Critics, Journalists, Scholars

The collection was donated by his son Carlo, editor of the newspaper «La Stampa» in 2018. It comprises about two hundred documents including various scriptments, treatments, screenplays, books, magazines and photographs that retrace Antonio Bertini’s activity as a film professor, director, screenwriter and writer. Eleven folders collect poetry and writings, another eight include letters, contracts, documents related to his didactic activity and press reviews. The photographs can be viewed in the photographic archives of the Cineteca Nazionale.

Antonio Bertini (1934 – 2018) – professor, director, screenwriter, writer. He taught History and Film Criticism at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Calabria and History and Film Criticism at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Tuscia (Viterbo). He was president of the “Cineteca Popolare di Roma” association and was the mind behind several activist documentaries for Unitelefilm production during the 1970s. He wrote TV programs and series for Rai, such as “Il delitto di Notarbartolo” directed by Alberto Negri (1979). He authored several monographs including Ettore Scola, il cinema e io (Officina, 1996), Cinema e ideologia nella Germania di Weimar (Pellegrini, 1979), Teoria e tecnica del film in Pasolini (Bulzoni, 1979).

The Francesco Bolzoni collection was donated by his heirs in 2018. It consists of the cinematographic and audio-visual corpus acquired from his personal library, which includes over two thousand books and magazines and thirty-six files of documents of a more strictly archival nature. The files are divided into five groups (Correspondence, Press Review, Editorial Projects, Scriptments and Scripts, Festivals, Conferences and Cultural Institutes) and cover a period of time that ranges from 1954 to 2007. Of particular interest are the extensive collection of press clippings of both his commentaries and other articles sorted by subject, the handwritten and typewritten drafts of essays and presentations, the draft copies of his books (such as the one on Francesco Rosi and Mino Maccari) and the filmmakers’ profiles Bolzoni produced for the Treccani Italian Encyclopaedia and the Filmlexicon degli autori e delle opere. Some previously unreleased scriptments, original TV projects and show outlines are also of great significance.

Francesco Bolzoni (1932- 2011) – Journalist and film critic, he collaborated with film magazines such as “Bianco e Nero”, “Ferrania”, “Cinema nuovo” since he was a student; later he contributed to the magazines “Orizzonti” and “La fiera letteraria” as a literary critic. Since 1971 he was a film essayist and historian for the daily newspaper “Avvenire” and in 1973 he became part of the editorial staff of “Rivista del cinematografo”. He worked for Rai for thirty-five years, overseeing hundreds of programmes, including the popular Anni d’Europa, Teatro inchiesta and Guerra Pacifico. In the mid-1960s, as he took on the role of deputy director of film and television scheduling for both channels, he developed series dedicated to authors and films such as La commedia all’italiana, Quest’America and Tuttototò. In the 1980s he produced the extensive series Maestri del cinema italiano and re-launched the radio programme Buona notte Europa, interviewing the most important Italian writers, film directors and painters. Bolzoni is also the author of several profiles of film directors within the Treccani Italian Encyclopaedia. He wrote texts on Italian and Hungarian cinema for Storie del cinema, published by De Agostini and by Curcio, and for the booklets that accompanied the newsstand releases of the Italian film videocassettes by Eri (Edizioni Radio Italiana). Among his books the most notable are: Quando De Sica era Mister Brown (Eri, 1984), I film di Francesco Rosi (Gremese, 1986), La barca dei comici (Ente dello Spettacolo, 1986), Mino Maccari. Un selvaggio nel paese dei bugiardi (Centro Sperimentale di cinematografia, Nuova Eri 1993), Emilio Cecchi fra Buster Keaton e Visconti (Centro Sperimentale di cinematografia, 1995) Sull’Omnibus di Longanesi (Centro Sperimentale di cinematografia, 1996) and Le stagioni del cinema (Rubbettino, 2000).

The collection consists of a large number of typed documents and newspaper cuttings related to films and film-makers. It was donated to the Library by Franco Cauli.

Franco Cauli (1927-2008) – Journalist and Head of the Film Service – Agency ANSA Cultural Affairs Department.

The collection was donated in 2005 and consists of 147 bibliographical documents, most of which are film books.

Guido Cincotti (1928-2005) – Film historian and essayist, he graduated as a film director at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and held a number of positions at CSC, from teaching to library management. From 1976 to 1982 he was Managing Director and Curator of the Cineteca Nazionale (the National Film Library).
He wrote various studies and specialist books: Il Colore nel Cinema (1952), Il Cinema dalle Origini alla Prima Guerra Mondiale (1953), La Scenografia Cinematografica in Italia (1955), Tutto Dreyer (1978), Cinema Francese degli Anni Trenta (1978) and L’Europa dei Telefoni Bianchi: 1935-1940 (1981).

The collection consists of 17 screenplays related to Vittorio Caprioli’s film work and a small set of documents (photocopies) pertaining to the work of Claudio Zanchi, who played a leading role in the cultural and institutional aspects of the Italian film industry from the 1960s to the present day.

Fabio Francione (b. 1966) – Writer, film critic, curator of retrospective exhibits and festivals.He’s theauthor of many essays on filmmaking, some of which based on the material in the collection.

The collection mainly includes documentary and journalistic material that was gathered by Luigi Freddi. It was acquired in 1994 on the occasion of the re-release by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of “Il cinema”, a memoir written by Freddi between 1948 and 1949.

Luigi Freddi (1895-1977) – Journalist and Italian politician, he was a leading figure of the fascist culture and was General Director for Cinematography and main promoter of the establishment of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and Cinecittà.

Collection of theatre and film books that belonged to Nedo Ivaldi.

Nedo Ivaldi (1931-1997) – Journalist and film critic. He wrote for newspapers and specialist magazines such as «Cinema», «Filmcritica», «Giornale dello Spettacolo», and «Rivista del Cinematografo», and was the author of important monographs on censorship, the relationship between literature and cinema, and animated films. He was a dedicated promoter of film festivals and conventions and director of «Teleconfronto Internazionale-Rassegna di Telefilm e Film per la TV» (the international television film festival). He also acted as film programme-planner for RAI.

The Collection was created in 2017, thanks to the donation of the corpus by part of his relatives. It includes handwritten and typed versions of his articles, essays and books, many of which have been published, supported by notes from his bibliographic research and the stills which have been used for the iconographic apparatus of his publications. The folders are divided into files which contain press reviews of his work as assistant director and book reviews; the retained documents about the outfitting of exhibits and from his time as program creator at Rai is also interesting. It is also worth mentioning the material from his lectures at the Fine Arts Academy of Sassari, Florence and Rome and from the seminars, as well as his collaborations and participations to cultural associations, festivals and conferences. The collection also includes thirteen scriptments and screenplays by Mancini himself, as well as the screenplays “Come ti chiami amore mio?” by Umberto Silva, “L’Avventura” and “Ritorno a Lisca Bianca” by Michelangelo Antonioni.

Michele Mancini (1947-2005) –  Movie critic and essayist. After graduating in Philosophy and Sociology with dissertations about film language, he was Director of the film workshop at the University of Palermo, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy from 1979 to 1989.  From 1969 to 1976 he was a member of the editorial staff and board of the magazine «Filmcritica». He was one of the founders and editorial director of the quarterly «Fiction» from 1977 to 1981. In addition to several essays and articles on various magazines, he published a few books, such as Max Ophuls (1978) and Erich Rohmer (1982) and he curated, with Giuseppe Perrella, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Corpi e luoghi (1981) and Michelangelo Antonioni. Architetture della visione (1986). He was a TV program creator at Rai for the show Falsi ritorni per un Archeologia del set (1983, 1989) and curator of multimedia exhibitions.

This is a large collection, comprising over 100 folders of newspaper/magazine clippings collected from the 1930s to the 1980s and complemented by the precious archival and document collection. The archive reflects the wide spectrum of Meccoli’s activity.

Domenico Meccoli (1913-1983) – Journalist, editor of the magazine «Cinema» and of the weekly publication «Epoca». From 1953 onwards, Meccoli was also president of SNGCI (the National Union of Italian Film Journalists), and in 1961 he was Director of the Venice International Film Festival. He also worked as a scriptwriter for directors like Goffredo Alessandrini and Mario Soldati.

The collection was acquired. The variety of materials is quite diverse: it includes synopses, original screenplays, various old books and printed scores. The latter are musical compositions, mostly for films, dating between the 1910a and the late 1950s. The range of musical genres is exceptional (waltz, foxtrot, tango, march, slow fox and stornelli songs) and the list of authors, musicians and lyricists includes some of the most important names in the history of film music, such as Irving Berlin, Sammy Fain, Nacio Herb Brown, Carlos Gardel, as well as Cesare Andrea Bixio, Enzo Bonagura, Bixio Cherubini, Michele Galdieri and Nino Rota.

Luciano Michetti Ricci (1929-2009) – Journalist, director and film historian, expert in silent films.

The collection was donated by Massimo Puccini’s family and consists of cuttings of hundreds of published articles and reviews written by Massimo Mida Puccini over the course of his career, manuscripts and typescripts on cinematography and many unreleased synopses of projects, some of which were never filmed. 

Massimo Mida Puccini (1917-1992) – Film critic, scriptwriter and director. Also known under the pseudonym of Massimo Mida, he studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre)  between 1938 and 1940. He was a prolific scholar and film critic over the course of the 20th century and also worked as a synopsis writer, script writer and assistant director to great names such as Rossellini, Fellini, Lattuada, Comencini and Lizzani, before devoting himself to directing his own feature films (“I misteri di Roma”(1963), “Amore in quattro dimension”(1964) and “Il fratello”(1975) among others) and various documentaries, now collected at the National Film Library.

It includes 800 items, including film and theatre monographs and volumes of press reviews and precious magazines.

Fausto Montesanti (1919-1989) – Film critic and historian. He was first a student and then a professor of History at the CSC and a regular contributor of the magazine «Bianco e Nero. He served as Keeper of the National Film Archive from 1949 to1974.

This is a collection of 329 original screenplays and synopses. The most interesting items in the collection are: the original actors’ scripts, written in Sicilian dialect, for Visconti’s 1948 film “La terra trema”; the screenplay for Pietro Germi’s 1951 film “La città si difende”, the screenplay of “I vinti” and “La signora senza camelie” by Antonioni (both dated 1953).

Mario Natale (1921-2006) – Journalist, director of the Press Office at the Festival dei Due Mondi, co-director of the Taormina Film Festival and director of the Taormina Arte committee.

The collection consists in his correspondence, which was donated by Rondi himself in 2014: it covers the period of time ranging from 1946 to 2013, is alphabetically and chronologically organized according to sender and divided in five folders made up of 315 files (each of which pertains to a sender). Each folder is supplied with an inventory which specifies sender, subject, date, place, type, language, number of sheets, notes and attachments, when present, of all files. The collection comprises about 1,180 letters, cards, postcards, telegrams and other documents, which have all been digitalized and unveil, through the words of their protagonists, previously unknown facets of Italian cinema from the post-war period to the present day.

Gian Luigi Rondi (1921-2016) – Journalist, movie critic and cultural promoter. He presided the Venice Biennale, directed the Venice Film Festival, was among the founders of the Incontri Internazionali del Cinema in Sorrento, the Taormina FilmFest, the Festival dei Cinque Continenti in Ischia and he also founded Spoleto Cinema with L. Visconti, S. Cecchi D’Amico, F. Zeffirelli, M. Bogianckino, F. Fellini, L. Luchetti, G. C. Menotti. He was Secretary of Communications of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Special Commissioner of SIAE and President of the Rome Film Festival. Currently he is president of the Academy of Italian Cinema’s David di Donatello Awards and founder and president of the Vittorio De Sica Awards for film and other arts. He is the author of many film-related publications, including Cinema italiano oggi (1950), Neorealismo italiano (1951), Il cinema dei maestri (1981). He directed several documentaries, such as “Van Gogh”, which received the Bronze Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. He also won the Saint Vincent Award for journalism and was awarded the Order of Merit for School, Culture and Art and the Star of the Merit for Labour.

The collection consists in his correspondence, which was donated by Rondi himself in 2014: it covers the period of time ranging from 1946 to 2013, is alphabetically and chronologically organized according to sender and divided in five folders made up of 315 files (each of which pertains to a sender). Each folder is supplied with an inventory which specifies sender, subject, date, place, type, language, number of sheets, notes and attachments, when present, of all files. The collection comprises about 1,180 letters, cards, postcards, telegrams and other documents, which have all been digitalized and unveil, through the words of their protagonists, previously unknown facets of Italian cinema from the post-war period to the present day.

Gian Luigi Rondi (1921-2016) – Journalist, movie critic and cultural promoter. He presided the Venice Biennale, directed the Venice Film Festival, was among the founders of the Incontri Internazionali del Cinema in Sorrento, the Taormina FilmFest, the Festival dei Cinque Continenti in Ischia and he also founded Spoleto Cinema with L. Visconti, S. Cecchi D’Amico, F. Zeffirelli, M. Bogianckino, F. Fellini, L. Luchetti, G. C. Menotti. He was Secretary of Communications of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Special Commissioner of SIAE and President of the Rome Film Festival. Currently he is president of the Academy of Italian Cinema’s David di Donatello Awards and founder and president of the Vittorio De Sica Awards for film and other arts. He is the author of many film-related publications, including Cinema italiano oggi (1950), Neorealismo italiano (1951), Il cinema dei maestri (1981). He directed several documentaries, such as “Van Gogh”, which received the Bronze Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. He also won the Saint Vincent Award for journalism and was awarded the Order of Merit for School, Culture and Art and the Star of the Merit for Labour.