Trieste and the Cinema : the story begins
Trieste, natural set for large productions : from the Heart without Borders in The invisible boy
In fact the city's first cinema, called "Cinema Americano" and owned by Mr. Boecher, opened in 1905, just ten years after the Lumière brothers' invention and the projection at the Salon du Grand Café in Paris.
Some of the first images in which Trieste appears in film show the funerals of the Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand and his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg, assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. There are records of four films that were shot in the city in the 1920s, works that have probably been lost forever. However, it was primarily from the 1950s that the city became known as an ideal set for spy and international trafficking stories, with evocative titles like Fugitive in Trieste, The White Line, Ombre su Trieste (Shadows over Trieste) and Diplomatic Courier (whose cast includes Tyrone Power, although it seems the American star was never in the city).
In subsequent years, following the Basaglia revolution, some of the films set and shot in the city dealt with the topic of mental health (for example, The Girl from Trieste). Another important source of inspiration was literature (Careless, La coscienza di Zeno (Zeno's Conscience), Un anno di scuola (A Year of School), Và dove ti porta il cuore (Go Where Your Heart Takes You).
The city's Central European atmosphere, Old Port and unique geographic setting between the sea and the mountains, have been used in international productions that found the setting to be ideal for recreating English, Russian, American and Libyan landscapes. Just a few examples of such filmmakers include Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather - Part II), Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) and Bigas Luna (The Chambermaid on the Titanic) :
Other great directors, both Italian and foreign, who decided to set their films in Trieste include Peter Del Monte, who in 1987 shot the first experimental digital film (Julia and Julia), Mathieu Amalric (Wimbledon Stadium) and Giuseppe Tornatore (The Unknown Woman and later The Best Offer). Not least of these directors is Gabriele Salvatores, who recently choose the metaphysical light of Trieste to shoot his first Italian-style super-hero film Invisible Boy, which took advantage of all the potential offered by the land and the sea, the Karst plateau and the gulf, the Bora and the light, and naturally old Ursus, one of the largest and oldest floating cranes..
Some of the first images in which Trieste appears in film show the funerals of the Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand and his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg, assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. There are records of four films that were shot in the city in the 1920s, works that have probably been lost forever. However, it was primarily from the 1950s that the city became known as an ideal set for spy and international trafficking stories, with evocative titles like Fugitive in Trieste, The White Line, Ombre su Trieste (Shadows over Trieste) and Diplomatic Courier (whose cast includes Tyrone Power, although it seems the American star was never in the city).
In subsequent years, following the Basaglia revolution, some of the films set and shot in the city dealt with the topic of mental health (for example, The Girl from Trieste). Another important source of inspiration was literature (Careless, La coscienza di Zeno (Zeno's Conscience), Un anno di scuola (A Year of School), Và dove ti porta il cuore (Go Where Your Heart Takes You).
The city's Central European atmosphere, Old Port and unique geographic setting between the sea and the mountains, have been used in international productions that found the setting to be ideal for recreating English, Russian, American and Libyan landscapes. Just a few examples of such filmmakers include Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather - Part II), Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) and Bigas Luna (The Chambermaid on the Titanic) :
Other great directors, both Italian and foreign, who decided to set their films in Trieste include Peter Del Monte, who in 1987 shot the first experimental digital film (Julia and Julia), Mathieu Amalric (Wimbledon Stadium) and Giuseppe Tornatore (The Unknown Woman and later The Best Offer). Not least of these directors is Gabriele Salvatores, who recently choose the metaphysical light of Trieste to shoot his first Italian-style super-hero film Invisible Boy, which took advantage of all the potential offered by the land and the sea, the Karst plateau and the gulf, the Bora and the light, and naturally old Ursus, one of the largest and oldest floating cranes..
