Dialect and Nostalgia

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Italy experienced a tele-boom in the mid-1970s and cinema admissions plunged. With US blockbusters commanding 70% of the box-office, film-makers were forced to rely on the numerous TV channels for funding.

Consequently, a reportage visual style emerged with its emphasis on dialogue and close-ups. This perfectly suited the dialect comedies of Carlo Verdone (Rome) and Abantantuono (Naples), who found fame alongside "nuovi comici" like Roberto Benigni (Il piccolo diavolo (The Little Devil), 1988), Massimo Troisi (Ricomincio da tre (Starting From Three), 1981), Maurizio Nichetti (Ladri di saponette (The Icicle Thief), 1989) and Nanni Moretti (Caro diario (Dear Diary), 1994).

The impressive range of titles on TV and video also generated a fondness for bygone classics and films about the past, like Fellini's Intervista (1987), Giuseppe Tornatore's Il nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso) (1988) and Ettore Scola's Splendor (1988).

Italian cinema currently produces around 100 features each year and regularly scores domestic triumphs such as Gabriele Muccino's L'ultimo bacio (The Last Kiss) (2001). But with only 800 cinemas in operation, mostly in the big cities, over one-third of these films go unreleased. With state subsidies being cut and Hollywood domination bound to continue, the future looks uncertain. But the revived vogue for actuality in the digital video era suggests there's always hope.

David Parkinson