by Jim Costa
If you’re a film buff and you find yourself in Northern Italy, I highly recommend a visit to the Mole Antonelliana building in Turin, Italy, which contains the Museo Nazionale del Cinema — or the National Museum of Cinema.
The city itself dates to before the Roman Era and offers many historical sites you can visit, but for the purpose of this article, I’ll stick with the Mole Antonelliana building. The building itself is situated a few blocks between the Dora Riparia River and Po River.
Completed in 1889 as a synagogue for Turin’s growing Jewish population, the building is now believed to be the tallest museum in the world standing 550 feet (or 167.5 meters). There is a large balcony, known as the ‘Small Temple,’ near the dome that offers a beautiful 360-degree view of the city. The building offers 35,000 square feet (3251.60 square meters) of exhibit space spanning 5 floors.
Since 2000, the Mole Antonelliana building has housed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema.
The Nation Museum of Cinema offers permanent and rotating collections. The prized permanent exhibit is the collection of the late historian Maria Adriana Prolo and includes pre-cinematographic optical devices including magic lanterns, 19th-century film technologies, movie memorabilia from Italian cinema (and cinema items from other countries as well), specially exhibits devoted to various film genres such as Giallo (mystery fiction and thrillers), Commedia all’italiana (comedy), Poliziotteschi (crime and action filmmaking) and many more film styles/genres.
The Nation Museum of Cinema collection also includes more than 300,000 film posters, 80,000 images from film productions, 12,000 movie reels, and thousands of books on filmmaking as well.
There is a large movie screen in the Massimo Multiplex where visitors can view retrospectives and film festival showings including the entries into the Torino Film Festival.
Some other props and set pieces on permanent display include the statue of Moloch from the film “Cabiria” by Giovanni Pastrone, items from legendary actress Marilyn Monroe, Federico Fellini memorabilia including his red hat, a bust of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein from the 1930s, and another of Lon Chaney, Sr. as The Phantom of the Opera (left) from the 1920s.
The museum occasionally presents an incredible movie show projected on the dome at night that’s visible for miles.
Learn more about the museum and its current offerings here:
For more on Jim Costa, visit his YouTube channel here.
