Cinema Barberini
Piazza Barberini, 24,
Rome
00187
Piazza Barberini, 24,
Rome
00187
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On June 10, 1950 Luchino Visconti’s film “La terra trema” opened here and at the Quirinetta, probably in a cut and re-dubbed version.
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.”
The first film I ever saw here was Costa-Gravras' “Z” on July 27, 1969.
“Il mulino del Po'” (The Mill on the Po) by Lattuada opened here and at the Metropolitan on October 14, 1949.
Another great shot Chuck1231.
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.
Two movie ads from the Rome newspaper ll Messaggero on March 14, 1941 or XIX, 19th year of Fascism. At the Bernini: Scarpe Grosse/Big Shoes, Dino Falconi, 1940, with Amedeo Nazzari and Lilia Silvi. Starting tomorrow at the Barberini: La prima donna che passa/The First Woman Who Passes By, Max Neufeld, 1940, with Alida Valli. These were the only movies with display ads, but the film listings had over sixty theatres listed with the titles and times of films playing. In addition to Italian films there were many French titles and some American movies, including Ombre rosse which was John Ford’s Stagecoach with John Wayne and Claire Trevor. American films would be blocked by year’s end with the declaration of war between the two nations shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. The Barberini is now a multiplex called Multisala Barberini and still thrives on Piazza Barberini. It was at one time owned by Roberto Rossellini’s father. I do not know where in Rome the Bernini was located.
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.
The movie I remember seeing here and would most love to see again but that seems to have entered the legion of the lost is Due pezzi di pane, directed by Sergio Citti, a friend and collaborator of Pier Paolo Pasolini. It had Vittorio Gassman and Philippe Noiret as two roaming musicians, Pippo and Peppe, who unknowingly have the same girl, Lucia. The two return from a prision stretch, the girl dies and leaves a child, Piripicchio, whom they raise with some sad consequences. The film had a Pasolini-esque kind of ribald humor and a fervent melancholy charm that I’ve never forgotten. I saw it at the Barberini on February 17, 1979. A few days later I caught Giuliano Montaldo’s Il giocattolo, starring Nino Manfredi, at the same theatre.
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.
Yes. Superbo. Mille grazie. My life-saving internet-caffe is just to the left of this theater. And to the right, barely up the via quattro fontane, and then just off to the right again on the via Rasella, is the site of the devastating raid in Rossellini’s “Open City,” no? Whether or not R shot that scene on this street (I’ve gotta check it on my VCR), the Nazis did stage a lethal raid there in ‘44. The twentieth, the most brutal of centuries.
This more recent photo was taken this month.
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Here is a photo that shows the Cinema Barberini in relationship to Bernini’s Triton fountain in Piazza del Tritone. I took it in April of 2001 when leading a group of students around Rome. The Barberini was only caught accidentally in the shot. It is to the left of the photo, behind the M (for Metro) sign.
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Thanks, Gerald, for information about those bookings at the Cinema Barberini (and Metropolitan) — do you have other titles to share?
For nice views of the Cinema Barberini, outside and inside, see the Criterion Collection DVD set of Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard.” Disc 2 features newsreels of the gala premiere of that film here in March 1963.
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.
Speaking of Rome the last time I was there the great music hall the Adriano was being multiplexed. This was a european opera house style theater with many tiers where I saw A Proposito di Henry(Regarding Henry) many years ago to a packed house where they sold standing room! The first time I ever heard such a thing for a movie.
I will never go to Piazza Cavour again. Too heartbreaking. The Italians have a lot of problems with us matti Americani but they ape our worse characteristics at every turn(just like the french.) Go figure.
When I first went to italy in the early 90’s all the single screens were still single screens. Sheer heaven! I think it’s all changed.
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.)