BIFF 2011 #5: Hollywood on the Tiber (Italy 2009)

Audrey Hepburn crosses a Rome street in Hollywood on the Tiber.

This documentary screening was a bit of a stinker, wasting some useful and interesting material. Produced by Cinecitta Studios, using only archive material, it purports to tell the story of the years from the late 1940s to the early 1970s in which Rome’s studio (alongside other Italian locations such as Venice) became the biggest international film centre attracting Hollywood ‘runaway’ productions as well as international and domestic Italian films.

The first section of the film briefly promises some kind of analysis but this is soon abandoned and replaced by a stream of film clips featuring well-known stars (and attendant paparazzi) at the airport on arrival, attending premieres and flying out again. This is diverting for a few minutes but then becomes tedious unless the audience can find some kind of game to play with the star-spotting. Even the attempted argument is rendered unintelligible by an over-excited commentary translated into subtitles that change far too quickly to keep pace. There are also several awful music tracks. I did read a review before the screening which warned of the film’s faults but I thought I’d chance it. I wish I hadn’t. However, if you are a star-spotter you may have fun.