The immense archive of Mario Magajna (1916-2007), a historic photojournalist for the “Primorski dnevnik,” a daily newspaper of Slovenians in Italy, also contains a nucleus of about one hundred photographs dedicated to cinema “made” in Trieste.
Portraits of Claudia Cardinale, Silvana Mangano, and Rosanna Schiaffino, as well as Liana Orfei and Maria Schell, tell the story of the photographer’s talent and the charm of those “imaginary sirens” evoked by the title, borrowed from Franco Prono’s book of the same name.
The exhibition traces sets made in and around the city between 1957 and the early 1980s, as well as real photographic “sequences,” such as those taken during the filming of Veljko Bulajić’s Vlak bez voznog reda (1959) or Mauro Bolognini’s Senilità (1962).
Between documentary images and backstage shots of famous and now-forgotten films, a story in pictures takes shape, accompanied by excerpts from the press of the time (“Primorski dnevnik” and “Il Piccolo”), which restores a world and a way of filmmaking that has now disappeared.
The exhibition, conceived by Massimiliano Schiozzi and Cristina Sain, is curated by Casa del Cinema di Trieste and Alpe Adria Cinema – Trieste Film Festival, in collaboration with Cizerouno and Narodna in študijska knjižnica – Slovenian National Library and ETS Studies, which preserves the Magajna archive.
A 1962 shot by Mario Magajna of the cast of Senilità in Piazza Unità d’Italia, revisited by Claimax, was chosen as the image of the 29th Trieste Film Festival.
The exhibition is on view starting tomorrow Tuesday, April 14, through Sunday, May 31, at the Casa del Cinema in Trieste – Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3. Free entry.
