Livorno Superstar

Marco Sisi is an experienced video editor at RAI, Italy's national public broadcasting company, and a professional video maker. He is also a passionate cinephile and a few years ago he published an interesting book about Livorno in the movies: “Livorno superstar. La mia città dentro il cinema”.

He made this incredible short video, a montage of clips from almost every movie shot in Livorno. There is also a longer and more complete version, practically a documentary with interviews, which you can find here.

External links: RAI (Wikipedia) - Livorno superstar. La mia città dentro il cinema (Amazon)

Versione italiana

On the Road

“On the Road” movie poster and a scooter outside the “Kino Dessé” (formerly Gragnani), “Via dell'Angiolo”.

Versione italiana

Academy Award

“La prima cosa bella” (The First Beautiful Thing), by the Livornese Paolo Virzì and almost completely filmed in Livorno, is the Italian candidate for the next foreign language Oscar.

On the other hand, our Pisan cousins have already won a world wide laugh for this rickety and off-key video supporting the Nobel Peace Prize for the Internet.

(Thanks to my friend Stefano for showing me this pearl)

P.S. - If you like the Pisan video I can do nothing for you, but if you think that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a thing is a good idea, please try to read this New Yorker piece about social media: “Why the revolution will not be tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell.

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Via Maggi

On the east side of “Piazza Cavour” we find “Via Maggi”, formerly part of a “Via degli Spalti” (Embankments Road) because it ran outside the ancient walls.It has several interesting buildings, some renewed and a few in need of some attention.Just before getting back to “Piazza Cavour” we find “Piazza Giorgio Caproni”, one of the newest squares in town.A scene of “La prima cosa bella”, a movie by Paolo Virzì almost completely located in Livorno, was filmed here last May.

See also: Piazza Giorgio Caproni - La prima cosa bella - Federica's Corner - Sun, Moon and Starfish
External links: Paolo Virzì - La prima cosa bella (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

La prima cosa bella

Nowadays the film director Paolo Virzì is one of the most famous sons of Livorno, which he has already successfully described in the 1997 flick “Ovosodo” (Hard boiled egg). His new movie, “La prima cosa bella” (The First Beautiful Thing), happens to be completely located in his home town and was shot around Livorno during last May and June.In these images they were filming near “Piazza Giorgio Caproni”: the director is the first on the right, talking with the lead actor, Valerio Mastandrea.In a second scene you can see Valerio Mastandrea and the actress Claudia Pandolfi riding a scooter in two, quite usual in Livorno but against the normal rules of the road.All the passers-by you see beyond the crew were extras walking the same route at every new take.A nun with a bike wasn't an extra but she was promptly signed up because she was so “real”.
“La prima cosa bella” will be released next January.

External links: Paolo Virzì - La prima cosa bella (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Filming on Our Streets

I don't know what they were filming but they were absorbed and conspicuous, standing in the middle of “Corso Mazzini” yesterday afternoon.