Sectors Of The Film Industry example essay topic

400 words
When Mussolini came into power in 1922 he aimed to establish a totalitarian state. This was achieved by 1825 and in 1026 he intervened for the first time in national cinema, taking over the Instituto Nazionale LUCE or L'Unione Cinematograpica Educative which was formed in 1924. The Fascist regime had now created for itself a monopoly of cinematic information as LUCE also produced documentaries and newsreels. Except for the official sanctioning of censorship laws in 1923 which was finalised in 1929, the active impact of the Fascist regime on cinema took some time to come into effect. In June 1931 the regime began to impose legislative support for the industry by forming Law 918, which assigned 10% of box office takings to help all sectors of the film industry but, specifically, the most popular as this would gain more profit for the industry. As in all other sectors of cultural life, fascist influence was majora tively negative and preventative.

It worked to divert the interests of artists and intellectuals away from reality and present day events which were to be the exclusive preserve of the politicians. Consequentially, after 1930, there were only four films made about the fascist revolution: C amica near (Forza no, 1933), Aurora sul mare (Simon elli, 1935), Vecchia guardia (Blasetti, 1935) and Redenzione (Alban i, 1942). Blasetti's work was open fascist propaganda which is also evident in about thirty other films produced between 1930 and 1940 and these can be divided into four categories: Patriotic military films, films about Italy's 'African Mission', costume dramas (history rewritten as a succession of forerunners to Mussolini and anti-Bolshevik and anti-Soviet propaganda films. The official 'white telephone' cinema of the 20 years of fascist rule aspired to be heroic, celebratory and revolutionary but it only represented 5% of the national production. Despite individual talent like Blasetti and Camerini who anticipated post was neo-realism, the driving force behind Italian cinema remained the Hollywood style escapist film. It relied on star vehicles and cultivated the image of the director as professional author figure.

Its principal genres were comedy, melodrama and historical costume drama. After 1937 the comedies became more and more frivolous, based on a rejection of reality. Neo-realism, which arose immediately after this era, was a reaction against these realism rejecting, escapist films of the fascist period.