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Umberto Barbaro (3 January 1902, Acireale – 19 March 1959, Rome) was an Italian film critic and essayist.

Biography

[edit]

Umberto Barbaro was active in many fields: fiction, drama, cinema, criticism and history of figurative art. In 1923 he was the editor of La bilancia and collaborated with Dino Terra, Vinicio Paladini and Paolo Flores. In 1927 he was among the leaders of the Movimento Immaginista and one of the "left" among the Futurists. His work received attention in France, America, Russia and Germany.[1] With Anton Giulio Bragaglia he founded the Teatro degli Indipendenti in Rome.[2] He knew Russian and German and translated the works of Heinrich von Kleist, Mikhail Bulgakov and Frank Wedekind into Italian. Barbaro was a journalist, essayist, novelist and his writings appear in several magazines of the time.[3]

In 1936 he co-founded, with Luigi Chiarini, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and became a teacher. They published the monthly film magazine Bianco e Nero, directly tied to the Centro Sperimentale. After the Second World War, Barbaro continued his studies on cinema in general and in particular Soviet cinema. He made additional translations into Italian of the writings of theorists of cinema, including Vsevolod Pudovkin, Sergej Mikhailovich Eisenstein, Rudolf Arnheim and Béla Balázs. In 1947 he also translated Sigmund Freud.[4] In 1945 Barbaro was appointed Special Commissioner by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, a position he held until 1947, when it was removed for political reasons. Barbaro was a backer of the neo-realist cinema.

Barbaro began his filmmaking debut as writer, in 1933 with a documentary, Cantieri dell'Adriatico followed by his only full-length film, L'ultima nemica. After the war turns, with the help of Roberto Longhi, Barbaro made two short of films dedicated to Carpaccio and Caravaggio.

Barbaro was a film critic for L'Unità, the weekly Vie Nuove e a Filmcritica, and the fortnightly L'Eco del cinema magazines.

Umberto Barbaro has been elected to the Biblioteca del Cinema and awarded the Premio Nazionale Filmcritica [5]

Publications

[edit]
  • Luce fredda, novel, Lanciano, Carabba Ed., 1931; reprinted Montepulciano, Ed. Del Grifo, 1990
  • L'isola del sale, a novel serialized in L'Italia letteraria, 1935; reprinted Bari, Palomar, 2002
  • L'essenza del can barbone, short stories, Lanciano, Carabba, 1931; reprinted Naples, Liguori Ed., 1996
  • L'attore, (a cura), Rome, Bianco e Nero Ed., 1938. Text can also be found in Bianco e Nero, 2/3, 1938
  • Film: soggetto e sceneggiatura, Rome, Bianco e Nero, 1939
  • Il cinema e l'uomo moderno, Rome, Le Edizioni Sociali, 1950
  • Poesia del film, Roma, Filmcritica Ed., 1955; reprinted Rome, Bulzoni, 1999
  • L'arte dell'attore, with Luigi Chiarini, (edited) Rome, Bianco e Nero Ed.,1950

Posthumous works

[edit]
  • Il film e il risarcimento marxista dell'arte, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1960
  • Servitù e grandezza del cinema, edited by Lorenzo Quaglietti, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1962
  • Il cinema tedesco, edited by di Mino Argentieri, Roma, Editori Riuniti,1973
  • Neorealismo e realismo, edited by Gianpiero Brunetta, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1973
  • Fratelli d'Italia, film script written with Luigi Chiarini, in Cinemasessanta, 302, October–December 2009

Filmography

[edit]

Scripts

[edit]
  • Seconda B, directed by Goffredo Alessandrini,1934
  • La peccatrice, directed by Amleto Palermi, 1941
  • Via delle cinque lune, directed by Luigi Chiarini, 1942
  • La bella addormentata, directed by Luigi Chiarini, 1942
  • Paura d'amare, directed by Gaetano Amata, 1942
  • La locandiera, directed by Luigi Chiarini, 1943
  • Caccia tragica, directed by Giuseppe De Santis, 1948
  • Fabiola, directed by Alessandro Blasetti, 1948. Not credited
  • Czarci żleb (The Passage of the Devil), directed by Tadeusz Kański and Aldo Vergano. Poland, unpublished in Italy, 1949
  • La figlia del forzato, directed by Gaetano Amata, 1953

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
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Umberto Barbaro

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Umberto Barbaro (3 January 1902 – 19 March 1959) was an Italian film critic, theorist, and educator known for introducing Soviet film theories to Italy during the 1930s and 1940s, and for his influential contributions to the theoretical foundations of Italian neorealism. Barbaro was born in Acireale, Sicily, and began his career with literary work, including the novel Luce fredda (1931), before turning primarily to cinema as a critic, translator, and advocate for realist approaches. He taught at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (founded in 1935), where he promoted documentary-style filmmaking, Marxist perspectives on cinema, and close analysis of montage techniques from Soviet directors such as Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin, whose theoretical works he translated and disseminated to influence emerging filmmakers. His efforts helped shape the intellectual environment that gave rise to post-World War II Italian neorealism, a movement he actively theorized and championed as a critic and teacher. In addition to his theoretical work, Barbaro directed short documentaries including Cantieri sull'Adriatico (1933), Carpaccio (1947), and Caravaggio (1948), and contributed as a screenwriter to films such as Caccia tragica (1947). Born in Acireale, Sicily, he remained a key figure in Italian film culture until his death in Rome in 1959.

Early life and pre-cinema career

Birth and youth

Umberto Barbaro was born in 1902 in Aci Trezza, Sicily, Italy, to Luigi Barbaro and Benvenuta De Martino. At the age of six, he was orphaned when his parents perished in the catastrophic Messina earthquake of December 28, 1908. Following the tragedy, Barbaro relocated to Rome accompanied by his aunt and his sister Antonietta. In Rome, he briefly attended ginnasio, where he first encountered Luigi Chiarini as a classmate, but economic difficulties compelled him to leave school prematurely and begin working. His subsequent intellectual development was largely self-taught. In his youth, he cultivated varied literary interests that transitioned toward avant-garde activities in the 1920s.

Avant-garde and literary activities

Umberto Barbaro emerged as a prominent figure in the Roman avant-garde scene during the late 1920s, where he invented and led the Movimento Immaginista in 1927 as a left-oriented tendency that sought to transform earlier avant-garde impulses into a constructive, socially engaged practice. This group, which included collaborators such as Paolo Flores, Bonaventura Grassi, Vinicio Paladini, and Dino Terra, maintained marginal contacts with anarchic and communist circles while rejecting formalism, literary fragmentarism, and "art for art's sake," criticizing influences from Benedetto Croce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, and Futurism in favor of content-driven art capable of acting on reality. In February 1927, Barbaro founded and edited the magazine La Ruota Dentata, the primary organ of the Immaginista movement, which aimed to unite diverse avant-garde currents—including Futurists, suprematists, cubists, expressionists, and constructivists—under a shared subversive and political banner, though it appeared in only one issue due to funding shortages. He contributed theoretical writings to this and other periodicals, including "Una nuova estetica per un’arte nuova" in La Ruota Dentata, advocating a creative process that moved from destructive fantasy to constructive imagination in service of "art for life." Barbaro's literary production from this period featured experimental narrative forms and social critique, most notably in his debut work Luce fredda (1931), a polyphonic novel portraying the alienation and ethical paralysis of young Roman bourgeois intellectuals through techniques such as free indirect speech, inner monologues, non-linear structure, and montage-like assembly of fragments including letters and diary entries. The work combined realist intentions with avant-garde experimentation to expose hypocrisy and immobilism while gesturing toward collective transformation. He pursued journalistic and essayistic activity in various literary and cultural magazines of the era, publishing pieces on aesthetics, the novel, Russian literature, and expressionism in outlets such as Lo Spettacolo d’Italia (1927), Rivista di letterature slave (1928), L’Italia Letteraria (1930), Quadrivio (1932), and others. Barbaro also translated dramatic and literary works from German and Russian, including Hermann Kesten's Glückliche Menschen (translated as Gente felice in 1933) and Der Scharlatan (translated as Il ciarlatano in 1934). His growing interest in cinema manifested in the late 1920s through articles in specialized magazines connected to avant-garde circles, paving the way for his transition to film in the early 1930s.

Entry into film and institutional roles

Co-founding Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia

Umberto Barbaro collaborated closely with Luigi Chiarini in the creation of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC) in Rome, becoming a key figure in its establishment in 1935 as Italy's principal institution for film education, training, and research. The CSC combined practical filmmaking instruction with broad cultural and theoretical preparation, and Barbaro himself described his active collaboration with Chiarini in developing a theory of film and a methodology for cinema teaching. From 1936, Barbaro served as a teacher at the CSC, directing courses in film theory and contributing to its intellectual orientation during the pre-war years. In 1937, he and Chiarini launched Bianco e Nero, the monthly journal of the CSC devoted to film history, criticism, and theory, which quickly established itself as a pioneering European periodical in the field. Barbaro maintained assiduous collaboration with the journal from its early period, helping shape its role as a forum for advancing cinematographic studies. His foundational involvement with the CSC marked the start of a sustained institutional commitment to film culture in Italy.

Teaching and journal editorship

Umberto Barbaro joined the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia as a teacher in 1936, shortly after its establishment, and served as a key figure in its early theoretical and aesthetic orientation. He taught film theory and criticism, contributing significantly to the education of Italian cinema professionals alongside colleagues such as Francesco Pasinetti and Alessandro Blasetti. His involvement at the institution continued to influence film education in Italy for years. Barbaro collaborated with Luigi Chiarini on several influential theoretical anthologies published by the Edizioni di Bianco e Nero, including L’attore. Saggio di antologia critica (1938), Problemi del film (1939), and Film: soggetto e sceneggiatura (1939). These works gathered critical writings and served as foundational didactic materials for film studies at the time. A later anthology, L’arte dell’attore, appeared in 1950. He was an active contributor to the journal Bianco e Nero from its early years and assumed its directorship in 1946 upon the post-war reopening of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Through his teaching platform and writings, Barbaro promoted the principles of neorealism among students and emerging filmmakers.

Post-war administrative positions

After the conclusion of World War II, Umberto Barbaro served as commissario of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia from 1944 to 1947 to oversee its reorganization and revival amid post-war reconstruction efforts. In this capacity, he played a key role in restoring the institution's operations following the disruptions of the war and the fall of the Fascist regime. He also assumed the directorship of the CSC's official journal Bianco e Nero upon its reopening in 1946, guiding its editorial direction during the initial post-war phase. Barbaro's tenure as commissario ended in 1947. Following this, he continued to exert theoretical influence in Italian film culture through writing and teaching.

Filmmaking practice

Directorial works

Umberto Barbaro's directorial output remained limited, consisting primarily of a single fiction feature and a handful of documentaries that reflected his varied interests in social themes and art history. His debut as a director came with the short documentary Cantieri dell’Adriatico (1933), which examined construction projects along the Adriatic coast. Barbaro directed only one feature-length fiction film, L’ultima nemica (The Last Enemy, 1938), a drama that he also edited. The film follows Franco Rossi, a young doctor dedicated to medical research over private practice, who develops a vaccine against Tanzanian fever but faces tragedy when a test subject dies from side effects, leading him to abandon his work until his former fiancée contracts the disease years later. Produced during the late Fascist period, the narrative emphasizes state-supported scientific progress and its imperial implications, with scenes shot in symbolically significant locations such as the University of Rome and the planned town of Littoria. After World War II, Barbaro returned to directing with two short art documentaries made in collaboration with the influential art historian Roberto Longhi, who provided the critical commentary. The first, Carpaccio (1947), explored the life and works of the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio as part of the Uomini e Idee series produced by Universalia, with Longhi adapting his scholarly analysis to the cinematic medium for broader accessibility. This was followed by Caravaggio (1948), which similarly examined the Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through Longhi’s narration synchronized with visual analysis of his artworks. These postwar films represented an innovative fusion of art criticism and documentary filmmaking, leveraging cinema to disseminate advanced historical interpretation.

Screenwriting credits

Umberto Barbaro made significant contributions as a screenwriter, particularly in Italian cinema during the 1930s and 1940s, often collaborating with directors linked to experimental and institutional film circles. His early work included the story and screenplay for Seconda B (1934), directed by Goffredo Alessandrini. In the 1940s, Barbaro provided screenplays for several features, beginning with La peccatrice (1940), directed by Amleto Palermi. He frequently collaborated with Luigi Chiarini, contributing to the screenplays for Via delle cinque lune (1942), La bella addormentata (1942), and La locandiera (1943). He also co-wrote Paura d'amare (1942), directed by Gaetano Amata. After World War II, Barbaro co-wrote Caccia tragica (1947), directed by Giuseppe De Santis. He contributed uncredited screenplay work to Fabiola (1948), directed by Alessandro Blasetti, provided the story for the Polish production Czarci żleb (1949), directed by Aldo Vergano and others, and co-wrote La figlia del forzato (1954), directed by Gaetano Amata. The unproduced screenplay Fratelli d’Italia, co-written with Chiarini and centered on Carlo Pisacane, was published posthumously in Cinemasessanta (no. 302, October–December 2009).

Theoretical contributions and criticism

Translations of major film theorists

Umberto Barbaro played a pivotal role in introducing major international film theorists to Italy through his translations, with a particular emphasis on Soviet cinema theory in both the pre- and post-war periods. He translated key works by Vsevolod Pudovkin, Sergei Eisenstein, Rudolf Arnheim, and Béla Balázs, making their ideas accessible to Italian scholars, filmmakers, and students at a time when formalist and materialist approaches to cinema were gaining traction. These efforts were especially significant after World War II, when renewed interest in Soviet film theory aligned with Italy's evolving cinematic discourse. Among his notable translations are Pudovkin's Film e fonofilm, published in 1935 with Barbaro's preface and notes covering topics such as the script, artistic direction, acting, and sound film. He later translated Pudovkin's L’attore nel film in 1947. Barbaro also translated Béla Balázs's Lo spirito del film, which appeared in the journal Bianco e Nero in 1940. Additionally, he produced Italian versions or substantial excerpts of works by Sergei Eisenstein and Rudolf Arnheim, including selections from Arnheim's Film als Kunst published in Italian periodicals during the 1930s. These translations were integrated into teaching materials at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where they supported the education of new generations of Italian filmmakers and critics. Barbaro's work as a translator thus facilitated the circulation of foundational texts in film theory, particularly from the Soviet tradition, contributing to their enduring presence in Italian cinematic culture.

Original publications and essays

Umberto Barbaro's original contributions to film theory began with his early monograph Film: soggetto e sceneggiatura (1939), published by Bianco e Nero, in which he elaborated Pudovkin's ideas on cinema as a collective creation and stressed the need for a characterizing thesis to guide the work. After the war, he produced Il cinema e l’uomo moderno (1950), a pivotal text that framed cinema as a historically determined art where form and social function are inseparable, and argued that montage constitutes the aesthetic foundation not only of film but of all arts, acting as a vehicle for ideas. He followed this with Poesia del film (1955), a collection of writings that included major theoretical reflections, such as his defense of Eisenstein's use of the "false historical" in Battleship Potemkin as a means of intuitively grasping the past through artistic means. In the same period, Barbaro co-edited L’arte dell’attore (1950) with Luigi Chiarini, an anthology focused on the theory and practice of acting in cinema. Several key collections of his writings appeared posthumously, starting with the unfinished Il film e il risarcimento marxista dell’arte (1960), which pursued a Marxist critical approach to general aesthetic issues and those specific to film. This was followed by Servitù e grandezza del cinema (1962), a compilation of his film criticism that highlighted his intellectual rigor and opposition to aestheticizing trends in cinema. Later collections included Il cinema tedesco (1973), gathering his writings on German cinema, and Neorealismo e realismo (1973/1976), compiling his essays on neorealism and broader realism in cinema and theater. Barbaro's theoretical output consistently reflected a Marxist-informed perspective that connected film aesthetics to historical and social realities, informing his support for neorealism.

Advocacy for neorealism

Umberto Barbaro emerged as one of the earliest and most influential advocates for Italian neorealism, promoting cinematic realism throughout the 1930s through his critical writings that emphasized social engagement and opposition to purely formalist or decorative approaches in film. His theoretical framework was deeply rooted in a Marxist-materialist perspective, drawing from Soviet montage theory and the idea that cinema should serve a moral and political function by acting on collective consciousness and revealing deeper truths beyond mere surface reality through creative reorganization of material. Film historian Georges Sadoul credited Barbaro with the term "neorealism." Barbaro's advocacy gained significant momentum through his teaching at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where he shaped generations of filmmakers by stressing the need for cinema to draw from social reality and class dynamics rather than literary or aesthetic clichés, and through his role as director of the journal Bianco e Nero from 1945 to 1948, which served as a key platform for serious film theory and neorealist discourse. His dissemination of neorealist ideas was further informed by his earlier translations of major Soviet theorists such as Vsevolod Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein, which helped introduce these influences into Italian film thought. In the post-war period, Barbaro offered critical and theoretical support to the emerging neorealist movement, championing films that embodied the social realism he had long promoted, including Roberto Rossellini's Roma città aperta (1945) and works by Giuseppe De Santis, viewing them as continuations of an authentic Italian realist tradition he traced back to earlier precedents. He is recognized as an influential figure in the development and theorization of neorealism for his consistent, theoretically grounded efforts through criticism, pedagogy, and editorial leadership.

Death and legacy

Final years and death

In his final years during the 1950s, Umberto Barbaro continued his intense activity as a militant film critic and Marxist theorist, collaborating with several prominent publications including L’Unità, the weekly Vie Nuove, Filmcritica, and L’Eco del cinema, the latter of which he directed. He co-founded Filmcritica in December 1950 with Edoardo Bruno and made it his principal outlet for theoretical reflection and criticism until his death, contributing regularly to its pages. Barbaro also maintained contributions to Vie Nuove in the late 1950s, including the 1958 article "Per diventare critici cinematografici," where he reflected on his path to film criticism. Umberto Barbaro died on March 19, 1959, in Rome at the age of 57.

Influence and posthumous recognition

Umberto Barbaro remains a pivotal figure in the development of Italian film theory from the 1930s to the 1950s, particularly for his advocacy of neorealism and his role in disseminating major international film theories within Italy. His teachings at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia influenced subsequent generations of filmmakers and critics, while his writings helped adapt Marxist-informed Soviet film concepts to Italian cinematic practice. His legacy has been commemorated through several posthumous initiatives. The Biblioteca del Cinema "Umberto Barbaro" was founded in 1962 as a non-profit cultural association dedicated to promoting film culture, serving as a specialized library with extensive collections of books, magazines, scripts, and related materials, located at Villino Corsini in Rome's Villa Pamphilj park. The Premio Filmcritica-Umberto Barbaro, established by the magazine Filmcritica, recognizes excellence in film theory, aesthetics, and criticism, with categories for Italian and foreign authors and editions continuing at least into the early 2000s. Barbaro's contributions continue to inspire monographic studies, republications of his essays and books, and dedicated tributes in the periodical Diari di Cineclub, which has repeatedly featured essays and reflections on his critical thought and historical significance.

References

  1. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095446637
  2. https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/06/becoming-neorealism/
  3. https://brill.com/display/book/9789004384255/BP000014.pdf
  4. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0053260/
  5. https://220.jcdelama.info/?page_id=393
  6. https://rivistatradurre.it/umberto-barbaro-acireale-1902-roma-1959/
  7. https://drammaturgia.fupress.net/saggi/saggio.php?id=7106
  8. https://www.academia.edu/5625092/Prima_della_specializzazione_La_traiettoria_di_Umberto_Barbaro_dalla_letteratura_al_cinema
  9. https://hammerlock.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/essay/867-umberto-barbaro-luce-fredda-1931/
  10. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-19428-4_7
  11. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/umberto-barbaro_(Dizionario-Biografico)/
  12. https://www.as-cinema.com/umberto-barbaro-padre-spirituale-del-neorealismo/
  13. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/umberto-barbaro_(Enciclopedia-del-Cinema)/
  14. https://www.fondazionecsc.it/en/our-history-publishing/
  15. https://www.fondazionecsc.it/en/about-us/our-history/
  16. https://www.fondazionecsc.it/chi-siamo/la-nostra-storia/
  17. https://books.google.com/books/about/Problemi_del_film.html?id=-WhZAAAAMAAJ
  18. https://www.clessidra2021.it/2022/02/19/umberto-barbaro-e-lo-spirito-del-neorealismo/
  19. https://dialecticsofmodernity.manchester.ac.uk/essay/803-umberto-barbaro-lultima-nemica-1938
  20. https://www.itinerarte.it/vittore-carpaccio-raccontato-da-roberto-longhi/
  21. https://www.academia.edu/31888762/SOVIET_ITALIAN_CINEMATIC_EXCHANGES_Transnational_Film_Education_in_the_1930s
  22. https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/10257553
  23. https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Film-fonofilm-soggetto-direzione-artistica-L%C2%92attore/18889142530/bd
  24. https://www.abebooks.it/LATTORE-FILM-Traduzione-cura-Umberto-Barbaro/9105805090/bd
  25. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/58b1/6ba47350d52d8ce8cb904ab13d6c20e3acab.pdf
  26. https://books.openedition.org/edizionikaplan/893?lang=en
  27. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/974945/1/Salazkina_October_2012.pdf
  28. https://books.google.com/books/about/Film.html?id=Hq4NzwEACAAJ
  29. https://cinecriticaweb.it/panoramiche/umberto-barbaro/
  30. https://books.google.com/books/about/L_arte_dell_attore.html?id=jMEiAAAAMAAJ
  31. https://www.ibs.it/cinema-tedesco-libri-vintage-umberto-barbaro/e/2568612010339
  32. https://books.google.com/books/about/Neorealismo_e_realismo_Cinema_e_teatro.html?id=u3szAAAAMAAJ
  33. https://www.mymovies.it/persone/umberto-barbaro/55911/
  34. https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-06-22/neorealism-what-remains-of-the-movement-that-changed-world-cinema-but-couldnt-change-italy.html
  35. https://bibliotecadelcinema.it/bib/bib-chi-siamo.html
  36. https://turismoroma.it/en/places/biblioteca-del-cinema-umberto-barbaro
  37. https://cinecittanews.it/premio-filmcritica-umberto-barbaro/
  38. https://www.cineclubroma.it/images/Diari_di_Cineclub/edizione/diaricineclub_033.pdf
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