The National Cinema Museum, Cinema museum in Mole Antonelliana, Turin, Italy.
The National Museum of Cinema occupies the Mole Antonelliana, the domed tower that is Turin's landmark. Its exhibition path winds upward in a spiral over five levels and about 3,200 square metres, from the Archaeology of Cinema section with magic lanterns and optical devices to the Temple Hall, ringed by areas devoted to film genres, Cabiria and Turin as a film city. A helical ramp climbs toward the dome, and a glass-walled panoramic lift rises 75 metres to a small temple with a city view.
Maria Adriana Prolo began working in June 1941 to create an Italian cinema museum, gathering relics with backing from director Giovanni Pastrone, who shot Cabiria in Turin in 1914. The Associazione Museo del cinema was formally constituted on 7 July 1953, after a tornado damaged the Mole Antonelliana and the plan to house the collection there faded. Prolo was named president and in 1956 director for life, while the museum was housed in Palazzo Chiablese before its later move into the Mole.
The museum is named after Maria Adriana Prolo, the Piedmontese historian who began collecting cinema memorabilia in 1941. Its heart is the Aula del Tempio, the temple hall of the Mole, ringed by displays on film genres, the silent epic Cabiria and Turin as a cinema city. From there a helical ramp climbs toward the dome, used for temporary exhibitions.
The visit runs along a helical ramp that climbs through the tower's single open space, with the Temple Hall at its base and temporary exhibitions along the ascent. A glass-walled panoramic elevator covers the 75-metre ride to the small temple in 59 seconds, giving a 360-degree view of Turin. The exhibition path covers about 3,200 square metres on five levels.
The collection holds more than 80,000 photographs and 300,000 film posters, some of which appear in rotating displays that offer insight into advertising graphics and visual language from different decades. A dedicated cinema in a nearby complex regularly screens classics and rarities from the in-house archive of 12,000 reels.
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