Vittorio Calcina (31 December 1847 – 31 December 1916) was the first Italian filmmaker in history.[1]
Biography
Born in
Turin, Calcina was a photographer by profession,[2] he was the
Lumière brothers' representative for Italy from 1896.[3] In that year:
he was the creator of the first filming of a pope, when he immortalized
Pope Leo XIII in the
Vatican Gardens on 26 February 1896;[1]
on 23 October 1896, Calcina asked the municipality of
Brescia for the concession of the San Luca Hospital to carry out, in the rooms of the "Forza e Costanza" gymnasium,[4] the screening with
cinematograph of Il bagno di Diana by Giuseppe Filippi;[5][6][7]
on 7 November 1896 he organized a screening of about 20 films by the Lumière brothers in the former Hospice of Charity in via Po 33 in Turin.[2]
He then became the official photographer of the
House of Savoy,[2] the
Italian ruling dynasty from 1861 to 1946. In this role he filmed the first Italian film, Sua Maestà il Re Umberto e Sua Maestà la Regina Margherita a passeggio per il parco a Monza (English: His Majesty the
King Umberto and Her Majesty the
Queen Margherita strolling through the
Monza Park), believed to have been lost until it was rediscovered by the
Cineteca Nazionale in 1979.[8]
He ended his career as a short film director in 1905, when he resumed the activity of representative of the Lumière brothers in Italy.[2] He died in
Milan and was buried in Turin.[2]