Donatella Baglivo: A Life for Cinema
But What Is a Poet in Cinema?
Donatella Baglivo enters the RAI studios at thirteen years old, to deliver a letter to her uncle. In the archives she sees an editing machine. She falls in love with it. From that moment, cinema becomes her destiny. At eighteen she signs her first feature film as editor.
At nineteen she opens CIAK STUDIO, becoming the youngest film entrepreneur in Italy. A career that begins before she even comes of age and that would span half a century of cinema history.
In the 1980s Donatella Baglivo meets Andrey Tarkovsky. The great Russian master becomes her spiritual guide. She makes three films about him the only documentaries in existence anywhere in the world on the life of the filmmaker, who died in Paris in 1986. These documentaries represent today an irreplaceable testimony for scholars and enthusiasts of auteur cinema. Since then, featuring actors, directors, and crew members, over 100 narratives including: Fellini, Rossellini, Anna Magnani, Totò, Pasolini, Bertolucci… The faces of Italian cinema told through her editing machine.
The Work of Donatella Baglivo
Fifty years of cinema. One hundred faces, a single passion.
From the trilogy on Andrey Tarkovsky the only films in the world on the Russian masterto the portraits of Hollywood giants: James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando.
And then them, the faces of our cinema: Monica Vitti, Renzo Musumeci, Leopoldo Trieste, Claudia Cardinale, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Sordi, Tonino Delli Colli… Every film, an encounter. Every editing machine, a confession.
Where Memory Becomes Future
In Montalto di Castro stands a unique place: the Spazio Cinema Alfredo Bini. Dedicated to the great Italian producer, it houses props, vintage equipment, and a precious audiovisual archive devoted to Andrey Tarkovsky.
Not a museum. A living place, where cinema is touched, breathed, passed down. The Spazio Cinema Alfredo Bini welcomes visitors, scholars, and enthusiasts who wish to immerse themselves in the history of Italian cinema through the work of Donatella Baglivo.
