The National Cinema Museum presents its exhibition MAGNUM ON SET: film as seen by great photographers
From 26 May to 2 October 2011, the National Cinema Museum presents the exhibition MAGNUM ON SET: film as seen by great photographers, where 146 photographs take us on a voyage that explores the history of the special relationship that the photographers from the greatest agency in the world had with film, a relationship which began at the end of the Second World War.
The exhibition, organised by Andréa Holzherr and Isabel Siben, takes us back to the sets of masterpieces such as Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight, Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch, Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly Last Summer, John Wayne’s The Alamo, Orson Welles’s The Trial, The Misfits and Moby Dick, both by John Huston, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, Franklin J. Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes, Andrzej Zulawski’s The Most Important Thing: Love and Volker Schlöndorff’s Death of a Salesman.
The photographs, taken from famous photojournalistic reports that recorded the production of each film, are not simply “set photos” but rather “photos on set”, according to a definition by Paolo Mereghetti, the author of the introductory essay that opens the exhibition’s catalogue: “The photographer on set is a witness to what one shouldn’t see […] a silent witness of those acts of dissection and reassembly that with each scene can create that dream we all want to believe in, noting every tiny (but essential) part of a greater world every time. With these photographs, the photographer repays us with what is at times amazement and at times beauty, at times strength and at times irony, at times longing and at times sweetness, but always, and above all, magic.”
Located as usual in the National Cinema Museum’s impressive Aula del Tempio, the exhibition is enhanced by a video installation that projects seven short films on a loop, devised and created by Francesco Pistoi and Alessandro Tannoya for SuperleggeraRecord, combined with a soundtrack specially composed by Francesco Pistoi and Pier Paolo Peretti Griva. The videos are a particularly striking visual addition to the exhibition, created to document the work carried out by Magnum photographers on the sets of many other films.
In contrast, the railings outside the Mole Antonelliana building display photographs of actors and actresses taken while performing dance routines. These are particularly subtle images, chosen from amongst the thousands taken over the years by the agency’s photographers, who often had the advantage of a personal acquaintance with one particular star, an acquaintance which sometimes led to lasting friendships.
Magnum is one of the most prestigious photographic agencies in the world, founded in 1947 by Robert Capa assisted by Henri Cartier-Bresson, David "Chim" Seymour and George Rodger, fresh from their work as war reporters, work which made them famous.
In over 60 years of activity, the agency paid special attention to the world of film and its stars. Capa’s personal friendships – with Ingrid Bergman, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Gary Cooper, George Stevens, Gene Kelly, Joseph Mankiewicz and, above all, John Huston – opened the door to the fascinating world of Hollywood. Following in his footsteps, his colleagues at Magnum settled in Los Angeles, managing to carry out exclusive reports from the sets of many classic films, which were then sold for significant sums to American publications such as Life Magazine and Look, more often than European newspapers and periodicals.
A catalogue published by Silvana Editrice, with an introduction by Alberto Barbera and a critique by Paolo Mereghetti and Stefano Boni, goes with the exhibition, while from 26 June to 10 July 2011, Cinema Massimo will be presenting a festival featuring the films covered in this exhibition.