, Rome

I met with Dino Risi in Roma, November 1977. He was the most generous man and was open and helpful. I came from far north and had come to Rome to write about film and culture. Dino Risi was highly respected and very intelligent.

Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of Commedia all'italiana. He was born in Milan. Has two brothers, an older brother Fernando Risi  a cinema-  tographer and a younger brother, Nelo Risi a director and writer.His biggest hits were Poor, But Handsome (Poveri ma belli), followed by two sequels, which he also directed; A Difficult Life (Una vita difficile); The Easy Life (Il sorpasso); Opiate '67 or, in a cut version, 15 From Rome (I Mostri); and Scent Of A Woman (Profumo di Donna), which was remade by Martin Brest starring Al Pacino in 1992.

In 2002, he was awarded the Golden Lion – Honorary Award Leone d'oro alla carriera at the Venice Film Festival for his life-time work. Two of his films, Il giovedì and Il commissario Lo Gatto, were shown in a retrospective section on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.

He died on 7 June 2008 at his residence in Rome. He was 91 and is survived by two children, Claudio and Marco. Dino Risi at the camera. Film Director Dino Risi's personal greeting to Harald Jan Dahle on a picture from a scene with very popular and beutiful actress Michele Mercier.

CINECITTA ROME 

 The 40 Year Aniversary of Cinecitta Film Studios Rome, Italy. In 1977 I visited Cinecitta and met with Business Director Alberto Sciarretta. These are some of the impressions from that important meeting. With great appreciation and thanks to the managment of Cinecitta Studios and Cinecitta office in Rome.

Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31 1993) was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. Bellow, the Genius at work.

In a career spanning almost fifty years, Fellini won the Palme d'Or for La Dolce Vita, was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and directed four motion pictures that won Oscars in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

 ALBERTO SCIARRETTA

Alberto Sciarretta, business director for the Cinecitta Studios, Rome to the left, with Mr. John Capes from Technicolor at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975. The picture was given to me by Alberto Sciarretta in 1977 after I interviewed him in his office in Cinecitta. He also took me for a tour in the Cinecitta film lab and studios. Sciarretta was a very enthusiastic and dynamic person who had a clear vision for the future of Cinecitta film studios and it's productions. Harald Jan Dahle article from Cinecitta was printed less than a month after he returned to Oslo.

Sciarretta has been appointed representative in Italy for Hollywood Film Company, according to an announcement from Harry Teitelbaum, HFC President. Sciarretta was employed at 3M Ferrania beginning in 1936, and in 1964 he became Motion Picture Division Director for 3M. Following his retirement in 1974, he was Business Manager for Cinecitta Studios in Rome and then Marketing Consultant for Technicolor, Rome. Sciaretta was formerly President of ATIC, Italy, and Vice-president of UNIATEC.

Bellow, left to right, Henry Fonda, Claudio Cardinale, Charles Bronson,Jason Robards.

CINECITTA 40 years Aniversary 1977

And a farewell to the Western Spaghetti era!

 First picture bellow: Director Sergio Leone during filming of "Once upon a time in the West". Second picture bellow: Starring Henry Fonda to the left with the gun in his right hand. Director Sergio Leone to the right with white hat.

The Cinecitta film studios 40 years Aniversary: My article from Cinecitta Studios Rome. Photo bellow: This was one of the last film sets from the Sergio Leone Western Spaghetti area that was still standing in Cinecitta. At the time of 1977 people was gradually losing interest in Western Spaghetti films which created the birth of the sciense fantasy movies. The man in the picture is an Australian who sat in the refugee camp inside Cinecitta during WW2. He came to visit the old place, to see it once more. Picture bellow: By Jan Dahle Cinecitta November 1977: Jan Dahle is holding on to the big antique head that was used in Federico Fellinis film epos "Satyricon". Far behind is the back side of the set for another of Federico Fellini's films, his love for his own city "Roma". The visit of Jan Dahle was timed to the occation of the 40 year Aniversary of the famous Cinecitta Film Studios outside Rome. "STAR CRASH"!! Cinecitta-made The 1978 sci-fi hit, starring Caroline Munro as "Stella Star" with Marjoe Gortner, David Hasselhoff, Robert Tessier,  Judd Hamilton, Nadia  Cassini, Christopher  Plummer and Joe Spinell. I was there on the set and met with Caroline Munro and David Hasselhof.

I met Caroline Munro and David Hasselhof on the set of Star Crash because Publicist Walter Alford (see letter below) was very positive and enthusiastic about my visit as I was writing about film and film making in Rome. Great thanks to Walter Alford for that.Caroline Munro "Stella Star" dressed up to kill above, and with David Hasselhof bellow

Shot in stunning 70mm in Cinecitta, Rome

William Wyler's BEN-HUR 

 From left to right, lead actor Charlton Heston, who gives an unforgettable performance playing Ben-Hur, actor Stephen Boyd playing the revengeful Roman officer Messala, with film director William Wyler wearing a white Stetson hat for the occation to fade off the bright Italian sunshine.

BEN-HUR

The movie is a 1959 American epic historical drama film, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith and Haya Harareet. A remake of the 1925 silent film with the same name, Ben-Hur was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry.

Ben-Hur had the largest budget ($15.175 million) as well as the largest sets built of any film produced at the time. Costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden oversaw a staff of 100 wardrobe fabricators to make the costumes, and a workshop employing 200 artists and workmen provided the hundreds of friezes and statues needed in the film. Filming commenced on May 18, 1958 and wrapped on January 7, 1959, with shooting lasting for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. Pre-production began at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. 

CINECITTA

Since the days of Ben-Hur, the studios have welcomed international productions including Helen of Troy (1956), Francis of Assisi (1961), Cleopatra (1963), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Fellini's Casanova (1976), Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), La Traviata (1982) and many other grand film productions. Recent films include Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Cinecittà also hosts TV productions, such as Grande Fratello, the Italian version of Big Brother, where the Big Brother house is built on Cinecittà's premises. It has also been home to the filming of The Passion of the Christ, starring James Caviezel and directed by Mel Gibson.

BEN-HUR Movie Clip - The Chariot Race (1959) HD Copy and paste the link in your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frE9rXnaHpE

The Fontana de Trevi sceneMarcello MastroianniThe cast of La Dolce VitaAnita EkbergPoster for La Dolce VitaCasanova aboveFellini's ROMA

The Fontana de Trevi sceneMarcello MastroianniThe cast of La Dolce VitaAnita EkbergPoster for La Dolce VitaCasanova aboveFellini's ROMA

The Fontana de Trevi sceneMarcello MastroianniThe cast of La Dolce VitaAnita EkbergPoster for La Dolce VitaCasanova aboveFellini's ROMA

The Fontana de Trevi sceneMarcello MastroianniThe cast of La Dolce VitaAnita EkbergPoster for La Dolce VitaCasanova aboveFellini's ROMA