Itala (film company)
Itala was an Italian film production company . After Cines and Ambrosio, it was one of the most important film companies in early Italian film .
It was founded in 1907 by the chemist Carlo Rossi and the industrialist Guglielmo Remmert under the name "Carlo Rossi & C." in Turin . They hired technicians from Pathé-Frères and secured access to the international market, among other things through collaborations between the “ Hepworth Manufactoring” in London and the “ Small Optical Company” in Chicago. One of the first employees was Giovanni Pastrone , who took over management together with Carlo Sciamengo. In 1908 Rossi withdrew and liquidated the company, which from then on operated under the name "Itala". Pastrone hired the popular French film comedian André Deed from Pathé-Frères and added him to the regular staff Ernesto Vaser , Emilio Vardannes , Dante Testa , Alexandre Bernard , Lydia Quaranta , Edoardo Davesnes and Italia Almirante Manzini . Besides Pastrone, Vincenzo Denizot and Romano Borgnetto worked as directors.
The greatest international success was Cabiria (1914) by Giovanni Pastrone .
In 1919 Itala became part of the "Unione Cinematografica Italiana".
literature
- Ivo Blom Itala . In Richard Abel: Encyclopedia of Early Cinema , New York 2010, pp. 333/334