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Although medieval settings and themes are often confined to a political perspective – sometimes turning the Middle Ages into a political metaphor – this simply cannot constitute the only interpretation of the “medievalist” film  genre. This issue of “Bianco e Nero” attempts to provide the broadest and most diverse overview on this topic.

This issue of “Bianco e nero”, directed by Felice Laudadio and edited by Maurizio Porro, traces Mariangela Melato’s entire career and her contribution to the cinema, theatre and television industry.

This well-documented and extensively illustrated book reveals for the first time the fascinating, dramatic and unexpected story of the most censored film in the history of Italian cinema.

This book  attempts to analyze the relationship between that brave intellectual from Racalmuto, whom our society so greatly misses, and the seventh art, through the memories and observations of his nephew, director Fabrizio Catalano, a former student of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

Interviews with 116 actors, directors, screenwriters, film-makers, producers protagonists of the second Italian cinema (1930-1943).

It portrays how the film industry was affected by the pandemic.

This issue is wholly dedicated to Bernardo Bertolucci. The magazine’s work “revolving around” Bertolucci yielded a rich mosaic that allows the reader to “observe”, passing from one piece to the next, and pause at one particular article or another and then go back altogether, in a way like watching a movie through a moviola or on a DVD player. However, the final result, as we believe it to be, is a unified and well-rounded portrait of one of the greatest talents in the history of world cinema and of his fantastic art of storytelling through images. A one-of-a-kind that, according to Treccani Encyclopaedia, is “a phenomenon that occurs only once, absolutely exceptional and unrepeatable”. That is precisely Bernardo Bertolucci. (From the editorial by Felice Laudadio). This issue contains contributions by: Edoardo Albinati, Niccolò Ammaniti, Francesco Barilli, Ilaria Bernardini, Andrea Carraro, Paolo Di Paolo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Dacia Maraini, Gabriella Palli Baroni, Romana Petri, Aurelio Picca, Ludovica Rampoldi, Lidia Ravera, Alberto Rollo, Antonio Scurati.

A gallery of stars of the entertainment industry, including but not limited to Italians, set against the backdrop of this country’s cultural history, whose legacy should not be lost.

This book features critical articles sounding the work of Frederick Wiseman, a cinematographer who exposed the strengths and weaknesses of American society in his documentaries, expanding upon the language of the so-called “reality cinema”. New updated edition.

The book follows the evolution of the Italian horror genre during the years 1956-1979. While the gothic horror genre is not really part of our culture, it quickly gained large success and prestige on an international scale thanks to the talent of Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Massimo Pupillo and Camillo Mastrocinque, thus kick-starting the publishing of European fantasy film fanzines. The book is enriched by a very thorough filmography.

The CSC pays tribute to one of its most eminent teachers, Giuseppe Rotunno, great director of photography and the master of light of some of the showpieces that left a mark on film history. His contribution spans half a century of the history of cinema, with collaborations with Visconti, Fellini, De Sica, Rossellini, Wertmüller, Monicelli, Pietrangeli, Risi, Zurlini, Freda, Stanley Kramer, Bob Fosse, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Terry Gilliam.

Two directors, Steno and Monicelli, two great showmen, Totò and Fabrizi, two producers, Ponti and De Laurentis. Two production projects. And two versions of the movie: on one side, the film we all know, which was released in cinemas at the time, on the other side, the version which has been preserved in the archives of the Cineteca Nazionale, whose differences highlight the grotesque, months-long clash between the production and the Direzione Generale dello Spettacolo (General Directorate of Entertainment). Using the discovery of this version as a starting point, Alberto Anile analyses the creative, productive and censorious development of a major masterpiece of Italian cinematography. He examines Guardie e ladri from the original idea up to the philological juxtaposition of the two versions, uncovering small and great behind-the-scenes anecdotes of a “twofold” opus which blends humour and bitterness, rebelliousness and detachment.

This Quaderno, the brainchild of Mario Patané and Nino Genovese, created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Musco’s birth (18th December 1871), represents one of the fruits of a complex effort by the Cineteca Nazionale, whose expertise ensured the restoration of delicate and rare film footage.

Giorgio Arlorio (Turin, February 27th, 1929) was one of the most prominent figures of Italian post-war cinema. He worked with great masters (Gillo Pontecorvo, Dino Risi, Mario Camerini, Mario Monicelli, Mauro Bolognini) and wrote very successful B films (La Patata bollente by Steno, L’arciere delle mille e una notte by Antonio Margheriti, Il mercenario by Sergio Corbucci, Zorro by Duccio Tessari). He was an important TV author (he was the curator of Specchio segreto, a cult TV programme in the 1960s, with Nanni Loy) and taught screenwriting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia for several years (1999-2016). His biography is a journey through Italian cinema, that defies the archetypal division between art-house films and B movies, between politically committed motion pictures and commercial works. Through a valuable series of stories, anecdotes and information, all marked by the subtle irony that is an essential part of his storytelling, Arlorio helps us to better understand the nature of Italian cinema, its truest and deepest essence.

In addition to being a great actor, Lino Capolicchio was blessed by living during a unique era in Italy: the Sixties and Seventies. This was a time in which the world witnessed an unprecedented ethical and aesthetic revolution, affecting every aspect of human life from politics to philosophy, from cinema to music, from art to theatre, from literature to architecture. Throughout those fabulous years, Lino Capolicchio was, first and foremost, an iconic figure, a role that is clearly painted in his memoir, which offers touching and flawless evidence of this, especially through his brilliant analyses of certain extraordinary encounters, such as those with Sergio Tofano, Giorgio Strehler, Anna Magnani, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini, The Beatles, Carmelo Bene and Fabrizio De André.

The book publishes a series of photographs (most of which previously unreleased) taken between 1969 and 1971 by cinematographer and photographer Maurizio Maggi. Maggi accompanied Welles during the shooting of The Deep, a film based on a novel by Charles Williams and starring, among others, Oja Kodar, and during the production of a series of sketches meant for a Cbs TV special known as Orson’s Bag. Maggi himself narrates this wonderful adventure in an interview with Luca Pallanch.

It traces the career of one of Italy’s most beloved actors, enriched by remarkable photos from the Cineteca Nazionale’s Photographic Archive. It also features accounts by Federico Fellini, Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Ettore Scola, Marco Bellocchio and Liliana Cavani, among others.

The number 596 of “Bianco e Nero” is entirely dedicated to Mario Monicelli, who was indisputably one of the great authors of our cinema.

It is a manual on the theory of filmmaking which was written during the war but never published as a result of the ongoing conflict.

The number 597 of «Bianco e Nero» is entirely dedicated to Carlo Lizzani.

It is a step-by-step biography that is also the reconsideration of a genius, with his lies and his truths. A volume largely based on the actor’s personal archive, full of unpublished documents and never-before-seen images.

The catalogue lists the 221 films restored, preserved and reissued between 2002 and 2016.

A talk between directing teacher Gianni Amelio and his former pupil, Francesco Munzi, which originates inside the rooms of the Experimental Centre and evolves into a reflection on the significance of directing. Over the course of a few weeks, in the summer of 2015, the two directors belonging to two different generations met in front of a recorder and then reviewed and rewrote hours of conversation, finally creating this book.

When talking about studio system in Italy, it is impossible to not mention Fortunato Misano’s Romana Film, active between 1945 and 1970. Over the course of its 25 years of activity, Romana Film maintained an independent studio system policy. Romana Film means about one hundred films, averaging at four movies per year. Up until 1959 it specialized in popular melodramatic films, often set in Naples and replete with songs and singers. Since the 1960s it specialized in adventure films, with distinctive features. Worth mentioning, among its most trusted directors, are Domenico Paolella, Luigi Capuano and the young Umberto Lenzi. This book traces the adventurous enterprise of Romana Film, with photographs and previously unpublished materials supplied by the Misano family.

Special issue exploring the new and radical transformations taking place within the globalised landscape of audiovisual content, using Netflix as a case study. Examines in particular how on-demand video streaming platforms like Netflix are changing the nature of film production and consumption.

This mainly photographic special edition of «Bianco e Nero» («Black and White»), published on the hundredth anniversary of cinema, pays tribute to a hundred stars that have marked the history of film. Many of the reviews are by Chiara Samugheo.

“Il giallo e il cinema in Italia” (1910-1972). A cross-sectional study that, with an original look, examines the overflowing vocation to mystery and its multiple variations. With a shiver in the back. Bilingual edition.

The volume describes the mythical era of “Hollywood on the Tiber”, the golden years of Cinecittà, when Rome was the true capital of cinema and when American divas descended the aircraft stairs at Ciampino Airport and strolled down Via Veneto to be immortalized by the paparazzi.