An awful lot of celluloid film has been used since when in 1896 the Lumière brothers held the first ever film screening in Italy, right here in Turin! And even if the COVID emergency has put the "Turin - City of Cinema 2020" initiatives dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the National Museum of Cinema and the Turin-Piedmont Film Commission on standby, it's still easy to explore some of the city’s most fascinating locations: 20 multimedia spots scattered around the city which tell the story, in a game of mirrors, images and videos, of the first movies short in Piedmont's capital city. We begin with the old station of Porta Susa, for example, which in 1914 provided the backdrop for the silent movie "Cabiria", the first great blockbuster of cinematic history. Filming primarily took place on the Lungo Dora and in the Valli di Lanzo, but the statue of Moloch which was used in the film today is exhibited inside the Cinema Museum. In 1956, the epic movie "War and Peace", adapted from the novel by Tolstoj and starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda, was filmed in the Savoy Residence of Valentino Castle.
Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Louis Trintignant treaded the boards of Piazza della Repubblica and the market of Porta Palazzo (the biggest in Europe) for "La donna della domenica" by Luigi Comencini, which was released in 1975. One of the most famous films of that very same year is "Profondo Rosso" by Dario Argento, who carefully chose the Liberty-style sets of Turin’s hill and de Chirico-style set designs of Piazza CLN. "Santa Maradona" was a cult film for 30 year olds at the turn of the new millennium; Stefano Accorsi played the leading role in a movie which showcases Turin and its "night life", with a set located between via Lagrange and via Teofilo Rossi. The noble palazzo of the centre of Turin acted as the backdrop in the "Divo", where Toni Servillo played Giulio Andreotti. The film by Paolo Sorrentino, which won the jury's prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, was almost entirely shot in Turin. Amongst other movies, we also remember "Venuto al mondo", an international blockbuster directed by Sergio Castellitto starring Hollywood stars Penelope Cruz and Emile Hirsch; the Cavallerizza Reale stands in for parts of Sarajevo at the time of the Balkan war. And how could we not mention paradoxical comedy "Benvenuto Presidente" where Claudio Bisio is a random citizen who, after a strange event, becomes the President of the Republic? The Palace of Venaria and the historic palazzos of Turin are transformed into important palaces of Rome, showcasing the capital's prestige.