Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 4
  • ISSN: 2047-7368
  • E-ISSN: 2047-7376

Abstract

The production of sponsored films has historically depended on considerable financial and logistical resources, shaping corporate identities both internally and publicly. These films represent a pivotal moment in the evolution of media economics as an ideological and geopolitical tool for self-promotion. In this context, they frequently introduce an extra layer of storytelling that complements commodity fetishism. Yet, authors like Olmi, Ivens, Orsini, Bertolucci, Pontecorvo and the Taviani brothers navigated these corporate imperatives, documenting Italy’s national advancements in electrification, radiocommunication and industrial automation amid world conflicts, decolonization, labour disputes and environmental risks generated by energy consumption. This article explores how Italian corporate films encapsulate potent historical memories, creating a unique blend of authorial detours and corporate integration. In doing so, they critically reveal the interplay between humans, production systems, the environment and marginalized communities.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00319_1
2025-08-23
2026-04-16

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Acland, Charles R. and Wasson, Haidee (2011), Useful Cinema, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Angeli, Silvia (2021), ‘Olmi and Pasolini: Industrialisation, the underdog and “ecological eschatology” in Manon: Finestra 2 (1956) and Grigio (1957)’, Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies, 55:3, pp. 85064, https://doi.org/10.1177/00145858211025486.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Antonello, Pierpaolo (2019), ‘The (political) forms of technology: Antonioni, Olmi, De Seta, and post-World War II industrial cinema’, The Italianist, 39:2, pp. 15170, https://doi.org/10.1080/02614340.2019.1589273.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Banita, Georgiana (2014), ‘From Isfahan to Ingolstadt: Bertolucci’s La via del petrolio and the global culture of neorealism’, in R. Barrett and D. Worden (eds), Oil Culture, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 14568.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bertolucci, Bernardo (1967), La via del petrolio, Italia: ENI/RAI.
  6. Bertolucci, Bernardo (2021), Il mistero del cinema, Milan: La Nave di Teseo editore.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bonifazio, Paola (2014), ‘United we drill: ENI, films, and the culture of work’, Annali d’Italianistica, 32, pp. 32950.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bonifazio, Paola (2022), ‘A short history of sponsored film in Italy’, in C. Baghetti, J. Carter and L. Marmo (eds), Italian Industrial Literature and Film. Perspectives on the Representation of Postwar Labor, Lausanne: Peter Lang, pp. 5976.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Bragin, John and Bertolucci, Bernardo (1966), ‘A conversation with Bernardo Bertolucci’, Film Quarterly, 20:1, pp. 3944, https://doi.org/10.2307/1211162.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Carter, Jim (2019), ‘Salaried intellectuals: Fortini, Giudici, Ottieri, Volponi, and Buzzi at the Olivetti Company’, Italian Culture, 37:1, pp. 4763, https://doi.org/10.1080/01614622.2019.1601391.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Carter, Jim (2021), ‘Coming of age in Milano: Ermanno Olmi from sponsored cinema to feature filmmaking’, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 9:3, pp. 41128, https://doi.org/10.1386/jicms_00084_1.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Cecchi, Alessandro (2023), ‘Creative films for creative corporations: Music and musicians in experimental Italian industrial films’, in V. Hediger, P. Vonderau and Y. Zimmermann (eds), Films that Work Harder: The Circulation of Industrial Film, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 77997.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. De Filippo, Alessandro (2016), Per una speranza affamata: Il sogno industriale in Sicilia nei documentari dell’Eni, Turin: Kaplan edizioni.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Deleuze, Gilles (1992), ‘What is a dispositif?’, in T. J. Armstrong (ed.), Michel Foucault, Philosopher: Essays Translated from the French and German, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 15968.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Dondi, Franco and De Seta, Vittorio (1960), Gela 1959: Pozzi a mare (‘Gela 1959: offshore wells’), Italy: ENI.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Frescani, Elio (2012), ‘L’Italia non è un paese povero: Le vicende del film di Ivens commissionato dall’Eni di Enrico Mattei’, Meridione: Sud e Nord nel mondo XII, 2&3, pp. 86102.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Frescani, Elio (2014), Il cane a sei zampe sullo schermo: La produzione cinematografica dell’ENI di Enrico Mattei, Naples: Liguori.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Giannarelli, Ansano (1972), Linea di montaggio, Italia: REIAC Film.
  19. Giannarelli, Ansano and Brucciani, Olga (2010), ‘L’analisi filmica del lavoro. Conversazione con Ansano Giannarelli’, in C. Olivieri and P. Scarnati (eds), Ciak, si lotta! Il cinema dell’Autunno caldo in Italia e nel mondo, Rome: LiberEtà, p. 166.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Hediger, Vinzenz and Vonderau, Patrick (2009a), ‘Introduction’, in V. Hediger and P. Vonderau (eds), Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 916.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hediger, Vinzenz and Vonderau, Patrick (2009b), ‘Record, rhetoric, rationalization: Industrial organization and film’, in V. Hediger and P. Vonderau (eds), Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 3549.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Hediger, Vinzenz, Vonderau, Patrick and Zimmermann, Yvonne (2023), ‘Introduction: A sequel and a shift’, in V. Hediger, P. Vonderau and Y. Zimmermann (eds), Films that Work Harder: The Circulation of Industrial Film, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 1933.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Ivens, Joris (1960), L’Italia non è un paese povero (Italy Is Not a Poor Country), Italy: ENI.
  24. Latini, Giulio (2011), L‘energia e lo sguardo: il cinema dell ‘ENI e i documentari di Gilbert Bovay, Rome: Donzelli.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Latini, Giulio (2016), Immagini-mondo: Breve storia del cinema d’impresa, Rome: Edizioni Kappabit.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Latini, Giulio (2022), ‘Italia Antica e Nuova: Energie-Sviluppo Economico-Sociale-Ambiente nella Narrazione Cinematografica Dell’ENI Lungo il Secondo Dopoguerra’, in G. Latini and M. Maggioli (eds), Sguardi Green: Geografie, Ambiente, Culture Visuali, Rome: Società Geografica Italiana, pp. 169200.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Latini, Giulio (2024), Image-worlds: A Brief History of Corporate Cinema (trans. M. Ciccognani), Rome: Edizioni Kappabit.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm ([1710] 1985), Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil (trans. E. M. Huggard), LaSalle, IL: Open Court Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Lukacs, György ([1923] 1971), History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (trans. R. Livingstone), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Maggioli, Marco (2022), ‘Archivi, geografie e racconto’, in G. Latini and M. Maggioli (eds), Sguardi Green: Geografie, Ambiente, Culture Visuali, Rome: Società Geografica Italiana, pp. 11338.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Marx, Karl ([1867] 1977), Capital, Volume I (trans. S. Moore and E. Aveling), London: Lawrence and Wishart.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Mattana, Walter (2019), ‘Tradition and modernity: The Italian corporate cinema between documentary and tecnofilm (195070)’, Cahiers d’histoire du Cnam, 12:12, pp. 10332.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Missio, Stefano (2007), ‘Cercando L’Italia non è un paese povero’, in D. Vicari (ed.), Il mio paese, Milan: Rizzoli, pp. 8293.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Olmi, Ermanno (1956), Manon finestra 2, Italia: Edisonvolta.
  35. Peretti, Luca (2019), ‘Between auteurism and sponsored cinema: Joris Ivens, Bernardo Bertolucci and ENI’, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 7:2, pp. 199215, https://doi.org/10.1386/jicms.7.2.199_1.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Russell, Patrick (2024), ‘Transfer of power’, in V. Hediger, F. Hoof and Y. Zimmermann (eds), Films that Work Harder, The Circulation of Industrial Film, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 71136.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Schaub, Martin (1967), ‘Die zweiten Solothurner Filmtage: Leistungen und Probleme des Schweizer Films’, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27 January, p. 7.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Skvirsky, Salomé Aguilera (2020), The Process Genre: Cinema and the Aesthetic of Labor, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Socci, Stefano (2003), Bernardo Bertolucci, Milan: Il Castoro.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Turnbull, Thomas (2024), ‘Energy and industrial film: Energo-critical registers’, in V. Hediger, F. Hoof and Y. Zimmermann (eds), Films that Work Harder: The Circulation of Industrial Film, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 12342.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Walbrou, Sonny (2023), ‘Le cinéma d’Ansano Giannarelli (tout) contre le travail. Linea di montaggio et Analisi del lavoro’, in S. Layerle and V. Vignaux (eds), Cinéma, marxisme, matérialisme: Pour une critique du cinéma, Milan: Mimésis, pp. 207306.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Williams, Evan Calder (2013), ‘The fog of class war: Elio Petri’s The Working Class Goes to Heaven, four decades on’, Film Quarterly, 66:4, pp. 5059, https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2013.66.4.50.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Williams, Alex and Srnicek, Nick (2014), ‘#Accelerate: Manifesto for an accelerationist politics’, in S. Mackay and A. Avanessian (eds), #Accelerate: The Accelerationist Reader, Falmouth: Urbanomic, pp. 34762.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Zimmermann, Yvonne (2009), ‘“What Hollywood is to America, the corporate film is to Switzerland”: Remarks on industrial film as utility film’, in V. Hediger V and P. Vonderau (eds), Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 10118.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00319_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00319_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test