The Years of La Dolce Vita – The Birth of Celebrity Culture in Focus, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square , London N1, until 29th June 2014
Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998)
Richard Burton and Liz Taylor kissing in Ischia, June 1962
MGMC & Solares Fondazione delle Arti
Rome in the1950s and 1960s saw the birth of celebrity culture and the establishment of paparazzi photographers who often are the bane of the famous but whose images the public eagerly await.
Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998)
Audrey Hepburn, Rome, 1961
MGMC & Solares Fondazione delle Arti
It started because Italian cinema was flourishing thanks to the films of directors such as Fellini, Antonioni and Pasolini and the fact that American filmmakers wanted to use Cinecittà Studios as they were less costly than Hollywood. Stalwarts of the cinematic archive such as Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963) were shot there.
Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998)
Rock Hudson and Cary Grant at Cinecittà,
June 1961
MGMC & Solares Fondazione delle Arti
This meant that film stars came to Rome and after working at the studio in the day time went to the vibrant Via Veneto with its bars and restaurants to relax in the evening. Thus stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Alain Delon, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Baccall, John Wayne and Charlton Heston became targets of the paparazzi.
Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998)
Carlo Ponti, Sophia Loren and Vittorio De Sica, Rome, 1961
MGMC & Solares Fondazione delle Arti
However, then as now, not all stars appreciated being the focus of a camera lens in their personal time and there are some images of them trying to stop the photographer shooting them. The ones of Anita Ekberg trying to scare off paparazzi are well worth going to see on their own.
Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998)
Franco Nero assaulting Rino Barillari at the Trevi Fountain, 1965
MGMC & Solares Fondazione delle Arti
Ekberg was, of course, a major star in Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) and this eponymously titled exhibition combines the real-life images of Marcello Geppetti with behind-the-scenes shots on the film set by its cameraman Arturo Zavattini. Indeed it should be remembered that Paparazzo was the name of a charcter in the film. It adds up to a very enjoyable and heady mixture that brings the era to life with clarity and focus.
Arturo Zavattini (b. 1930)
Set of ‘La Dolce Vita’, Marcello Mastroianni
Solares Fondazione delle Arti
www.estorickcollection.com
Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998)
Jayne Mansfield and Mike Hargitay leaving “Piccola Budapest”, Rome, October 1962
In an age when I suppose it could be suggested with all the use of mobile phones for taking photographs that we could be considered to be paparazzi. However I think that once you have read this in-depth study of the paparazzi industry most will agree that we have a long way to go to capture some of the iconic images of celebrities such as Jackie O, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana, Britney Spears, Mick Jagger, and OJ Simpson.
Tim Forrest's E & A 