Is Turin becoming the second “cinema city” in Italy, after Rome?
How is this affecting its image? Technically Turin was the first “cinecittà ” (cinema city), the place where cinema was born in Italy and where many movie production studios were created. Then under Fascism, Rome became the center of film production but Turin still remains anchored to its history, and our Museum of Cinema demonstrates this since it preserves the history of movie-making in Italy in a very interactive environment.Nowadays Turin is again producing more movies and is a central location for film shoots. This is important not only for Piedmont’s industry and pride but also because it is a way to shift the image of Italy abroad, to include Italian locations in movies and make the audience identify a place and dream of going there–like it happened for Rome’s Piazza di Spagna in “Roman Holiday.” This works particularly well for the Indian market, but we are targeting the American market as well. There is a film commission which is working on using Turin as an additional “charac
