Italian film-makers’ promotion of modern architecture is explored at the Estorick Collection
Film-makers’ love affair with Italian architecture is deep-rooted and multi-facetted. The fascist-era forms of Rome’s EUR district provided memorable and meaningful sets in Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘The Conformist’ (1970), while Adalberto Libera’s Casa Malaparte on Capri featured prominently in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Le Mèpris’ (The Contempt, 1963), and Peter Greenaway staged ‘The Belly of an Architect’ (1987) across sites from throughout Rome’s history.
Carlo Levi and Enrico Paulucci’s set design for ‘Patatrac’ (Gennaro Righelli, 1931, ph: Collezione Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Turin)
Rather less well-known, however, are the distinctive modernist set designs of Italian-made romantic comedies of the inter-war years which provide the theme of the fascinating exhibition ‘Rationalism on Set’ at the Estorick Collection in London (until 24 June). The modernist aesthetic was increasingly adopted in contemporary films through the 1930s, largely due to the efforts of production company Cines, which set out sought to raise the quality of Italian cinema after a period of relative decline in the 1920s.
Gastone Medin, set design for ‘Due Cuori Felici’ with Rita Franchetti and Vittorio De Sica (Two Happy Hearts, Baldassarre Negroni, 1932, ph: CMNdC)
Archive photographs, sketches and contemporary periodicals have been sourced from the Cineteca Nazionale, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Rome), the Cineteca di Bologna, Turin’s Museo Nazionale del Cinema and the RIBA Collections.
Gastone Medin, set design for ‘La Casa del Peccato’ (The House of Sin, Max Neufeld with Assia Norris and Umberto Melnati, 1938, ph: att Aurelio Pesce, Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazional)
Architects recognised the role cinema could play in promoting modern architecture to the people. Giuseppe Capponi (architect of the extraordinary Palazzina Nebbiosi in Rome, 1932), was responsible for a number of significant set designs, while the editors of Casabella and Domus magazines supported architects’ efforts to reflect in film settings the latest developments in architecture.
Gastone Medin, set design for ‘Due Cuori Felici’ (Two Happy Hearts, Baldassarre Negroni, 1932, ph: att Aurelio Pesce, FCSdC-CN)
The sets were often documented prior to filming, and it is these photographs that feature in the exhibition, together with clips from the most significant films. Comparative photos of contemporary architecture highlight the influence of the Bauhaus and other developments outside Italy, suggesting an international rather than local character in the films’ modernist aesthetic.
