Duce & LUCE

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In 1914, Italy was the world's third largest exporter of films. But a combination of American dominance, increased costs, a relatively small domestic market and the coming of sound saw production drop from 371 features in 1920 to just eight a decade later. Stefano Pittaluga sought to buck the trend in the mid-1920s by buying up struggling studios in the hope of forming a film monopoly. He also sponsored Italy's first talkie, Gennaro Righelli's La canzone dell'amore (The Song of Love) (1930). His ambitious enterprise stalled with his death in 1931.

Despite labelling cinema "the strongest weapon", Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was content to confine propaganda to the documentaries and newsreels produced by L'Unione Cinematografica Educativa (LUCE). Consequently, pro-Fascist pictures like Giovacchino Forzano's Camicia nera (Black Shirt) (1933), Alessandro Blasetti's Vecchia guardia (The Old Guard) (1935) and Giorgio Simonelli's Aurora sul mare (Dawn over the Sea) (1935) were relatively rare and politically restrained. However, he did use Carmine Gallone's Scipione L'africano (1937) to help justify his invasion of Ethiopia.

Il Duce's more lasting contribution was the inauguration of the Venice Film Festival in 1932, the founding of the Centro Sperimentale film school in 1935 and the opening of the vast Cinecittà studios in 1937.

David Parkinson