Nine films documenting Italian Entertainment from the twentieth century to the present day, presenting in synthesis the great scenarios of cinema, theater, music, and television.
A journey among extraordinary characters, films, voices, and testimonies. An itinerary reconstructed through the images of the Istituto Luce and Rai Teche in a montage and with texts that respect and relaunch them in the contemporary world.
The Spoleto Festival, which has hosted and promoted international and Italian culture since its inception, takes the opportunity to propose a wide-ranging vision of a historical and artistic adventure.
Liveliness, passion, intensity are the ingredients of a compelling look at the past to better understand the present and to identify the future that awaits us.

Italo Moscati
director and writer,screenwriter, teaches Media History and Visual Arts. For cinema, he wrote "Il portiere di notte" and five other films with Liliana Cavani, and screenplays with Luigi Comencini, Silvano Agosti, Giuliano Montaldo and others; he directed the TV movie "Gioco perverso," the serial "Stelle in fiamme," and doc films including "Il sogno del futuro," "Le mille e una Venezia," "Risvegli d'Italia," "La ciociara e le altre," "Occhi sgranati," "Via Veneto Set," "Passioni nere," "Il paese mancato," "Viziati 1," "Viziati 2," "Viziati 3," "Non solo voce- Maria Callas," "Luciano Pavarotti, l'ultimo tenore?", "Christmas Lights," "Women & Women," "The Years of 9," "Gianburrasca & C."
Among his latest volumes, "Perverse Game. The True Story of Osvaldo Valenti and Luisa Ferida," "I piccoli Mozart," "Sophia Loren," "Sergio Leone- Quando il cinema era grande",Lindau publisher; "Le scarpe di Jack Kerouac" and "Pasolini passione" editi from Ediesse; "Anna Magnani" and "Vittorio De Sica," editi from Ediesse-Eri.
Moscati has received prestigious awards including the St. Vincent, the Tuscania, the Biella, the Stone Lion, and the Cinemadamare for radio programs: the to participation "Hollywood Party," "The Return of Belfagor," screenplay, "At 8 o'clock in the Evening" (dedicated portraits to great actors and directors, including Hitchcock), "But how was '68," "1989- the collapse of the Wall" (chosen for the 2009 Prix Italia).

The decision to present my work as part of Festival dei Due Mondi is meant to be an opportunity to review the "Italian Spectacle" and its protagonists: a tribute but also a hope for the future, namely that the "Italian Spectacle" can rediscover all its talents and its wonderful
history.
Italo Moscati

Program

Via Veneto Set (86'), 2007
subject, screenplay, direction by Italo Moscati
The "Dolce vita" years as we know them and as we have never seen them, with unpublished, lost, forgotten documents. The Roman street as the limelight of the world in the images and satire of newsreels.
Famous personalities, Fellini, extras, magicians, murders, tabloid newspapers, political plots.
But also personalities who had lost kingdoms and fortunes, and had taken refuge in the dolce vita such as the deposed ruler Faruk, Arab princes and Soraya, repudiated by the Persian Shah, nobles, poets such as Ungaretti and Cardarelli. An exciting and lively narrative. The film was selected for the Prix Italia.

Passioni Nere (102'), 2000
subject, screenplay and direction by Italo Moscati
The spectacular and exciting tale of a cinema that begins in the 1930s and changes its face within a few years, those of the final part of World War II, 1943-45. From white telephone comedies to epic films. From the Olympus of Cinecittà and the stars (Clara Calamai, Doris Duranti, Luisa Ferida, Osvaldo Valenti, Amedeo Nazzari, Gino Cervi and others) to the reckoning of a harsh civil war.
And darkness fell on cinema as the brief but fruitful season of neorealism was being prepared. Rare images of wartime and immediate postwar Italy are interwoven with sequences from famous films.

Not Only Voice: Maria Callas (72'), 2007
subject, screenplay, direction by Italo Moscati
The myth, the legend of the great Greek singer who became famous in Italy told to thirty years after her death, throughopera, cinema, news, love, happiness, pain. Presented on TV, at La Scala in Milan andOpera in Rome. An exciting biography with the most prestigious performances: from Tosca to Carmen. But the lesser known things such as the accusation of collaborationism with the Nazis, the flight to America, the restless debuts. And above all the love affairs: with the industrialist Meneghini, who helped her to conquer the Verona Arena; with the powerful Greek shipowner Onassis; the attraction that the poet-director Pier Paolo Pasolini had for her. The painful end to Paris in complete solitude.
Presented at the Art and Culture Film Festival in Israel to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Luciano Pavarotti - The Last Tenor? (66'), 2008
subject, screenplay, direction by Italo Moscati
The life and career of the great tenor, of Big Luciano, the Tenorissimo. His humble beginnings, choice of singing, early successes, marriage and daughters, meeting Nicoletta, exploits from singer entrepreneur of concerts in world capitals, from London to New York. An all-round activism to between theaters, films, large squares for memorable concerts. His last years and the great commotion at his death. The doc was presented at the 2008 Rome Music Film Festival. Winner of the 2009 Tv Blog Award for the documentary and docufiction category.
Presented at the Art and Culture Film Festival in Israel to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

I protagonisti (5p.of 40'), 2000
subject, screenplay, direction by Italo Moscati
Indro Montanelli, Vittorio Gassman, Alberto Sordi, Sophia Loren, Monica Vitti. Five great personalities "tell about themselves" only through interviews and participation to shows and TV programs. A mine of entertainment and curiosity from to which the talent of the characters emerges, and their ability to "make history" in our country. Strong central personalities in the life of entertainment and custom. A true rediscovery. An ironic and satirical taste. The representation of an Italy that television editing recreates, giving flavor to "unintentional portraits," i.e., to portraits made by the protagonists, without adding commentary. The best of journalism, cinema, theater, and television in a fast-paced journey dense with content and stories. Presented at the Salerno Festival.

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