Russia – Italy: Cultural Dialog Cannot Be Interrupted

Italy is a special country for Russia, with its thousand-year history, monuments of Antiquity, Renaissance masterpieces, magical blue skies, and certainly cinematography! The famous Italian neorealism that we were all absolutely and unselfishly in love with…

We were ready to watch time and time again Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, Giuseppe De Santis’s Bitter Rice – we admired them, we imitated them, we were thrilled by them.

In the 20th century, it was cinema that became one of the main sides of the cultural dialog between Russia and Italy. Back in the 20s and 30s, Italian directors visited the USSR, and our films were repeatedly presented at the Venice Festival. Largely relying on the movie language and movie laws, developed by Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and other masters of Soviet cinema, Italian filmmakers gave the world outstanding pictures of neorealism.

The birth of this unique genre of cinematic art was due to the rise of the Resistance movement in Italy in the 40’s, when young filmmakers consciously refused to shoot censorship-authorized fictional melodramas and comedies and turned to the true life of the Italian people in all its simplicity and tragedy.

With the release of the first manifesto film of this movement in 1945, Rome, Open City, directed by Roberto Rossellini, neorealism brought a complete renewal of style and principles of image in the art of cinema. Its foundation was “reality” itself.

The cinematography consciously abandoned the pavilions with lavish sets and costumes, turning noisy city streets and spacious rural landscapes into full-fledged characters, and the sincere play of non-professional performers laid the foundation for emotional naturalness, which would later be masterfully embodied on the screen by the wonderful actors Anna Magnani, Giulietta Masina, Vittorio Gasman, Aldo Fabrizzi, and many others.

Poignant stories about love, worries, and joys of ordinary people, their losses and search for a better life, and most importantly about the moral choice acquired a special documentary character due to this approach, whereas the audience did not just recognize their own lives on the screen, but fully believed and empathized with the films’ protagonists.

It should be noted that the high quality of these films was in no way related to the large budget of film production, as the post-war Italian economy was in an extremely poor condition. Unemployment was rampant in the cities, and agriculture was devastated. Although the state could do almost nothing to help directors, Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Giuseppe de Santis, Pietro Germi, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni were able to turn simple stories into masterpieces of cinematic art.

Neorealism relied on social and moral ideas that were close to the socialist doctrine, so the new Italian cinema immediately received serious support in the Soviet Union.

The cinematography of our countries was united by the commonality of themes and problems displayed on the screen. Italian films were widely shown in Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities of the USSR, and Italian viewers in turn were constantly familiarized with Soviet films at numerous festivals and weeks of our cinema in Italy.

Ideological and cultural commonality contributed to the emergence of a record number of joint Soviet-Italian film productions. Such movies as The Red Tent (directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969), Sunflower (Vittorio De Sica, 1970), Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1970), Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia (Eldar Ryazanov, 1973), Life is Beautiful (Grigory Chukhrai, 1979), Red Bells (Andrei Bondarchuk, 1983), Nostalgia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983), Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987) were screened before packed audiences with great success.

The strengthening of cinematographic ties was facilitated by the International Film Festival, which has been held continuously in Moscow since 1959 and where the audience immediately bought tickets to all Italian films.

At one of these festivals in 1987, I was lucky enough to meet Federico Fellini. Even today I am proud that my film Courier was in the same competition program with the film of the great master. And although the main award was justly given to Fellini’s Interview and Courier received a special jury prize, for me it was by no means a frustrating “loss.”

For a whole generation of Soviet directors – such as Khutsiev, Tarkovsky, Shpalikov, Konchalovsky, Mikhalkov, and others – neorealism became an important element in shaping their own style. Such films of the 60’s as I Am 20 Years Old by Marlen Khutsiev, Ivan’s Childhood by Andrei Tarkovsky, I walk Around Moscow by Georgy Danelia, A Long Happy Life by Gennady Shpalikov, The Story of Asya Klyachina, Who Loved, But Did Not Marry by Andrei Konchalovsky were created under the direct influence of Italian cinematography.

For me and my colleagues, the simplicity and picturesqueness of the frame, deep lyricism of the plot, artistic expressiveness and documentary aesthetics, keen interest in people, and sincere empathy for human dramas have forever become a high example of cinematic art.

Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Franco Zeffirelli developed Italian neorealism, bringing to it special ways of conveying on the screen the inner world of the characters. By enriching the language of cinema with special visual images – metaphors, dreams, memories – they raised Italian cinema to a new poetic level.

And the fact that I – a young director – managed to be on the same stage with the “titan of Italian neorealism” Federico Fellini and to get acquainted with the stars of Italian cinema – Giulietta Masina, Marcello Mastroianni, Giuseppe de Santis, Tonino Guerra – was in itself a great reward.

And Marcello Mastroianni actually was supposed to star in one of my movies. In the 90’s, the Italian side offered me to make a movie, in which the contract provided for Mastroianni to get the leading role. Along with my co-writer Alexander Borodyansky, we came to Rome and started writing the script of the movie Ward No. 6. Although the Italian producers eventually cancelled the project and I shot this movie much later in Russia, we remained friends with Mastroianni, and I kept a special connection with Italy for a long time.

Films made at the Mosfilm studio have constantly participated in various film weeks and festivals in Rome and other cities. I personally have often traveled to Italy and seen that Italians have a great interest and respect for Russian cinema; they know, read, and love books by Russian classics.

Unfortunately, due to the current geopolitical situation, Mosfilm is no longer able to participate in the Venice Film Festival, where for many years the section “Venice Classics” featured the restored films from our collection that enjoyed great success. Today, the international situation demands a serious reduction in the traditional cultural dialog between our countries. But I sincerely believe that Italy and Russia will find an opportunity for further friendship and cooperation.