Angelo Frontoni: on the set

The National Cinema Museum and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale pay tribute to Angelo Frontoni, the great Italian reporter, who was known as the “photographer of the stars,” on the occasion of the joint acquisition of his immense photographic archives with a precious contribution from the Compagnia di San Paolo.
Eighty black and white photographs, most of which have never been on view before, illustrate fifty years of Italian cinema from the privileged vantage point of his camera. These extraordinary photographs reveal a different Frontoni, far from the glossy and glamorous style for which he is so well known. There are many close-ups in the set photos: Frontoni preferred details to group scenes, he would capture an expression or a detail of a dress, his attention was caught by the spots of color that form the characters, the architecture of the backdrops, the movements of the actors. These are unusual and very personal photographs, as though the set had become a photographer’s studio, a setting in which he constructed an image that is closely tied to his aesthetic ideas. On the sets, people who have made the history of Italian cinema mingle with the stars of the films, screenwriters and producers, costume designers and hair dressers, tailors and cameramen. The photos come to life with figures at work or simply strolling by, workers and machines, giving depth to the images and illustrating the animation and industriousness of movie sets.

The exhibit is available to be set up in other locations.