Page 20 - 2015-06

Bellisimo! Rescuing vintage Italian films

Sally Jackson traces the journey of Italian missing home and looking for opportunities
films to Australia via World Film Distributors for social gatherings.
and through the hands of several collectors to Two second-generation Italian Australians
the NFSA.
share their memories of Italian cinema in Aus-
tralia:

World Films logo
Those used to watching content from any-
where in the world, anytime, with a simple
click or tap, might find it hard to imagine or
remember a time when this was simply not
possible. The tyranny of distance was inescap-
able.
For the millions of migrants who came to
Australia in the second half of last century, World Film Distributors sign, North Melbourne.
anything that came directly from the homeland
was precious; from expensive imported foods I can remember the first time I went to the
to an old newspaper brought by a friend. Films Metropolitano Theatre — in Sydney Road,
in their own languages were an even rarer Brunswick — was with my family to see Cecil
treat, but thanks to companies like World Film B DeMille’s The Ten Commandments dubbed
Distributors, 'New Australians’ were able to into Italian. I was only six years old and what
see the places they left behind, to hear their I remember most vividly was the enormity of
mother tongues being spoken in a big cinema. the screen with Charlton Heston towering
How exciting it must have been, regardless of above us as though he were God. The screen at
how good or bad the movie was! the Metropolitano seemed to dwarf the screen
of the other Italian movie theatre we would
There is only sketchy information about Mel- frequent, Cinema Italia in Clifton Hill, which I
bourne-based World Film Distributors. Owner think is where we saw most of the Franco
Carmelo Palumbo began to import films from
Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia movies, which
Italy and other European countries into Aus- we loved.
tralia for migrants arriving here after the Sec-
ond World War. With no dedicated cinemas,
The other great event I can remember about the
Palumbo hired venues to screen the films, Metropolitano was seeing my first Spaghetti
which were usually mainstream titles. There Western, L’ira di Dio, and having been
were often no subtitles but the audiences of
shocked by the sound of the gunshots. How the
new migrants didn’t need them – they were
sound rang in the ear, much longer and twangi-
20 REEL DEALS June 2016