Cinema Barberini

On May 18, 1940, according to a listing in Il Messaggero, the Barberini was running the 1938 Max Ophuls French film “Werther” (Le Roman de Werther) with Pierre-Richard Willm and Annie Vernay. Beginning at 4 P.M. there were five showings each day. One wonders if in these anti-semitic times, the Jewish director’s name was mentioned in any publicity. Ophuls had made his only Italian film in 1934, “La signora di tutti.”

“Il mulino del Po'” (The Mill on the Po) by Lattuada opened here and at the Metropolitan on October 14, 1949.

Actor Alberto Sordi said that after his 1942 film I 3 aquilotti opened at the Barberini, he would pass by every afternoon to watch the patrons going in and out. Someone asked him for an autograph. It was the first one of his life.

The premiere of Vittorio De Sica’s 1951-released Miracolo a Milano was held here. Newsreel footage of the premiere with many celebrities in attendance appeared in the 2001 documentary Così è la vita. That is included as an extra (That’s Life: Vittorio De Sica) on the Criterion DVD of Umberto D. Shots of the exterior and interior of the Barberini can be seen.

Yes, I know Via Rasella. Partisans set off a bomb there in March, 1944, killing a number of German soldiers. In reprisal the Nazis rounded up and shot ten Italians (randomly picked, plus any Jews around) for every German. The story is told in the 1962 Italian film “Dieci italiani per un tedesco” and in the 1973 Richard Burton/Marcello Mastroianni film “Massacre in Rome” (“Rappresaglia.”) I don’t think Rossellini shot the round-up sequence for “Open City” there, but it was based on that and other similar Gestapo atrocities.

The unlucky Italians were taken to and shot near the catacombs on the outskirts of Rome at a place called the Fosse Ardeatine, the Ardeatine Caves. Then the Germans blew up the caves hoping to hide the massacre. I have visited the beautiful memorial at the caves. I think President George W. Bush was taken there on a visit to Rome.

When I visited Rome recently I went to the Allied cemetery for fallen British/British Empire soldiers. It is located inside the Aurelian Wall between Testaccio and Porta San Paolo. Lovely peaceful place, well-maintained, as is the Fosse Ardeatine site.

This more recent photo was taken this month.
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Thanks, Gerald, for information about those bookings at the Cinema Barberini (and Metropolitan) — do you have other titles to share?

Many historic Italian films premiered here. For the record, Vittorio De Sica’s landmark “Ladri di biciclette” (“The Bicycle Thief,” “Bicycle Thieves”) opened here and at the Cinema Metropolitan on November 24, 1948.

On my first visit to Rome in 1962, I saw Wm Wyler’s “Children’s Hour” at this theater (Italian title: “Quelle due” ‘Those two’). I remember it as a formally pleasing but bare house, with long commercial advertisements and in-house refreshment sales in the European manner preceding the feature. Last month on a work trip to Rome, I used an Internet Caffe next door, and one morning took the opportunity to chat up a theater staff member before the house opened at noon. I asked if I could view the theaters. He said he’d have to ask his manager, left, but returned luckless, and was reluctant to let me inside. My Italian is passable, but his Roman dialect was thick, so I missed some nuance in our conversation. He did not know the connection with Rossellini vecchio, and I don’t think he recognized the name of Rossellini giovane (incredibile!), but he did know Ingrid Bergman and thought her greatest film was “Per cui la campana suona” ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.” A block away is the via Rassella, the site of a famous Nazi atrocity in WWII which furnished a prototype for the climax of “Open City.” He drew a blank on that. The theater appears to be divided into balcony twins, orchestra twins, and a fifth small screening room in the orchestra. The ticketing is wonderfully electronic, with a digitalized sign indicating the number of seats left for sale at each performance. The balcony theaters seat 150 and 149 respectively, the orchestra 478 and 297, and the subsection seats fifty. There is an automatic ticket machine that accepts credit cards for payment. Tickets cost 7.50 euros, a tad higher than the 6 euros charged at other theaters. Popcorn (they didn’t sell that there in ’62, though I do remember that they sold ice cream pops) ranges from 2 to 7 euros (mamma mia!). For the record, the current attractions were (1) “King Arthur” (2) “Bourne Supremacy” (3) “Terminal” (4) “Spiderman2” (5) “Due fratelli,” a French naturist film about twin tigers. Seating is not permitted after the film has begun (another European mannerism). (I still pine for the old days in NYC when you could walk in any time during continuous showings.)