On January 29th, 1936, atop the ashes of the old Cines studios, recently destroyed by a fire, Benito Mussolini inaugurated construction work on what, according to ambitions at the time, was supposed to be the most majestic film studio in Europe: Cinecittà. Since then, after going through the terrible years of the war and the equally harsh years immediately thereafter, Hollywood on the Tevere hasn’t stopped expanding in prestige or providing its fundamental contribution to Italian cinema. These are the reasons that have led us to pay a small tribute to the still “young” Cinecittà, which during the first decades of its life, incarnated – mirroring the entire country – the glory, well-being, and exaltation of a nation, as much as the ruinous disaster of the war and postwar periods.

Claudio Siniscalchi