Italy's First Screening: Movie Movie - The History of World Cinema

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12/3/1896: Italy's First Screening

Italy’s inaugural screening took place in Rome on the 12^th March 1896 at De Liure’s photographic studio in Via del Mortaro, near the Trevi Fountain. Screenings continued there until the 10^th May. Screenings soon reached other cities: Milan, at the Teatro Milanese on the 29^th March; the Salone Margherita (which was still operating as a cabaret theatre in the 1980s) in Naples on the 4^th April; Venice on the 22^nd August, Bologna on the 29^th,and Turin on the 7^th November. In October, Vittorio Calcina and a partner opened the first public cinema in Italy in a former hospital in Turin. The following month, Calcina shot the first Italian film Umberto e Margherita di Savoia a passeggio per il parco, for which he filmed King Umberto and Margherita of Savoy strolling in the park. Calcina would later become the Royal Cinematographer. [ADD]