On October 20^th, the Rome Film Fest will host the presentation of “Tutto il cinema in 100 (e più) lettere” by Gian Luigi Rondi, the doyen par excellence of Italian film critics. The book reveals life backstage in the Italian film industry, which speaks up to tell its story… on paper.

Rondi diligently kept all the letters he has received throughout his lengthy and enviable career, and has now donated them to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia: from Alessandro Blasetti to Vittorio De Sica, from Federico Fellini to Luchino Visconti, from Michelangelo Antonioni to Valerio Zurlini, without forgetting the great actresses (Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Monica Vitti…) and the great actors (Giorgio Albertazzi, Eduardo De Filippo, Alberto Sordi, Totò…). 

This is a book to look at, not only to read: the eloquence of these highly personal styles of handwriting which appear on the most heterogeneous array of letter paper (from hotel stationary to postcards, some of them with a very exotic appeal), speaks even louder than the content. The book also features a large number of photographs, some of them from the critic’s own archives, which better than any essay, describe a world of entertainment in which the arbiter of any self-respecting ceremony is always the same, Gian Luigi Rondi himself.

The book of photographs is edited by Simone Casavecchia, Domenico Monetti and Luca Pallanch, with preface by Walter Veltroni (Edizioni Sabinae – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia).