Alternative Realities

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With output rising to 201 in 1954 and admissions peaking at 819 million a year later, Italian cinema seemed to be thriving before television and sport slowly began to erode its core audience. A new generation of divas including Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren emerged alongside such debonairs as Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman, while numerous US stars appeared in the "runaway" projects that earned Cinecittà the nickname "Hollywood on the Tiber".

The period also saw established film-makers seek to distance themselves from neo-realism. Luchino Visconti opted for operatic opulence in Senso (1954). Roberto Rossellini shifted from war and injustice to emotion and alienation in collaborations with his then-wife Ingrid Bergman, including Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy) (1954).

Newcomers Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini also broke with traditional forms of linear narrative. Exploiting location to examine the urban angst of the bourgeoisie, Antonioni pioneered a cinema of solitude in Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) (1950) and Le Amiche (1955). Fellini, on the other hand, developed a more personal vision that eschewed the satirical irony of I Vitelloni (1953) for the character-driven picaresque of La strada (1954), Il Bidone (1955) and Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) (1956).

David Parkinson