Dear Readers,
January jottings with an Italian Connection: Rome is a city built on seven hills. It was Mario Lanza, born January 31, 1921 who first sparked my interest in the topography of Rome, when, after leaving Hollywood to make a home for his family in Italy, he made the film “The Seven Hills of Rome” in 1957.
MGM agreed to finance and distribute the movie, which was well received by the public. It is a delightful musical comedy and color travelogue of some of Rome’s prettiest sights and scenery. Mario plays Marc Revere, an American TV star who is in Italy trying to repair his ruptured romance with socialite girlfriend (Peggie Castle.) In Rome, he takes up residence with his cousin Pepe Bonelli (portrayed by the popular Italian singer/comedian Renato Rascel) and meets a lovely local lass, thereby reducing his rekindling efforts.
A highlight of Seven Hills occurs when Marc sings Rascel’s composition “Arrivederci Roma” with an authentic Roman street urchin and a sequence in which Mario demonstrates his propensity for impressions as he performs impersonations of popular singers, which I recently saw on a Mario Lanza DVD documentary available from Netflix. Actually Rome has more than seven hills, but the smaller ones are not counted or touted.
“The Seven Hills of Rome” were carved out by the Tiber River and its tributary streams. The ancient Roman bestowed a title on each of the hills. The “seven hills” of Rome are the Capitoline, the Palatine, the Aventine, the Caelian, the Esquiline, the Viminal, and the Quirinal. The Capitoline was, according to legend, consecrated by Romulus to be the god Jupiter, and then became the site of Rome’s first and greatest temple.
As the highest of Rome’s hills, it was named capitolium, from caput (“head, top, summit”). The Palatine is the centermost hill, and is said by ancient historians to have been the first settled. It was named after the Pallanteum, an Italian settlement founded by Greeks from Arcadia. By the third century B.C., the Palatine had become a fashionable residential district.
Its showy buildings, in particular Augustus Caesar’s, were later called palatia. The Aventine is where Romulus was supposed to have killed his brother Remus and was therefore regarded by the Romans as a place of hill fortune. The authorities generously bestowed the hill upon the Roman people for settlement in 456 B.C. It was named after Aventius, thirteenth king of the Latins, who was buried there.
The Caelian was named after Caelius Vibenna, a Tuscan who joined the Romans to fight back their enemies after the rape of the Sabine Women. The Esquiline is actually an eastern plateau, whose name derives from excolo, “to cultivate”. The emperor Augustus gave the hill to the wealthy patron Caecenas, who built a mansion there that he, in turn, bequeathed to Augustus.
The Viminal is named after the osier tree, a species of willow, which grew there in number. In Latin the tree was called vimen. The Quirinal, northernmost of the hills, derives its name from the Sabine town of Cures. After the conflict between the Romans and Sabines was resolved and the peoples were united, the Romans, as a friendly gesture, took on the name “Quirites”, after the Cures. (The hill was supposedly originally settles by the Sabines.) A traffic tunnel runs through it today.
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Piemontesi nel Mondo, Associazione of Northern California, is hosting Cinema Piemonte, a free, three-day film festival in San Francisco and you are invited to view celebrated films from the first capital of Italy, Torino. Circle the dates of favorites on your calendar now: Cinema Piemonte will offer a sampling of film genres spanning from the silent era to modern times.
The films include: the fully restored 1914 silent film Cabiria (Sunday March 2), the first blockbuster in the history of cinema, complete with thieving pirates, grandiose sea battles, and an erupting volcano. The screening will be accompanied by an original score written and performed by Maestro Stefano Maccagno from Torino on the piano.
Riso Amaro (Saturday, March 1). Bitter Rice is one of the landmark films of the postwar Italian neo-realist movement, which pairs the social condemnation of the harsh working conditions of the female rice workers with the flaming passions of a Hollywood melodrama. I Compagni (The Organizer), nominated in 1963 for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, which documents one of the first attempts of the working class to organize for better working conditions and features Marcello Mastroianni in one of his most powerful and extraordinary performances as Professor Sinigaglia, “the organizer”.
The film will also be screened on Saturday March 1. Dopo Mezzanotte (After Midnight) made in 2003, which utilizes classic silent techniques, quirky slapstick comedy, and expressionism to tell a love story set in the National Museum of Cinema, will be screened on Friday, February 29th. The screenings will be at Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center (entrance on Marina Blvd.) in San Francisco on Friday, February 29 at 7 p.m., on Saturday, March 1 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, March 2 at 4 p.m.
All films are subtitled in English. Each screening will be preceded by a lecture in English by Dr. Domenico Gargale, President of La Città del Cinema of Torino, and followed by a reception with savory Italian fare. On opening night, Friday, February 29th, Dr. Gargale will introduce the audience to the National Museum of Cinema, one of the most popular museums in Torino and one of the most important in the world of film. Seating is limited.
Doors open on e hour before the event. Discover Torino, located in the northwestern region of Italy known as Piemonte, through its films at Cinema Piemonte. This event is produced by the Associazione Piemontesi nel Mondo of Northern California with major support by the Regione Piemonte. Other sponsors of the event include La Città del Cinema, the Istituto di Cultura in San Francisco, and COM.IT.ES. (Committee for Italian Abroad).
The Associazione Piemontesi nel Mondo is a non-profit public benefit educational foundation whose goals are to promote the study, awareness, and appreciation of the Piemontese heritage. The Piemotesi also have active associazione groups throughout the USA and “nel mondo.” In California visit www.piemontesinoca.com or contact Kathleen Maggiora Rogers at (510) 832-1496 or Maria De Venezia at (415) 865-0410, for more information.
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
