Viva l’Italia. Italian Movie in Focus of Angelo Frontoni exhibition opened its doors in Magnezit Museum May, 28. The exhibition of works of the famous photographer is a part of a large-sale programme of the Days of Italian Culture included in the large project Traveling over Russia implemented by Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Moscow.

This is a tribute to the great Italian movie industry, its divas – ambassadresses of the Italian beauty, icons of the Italian style, and shooting stages of the most famous films that demonstrate work of such complicated mechanism as the Italian movie industry.

The exhibition roadmap consists of 65 photos made in 1959 – 1994 by photographer Angelo Frontoni – one of the main heroes of the golden period of the Italian cinema, its witness that retained that epoch for us and asserted its glory.

“I have always been attracted by the picture. I live with images. With beauty of images, light, facial expressions of people… Reality; life. I work as a photographer to catch, stop, steal life. To decorate it whenever I can” (Angelo Frontoni, 1989). 

Angelo Frontoni is especially known for his portraits: his camera lens stops against actors’ faces, catches their look. His shots attract viewers with tense atmosphere of flirtation between the photographer and his model that play the same game. This flirtation game delivers different nuances of the personality caught by the camera: glamour, elegancy and sensuality prevail in depicting the world of women; ironic masculinity most often prevails in depicting the male world. Nothing goes unnoticed: whether posture of the model, decorations on the shooting stage, or light setting (advantageous combination of natural and artificial light); in case of colour photographs, meanings of colours are selected very thoroughly – all this facilitated appearance of the glossy photograph that besought world fame to the Italian photographer. 

Angelo Frontoni was born in Rome in 1929, started working as photographer in 1957: he left the profession, to which he devoted his entire life, in 2000, two years before he died. Self-taught, he made his debut with photo portraits of Gina Lollobrigida. He also made photos of outstanding international socialites, and young actresses that asked him to make up their portfolio. He worked with the first-rate Italian stylists, was a frequent guest in film studios.

His photos were published in such Italian and international periodicals as Stern, Paris Match, Sunday Times, Photo and Playboy.

In 2004, Frontoni’s archive including over 546,000 photographs was purchased by the National Museum of Cinema in Turin and the National Film Library of the Experimental Center of Cinematography in Rome. This step is accounted for by the desire to ensure integrity and safety of the unique photo archive, a valuable historic evidence telling of the history of cinema and Italian society.

Opening a new exhibition in Magnezit Museum, Alexander Glazkov, head of the Satka Region, congratulated the first visitors on another large cultural event in the city life and thanked the event providers: Magnezit Group, Sobranie Fund and Olga Strada, culture counselor of the embassy of Italy, CEO of Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Moscow. 
— It’s my first time in Satka and in Magnezit Museum.   I was very interested in the magnesite production process, in what you had to do to get it.   And I am really glad that our exhibition takes place in your city.  The photos that make up the exhibition have been provided by the National Museum of Cinema in Turin.  This is one of the most frequently visited museums in Italy, — Ms. Strada noted.— Besides, this week Satka hosts N.I.C.E., the festival of new Italian Cinema that was held in Moscow for the 20^th time and now brings joy to spectators in different Russian cities.  I hope we’ll go further this path the next year, since it is through movies that we can learn more about the country, about the people.  And, most importantly, understand that we all the same, just like the problems that make worry people from Italy, Russia and other countries.  And our joint projects and events are just the bridge to our friendship. 

The exhibition is held in Magnezit Museum at  Solnechnaya str. 34. 

Photo by Pavel Kuleshov.