“CINEMA CITY”

Southland Times, Issue 23227, 16 June 1937, Page 9

“CINEMA CITY”

Italy Builds A New Hollywood Powerfully backed by the government, the Italian film industry is making a strong bid to recapture the place it held before the World War. Millions have been invested in the construction of a movie centre; called “Citta del Cinema,” or “Cinema City,” a few miles from Rome. There a new town is springing up that is already being termed the “Italian Hollywood.” It is, in fact, modelled after the Californian movie capital, writes a Rome correspondent of The New York Times. The new centre occupies 2,000,000 square feet. It is completely equipped for picture production, with nine stages, score of office buildings and six projection rooms. It has its own electric power plant and water and telephone systems. So far, however, no Italian film has been produced to equal the best French, German, English or American pictures. The Italians note the difference, although the Press praises almost any reel produced at home and freely criticizes foreign ones. The indifference of the public to homemade films has been so marked that theatre owners have been compelled to show Italian films for a specified number of days. The Italian producers lack technical experts and, above all, directors who can make people act according to motion-picture requirements. Italy has scores of talented stage actors, but none has achieved outstanding sucess in the films.