In the summer of 2006, during the 21st Mostra del Cinema Ritrovato, Vittorio Martinelli accepted to be interviewed on camera reviewing the important moments of his life and describing his interminable passion for film in his own words. A long life story in which we see Martinelli’s distinctive qualities: the scrupulous scholar, the methodical researcher, the incomparable connaisseur, his profound humanity as a person, his spirit and sense of humor.
Infected at an early age with a fatal attraction for the screen, Martinelli tells us about his first experiences as a budding cinéphile at the end of the 30s, of his assiduous and active participation in post-war Neapolitan film clubs, his first pioneering attempts in the 50s at saving an important cultural legacy from being forgotten: Italian silent film.
His words provide a picture of a unique journey dotted with encounters with the leading figures of film history, from Keaton to Dreyer, Fritz Lang to Buñuel, Pina Menichelli to Gustavo Serena. Martinelli describes his experience as a “film archeologist”, to which we owe the discovery and identification of dozens of films considered lost forever, and briefly reviews his untiring work as a scholar, critic and essayist, describing the brilliant realizations, strenuous research and scrupulous method that helped him while compiling with Aldo Bernardini the most important filmography ever written about Italian silent film. One year after his death, this interview is invaluable testimony and above all a due tribute to the extraordinary life of Vittorio Martinelli.

Giovanni Lasi