Cinema Azzurro Scipioni
Via degli Scipioni 82,
Rome
00192
Via degli Scipioni 82,
Rome
00192
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This small independent Roman art house is located in Zona Prati, a short walk from St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican, about a block from the Ottaviano stop of the Metropolitana. The founder and owner is Silvano Agosti, an avant-garde independent filmmaker who sometimes shows his own films here, as well as those of his contemporaries.
The cinema was actually named Azzurro (Blue) after the film “Il Pianeta Azzurro” of Franco Piavoli, and Scipioni after the street it is on, Via degli Scipioni. Recent and classic Italian and non-Italian films are programmed in good measure. The little cinema has two auditoriums, the larger “Sala Lumiere” downstairs and the smaller “Sala Chaplin” upstairs. Most of the films are shown in 35mm but in the upstairs Chaplin, video projections are often the norm.
The seats in the theatre are actually old airliner seats, so that you feel here that you might be in a large plane. In short, this is a very unique place for the serious film buff visiting or residing in the Eternal City. It was closed in December 2020.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
One of the films that has been often shown by Silvano Agosti at his theatre is, understandably, his own 1984 D'AMORE SI VIVE (“One Lives by Love”), started as a film series made for television (and running about nine hours) and later edited into a shorter feature length movie. Shot in the city of Parma, the movie examines in slow precise details the workings of love, especially among society’s rejected, physically and mentally challenged, socially excluded and otherwise loveless. It does this with a spirit of affection and not pity.
One has the sense in watching this film that one is peering surreptitiously into the privateness of others, their near-masturbatory ecstasies and very private joys. But instead of shock, the feeling is one of overall tenderness for love in all its varieties. Who does not deserve love? The almost voyeuristic nature of the movie aroused antipathy in some quarters.
It is worth a trip to the Azzurro Scipioni to see this film if it is ever being re-programmed, as it is from time to time. I saw it in a video projection of its shorter feature-length version at this cinema. I do not believe the movie has ever been shown in the United States.
Photo of the exterior.
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I saw the wonderful film by Gianni Amelio “I ragazzi di via Panisperna” here in July 1989 in a fine 35mm print.
Mr DeLuca do you know which cinema was used when Sandrelli worked as an usher in I knew Her Well?
vindanpar, I don’t know that. I do remember her as an usher in Pietrangeli’s “Io la conoscevo bene.” Perhaps it was the same place used in that film.
I saw Fellini’s last film “La voce della luna” at the Azzurro Scipioni in December 1990. Fine 35mm print.
Yes that’s the film. I used the English translation. Do you know what cinema that was? It was pretty large.
Saw Fellini’s Roma here on August 15, 1985. 35mm print.
CLOSES THE AZURE SCIPIONS Silvano Agosti has announced the closure of the cinema Azzurro Scipioni of Rome. This closes not only a cinema room, but the place of the history of cinema, the only place in Rome where it was possible to see and review the masterpieces of world