november-2011

FEATURE | CINECITTÀ
include Sutherland’s dandy Casanova garb and Anita
Ekberg’s La Dolce Vita dress. Nino Rota’s emotive
soundtracks, which captured Fellini-esque magic
and nostalgia, chime around every corner. Fellini’s
reconstructed offi ce from Teatro 5 – the legendary
2,787m 2 soundstage that was most favoured by the
director – has his hat, scarf and coloured pens.
For production director Maurizio Sperandini,
the artisan ingenuity at Cinecittà lives on through
today’s impressive sets. “Life at Cinecittà is always
frenetic,” he says. “There are sometimes four sets
being built simultaneously by a group of 50 fulltimers
plus temps. For the Rome TV set we had 200
workers, including carpenters, painters, scaffolders
and painters.” Building a 19th-century Broadway
for Scorsese’s Gangs of New York was “the most
challenging”, but one of Sperandini’s career highlights
came on the set of The Life Aquatic (2004), when the
director, Wes Anderson, asked him to demolish the
wall of Teatro 5 so his new lens, shipped from LA,
could fi lm the entire cross-section of a 50m-long ship.
“I said it wasn’t possible. Not even Fellini would
have asked such a thing. There was panic. I proposed
that we move the ship back fi ve metres, but it seemed
impossible without dismantling it – lights, fi ttings…”
Then, using a special system of hydraulic pistons
usually employed for raising bridges, Sperandini’s crew
78 | TRAVELLER
shifted the ship 10cm at a time. “In less than 48 hours,
we managed to move it fi ve metres. Wes Anderson and
the American producers were amazed.”
Of course, these days times are tough, even in the
multimillion-dollar fi lm industry. However, Cinecittà
hopes tax breaks will woo more international fi lm
makers back – Woody Allen and Bertolucci have
both just shot fi lms here. In the meantime, the studio
can cherish its position as the birthplace of Italian
cinema and the place where Fellini plied his trade.
“For me, every journey starts and ends at the studios of
Cinecittà,” the director said. “It’s my ideal world. The
cosmic space before the Big Bang.”
Cinecittà Si Mosta tour tickets must be pre-booked.
Visit scinecittasimostra.it
easyJet fl ies to...
Rome from 25 destinations See our insider
guide on page 170. Book online at easyJet.com
Sylvia, played
by Anita Ekberg,
in La Dolce Vita (1960);
below, part of the current
Cinecittà Si Mostra tour
takes in an exhibit of
historical costumes