Il Cinema dei Piccoli // La freccia azzurra
Every year at Christmas time the good witch Befana flies on her broom delivering toys to all the well-behaved children of Italy. But this year Befana falls ill and is forced to hand her delivery duties over to the sneaky and conniving Scarafoni, her evil assistant, who only wants to please the children of the […]
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Lunedì al Cinema // Puccini e la fanciulla
In 1909, while famous opera composer Giacomo Puccini is totally engrossed with the writing of La fanciulla del West, a complex intrigue swirls around him, his step-daughter Fosca, the young maid Doria, Fosca’s mother Elvira, and Giulia, who works as a waitress in the “Chalet da Emilio” in front of Puccini’s villa in Torre del […]
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Lunedì al Cinema // L’uomo che non cambiò la storia
The “man who didn’t change history” was a university professor: Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, esteemed Italian scholar of Roman art, a founding father of modern archaeology and staunchly anti-fascist. Things came to a head over Hitler’s famous journey to Italy in 1938, when Bandinelli was invited to accompany Mussolini and the Führer, serving as tour guide […]
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Shaping Italian society – with Niamh Cullen, John Foot and Patrick McGauley
This event marks the publication of two new books exploring Italy’s recent history from different angles. Patrick McGauley’s Matera, 1945-1960: The History of a ‘National Disgrace’ is a case study of Italy’s ‘southern question’ and ideas of national shame, while Love, Honour and Jealousy: The Intimate history of the Italian Economic Miracle by Niamh Cullen […]
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Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival // Viva Fellini
Marking this year’s centenary of one of cinema’s most prolific auteurs, Federico Fellini, Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival will celebrate the filmmaker’s work through a very special series of free concerts across the city, organised in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and Screen Composers Guild. Viva Fellini highlights the music of Fellini’s close collaborator […]
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Holocaust Remembrance Day // Remembering the Jews of Italy
The story of the Jews of Italy is characterised by successful cultural innovation and an exciting intellectual tradition. The presence of Jews in Rome pre-dated Christianity and, while the ghetto of Venice marked a period of separation, it was the rise of fascism and the introduction of the racial laws in 1938 that led to […]
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Just Before Suburbia. Literature and Big Cities in Italy during the 1950s – with Giancarlo Alfano
According to historiography, the economic boom in Italy started officially in 1956: 11 years after the end of World War II, Italy had thus been rebuilt and was propelled toward its own destiny of industrial leadership. However, the Italian territory continued to show signs of what had happened: bombed cities, shattered families, broken individual identities. […]
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From Matera to Galway – European Capital of Culture handover event
The Italian Institute of Culture is delighted to host an evening dedicated to the designation of Galway as European Capital of Culture 2020. This event will be an occasion to celebrate the connection between Italy and Ireland by revisiting the cultural momentum that the European Capital of Culture programme has brought to the city of […]
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Thursday at the Opera – III
A series of shared operatic experiences illustrated by live performance, presented by Deirdre O’Grady. The series will demonstrate the outstanding features of the early to mid-19th century romantic Italian opera through the glorious melodies of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi. History, its presentation and misrepresentation play a part in the rebirth of celebrated historical figures […]
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Lunedì al Cinema // Scusate se esisto
With a brilliant career in London, Serena, an architect originally from Abruzzo, decides to return to work in Italy, in Rome. For a woman to get a job at the height of her qualification as a really good architect proves to be difficult, until she decides to pass herself as a man. So she decides […]
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