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This issue of the 'Archival Notes' column describes two richly intertwined archival collections, one personal and one institutional. Both are held at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin (MNC, Italy) and house documents pertaining to the activities of MNC's founder and film historian Maria Adriana Prolo (1908–91). The column provides a brief personal profile, details her personal and professional challenges – which led her to compare notes with Henri Langlois of the Cinémathèque française – and sheds light on the plans, accomplishments and never-realized projects of Italy's first (and for decades only) woman film museum director. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the connection between Italian and Colombian cinema through the novels and films of Colombian author and filmmaker Fernando Vallejo (1942–present). It examines Vallejo's autofictional novel, Los caminos a Roma (The Roads to Rome) (1988) where he recounts his experience as a student at Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1966, criticizes Italian neorealism and auteurism, and articulates his embryonic idea to create a film set during Colombia's civil war. In his critique of Italian cinema, I argue that Vallejo embodies a certain hostility towards European film, its institutions and especially Italian neorealism that was percolating in the Latin America of the 1960s and 1970s. Exploring the historiography of Italy's relationship with Latin American cinema, I remark on an emergent (and problematic) privileging of Italian neorealism as a prototype for New Latin American Cinema (NLAC) and consider how Vallejo's filmmaking was shaped in opposition to Italian archetypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between Italian cinema, fashion, and the construction of a new national image in the postwar period. It focuses on fashion films from the Settimana INCOM newsreels, analyzing how Italian fashion was portrayed and filmed. The article also explores the transatlantic exchanges that influenced Italy's political, economic, and cultural trajectory after World War II. It highlights the role of fashion and film in Italy's reconstruction and the promotion of a new Italian identity. The article discusses the significance of fashion in the INCOM newsreels and its impact on Italy's moral and economic rehabilitation. It emphasizes the role of fashion as a manufacturing industry and a platform for cultural and political diplomacy between Italy and the United States. The newsreels showcased Italian fashion and its emergence in the country's new consumer society, featuring American ambassadors, actors, and fashion reports. Fashion figures like Micol Fontana and Giovanni Battista Giorgini acted as cultural mediators, promoting Italian style and contributing to Italy's rehabilitation and rebirth. The article also explores the role of the magazine La Settimana INCOM Illustrata in shaping Italian identity and documenting the nation's progress after World War II. It covers topics such as fashion, etiquette, and the relationship between Italy and the US. The article highlights the importance of fashion in postwar Italy and its connection to the concept of "Made in Italy." It emphasizes the role of fashion as a form of soft power and its intersection with cinema and media. [Extracted from the article]

Over the last two decades, Italian cinema has turned its gaze towards the Mediterranean Sea to dismantle the narratives constructed by populist political parties and mainstream European media, which have emphasized the rhetoric of border protection, security and legality through the systematic depersonalization of migrants. Film counter-narratives to this have been effectively developed, and cinema has responded to the materiality and fixity of migrants' bodies by composing stories in which these migrants recover their sociopolitical agency. This article provides a close analysis of the characterization in Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma (2011) and Gianfranco Rosi's Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) (2016) in relation to technical and stylistic forms of filmic representation. Particular attention is paid to the correlation between the aesthetic level of the films and the social dimension of the characters, which is primarily expressed through framing in which the migrant occupies the central position, establishing a dialectical relationship with the other characters and their social space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines cinematic portrayals of immigrant integration in Naples, Italy particularly through documentaries. It emphasizes the complexity of the integration process, exploring emotional dimensions and challenges faced by immigrants in a dynamic societal landscape. It highlights the role of select films in capturing diverse narratives, shedding light on the struggles and cultural clashes experienced by migrants.