Chiarini, Luigi

(1900-1975)

   Film theorist, teacher, and director. A noted intellectual and a strong advocate of state support for the film industry, Chiarini was appointed as founding director of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1935 and was largely responsible for its subsequent success and prestige as a national film school. In 1937 he founded the center's journal, Bianco e nero, and continued as its editor for many years. Between 1952 and 1955 he also edited the Rivista del cinema italiano and in 1961 was appointed to the first Italian chair of cinema studies at the University of Pisa. From 1963 to 1968 he served as executive director of the Venice Festival.

   As well as publishing widely on film theory and practice—ideas that he attempted to summarize in the formula "film is an art, cinema is an industry"—Chiarini collaborated with a fellow teacher at the Centro, Umberto Barbaro, on training films such as L'attore (The Actor, 1939). He also directed a handful of feature films that, perhaps unfairly, were then, and have continued to be, generally more coldly respected than warmly admired: Via delle Cinque Lune (Five Moon Street, 1942), adapted from a novel by Matilde Serrao; La bella addormentata (Sleeping Beauty, 1942); La locandiera (Mirandolina, 1944), a realistic adaptation of the 18th-century play by Carlo Goldoni; Ultimo amore (Last Love, 1947); and Patto col diavolo (Pact with the Devil, 1949).