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schermo ad un numero qualsiasi
di spettatori, fu il motivo che
determinò la superiorità del
"Cinematographe" dei Lumière
sul "Kinetoscope" di Edison e la
sua rapida diffusione nel mondo
a partire dalla famosa prima
proiezione collettiva a
pagamento, avvenuta il 28
dicembre 1895 a Parigi al
"Grand Cafè", al numero 14 del
Boulevard des Capucines in
presenza di 33 spettatori. Tale
data segnò l'avvio ufficiale e
trionfale del cinematografo
commerciale.
In tale situazione si inserisce il
grande pioniere del cinema
italiano Filoteo Alberini, nato ad
Orte il 14 marzo 1864 e morto a
Roma I'll aprile 1937, con una
richiesta, per ottenere l'Attestato
di Privativa Industriale (o
brevetto) per il Kinetografo
Alberini, presentata circa un
mese e mezzo prima della storica
proiezione di Parigi.
Ancor prima dell'invenzione del
cinematografo la fotografia era
una scoperta già affermata e
ogni fotografo cullava l'idea di
dare il movimento alle statiche
immagini fotografiche, fino a
creare così inconsciamente
quello che sarebbe stato il
fenomeno "cinematografo".
Anche Filoteo Alberini fu
dapprima un entusiasta della
nowhere if I continued along that same road, and so I stopped.
What also helped me in my decision was that, by sheer chance, I discovered a
new art form; photography! I was fifteen, when an itinerant photographer
came to our village. This time also, I couldn't wait to poke my nose in, and did
everything I could to get into the photographer's good books until he finally
took me on as his "servant boy", as he called me. I still remember the first
time I saw the images reflected, upside down and in colour, in the ground
glass of the camera, and I cannot begin to describe the emotion I
experienced. I quickly learned how to execute all the various operations
necessary to take a photograph, and with such a degree of success that my
"master" was both surprised and pleased with his pupil! The day he left the
village, the bottom dropped out of my world. However, after a few days I
discovered that an old priest in the village had a camera! I didn't rest until I
had convinced him to sell it to me, but then had my work cut out to persuade
my father to contribute 12 lira to the cause! It was one of the early box
cameras, using the collodion process (in which the film was laid on the plate
wet), and I still have it. I can't teli you how many photographs I took in a very
short space of time: but it certainly was a great number!»
Further on in the same article, Alberini recounts how his interest in the
cinema was bom:
•One day, as I was strolling beneath the porticoes of "Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele" in Florence, a small announcement displayed in a shop window
caught my eye. It read: "Great New Invention - the Edison Kinetoscope -
Animated photography etc.". I went in, and immediately noticed that it was
an automatic device, as a coin had to be interted into an appropriate slot for
it to function. The Kinetoscope resembled an elegant piece of furniture. It
was almost like a small piano, in fact, and when I put in my coin and placed
my eye up against the hole, I let out a cry of wonderment. I saw: the whirling
fotografia e fu proprio questa
sua passione a portarlo più tardi
al cinematografo con l'ideazione
e la costruzione di una macchina
da presa e da proiezione in uno.
Sul come Alberini cominciò ad
interessarsi della fotografia è
meglio lasciar parlare lui stesso,
riportando una parte di un
articolo (sintesi di un discorso
pronunciato a Roma) da lui
firmato e apparso sul quotidiano
romano "La Tribuna", del 1
febbraio 1923, e ripreso anche
dalla "Rivista Cinematografica"
di Torino, il 10 febbraio 1923:
«Cosa volete, la mia natura era
così, ma riflettendo bene
pensai che a seguitare di quel
Filotgo
Alberini
tulle of a ballerina's dress, the vigorous, rhythmic blows of a blacksmith's
hammer as it struck the red hot iron, i barber's delicate gestures as he
shaved a customer: a series of extraordinary visions that appeared to me like
the most fantastic dream! The man in charge of the machine was reluctant to
answer my various questions, and actually got very angry when I asked to see
inside the magical apparatus. Never mind, I thought, I'll discover the secret
myself! And, in fact, a short while afterwards, a fairly obvious notion struck
me: wouldn't it be marvellous to show that same animated photography to
hundreds of people at the same time, by projecting it the way slides are
projected in a magic lantern? My life in the cinema began on that day, in the
year 1894! At that time, the special film one uses for the cinematograph did
not exist; however, photographic film was available for using exclusively in
cameras like the one built by Kocak. It was fairly easy for me to deduce how
the movement of the pictures was created. The secret had to lie in a series of
rapid snapshots; while everything had to come together in the subsequent
viewing process, whether it was direct or indirect So, I went to work!
And after two months of going at it steadily, I designed and built a device that
could both film scenes and, at the same time, project them in movement
I can't say that it was a type of movie camera, as the "cinematograph" did not
exist then.
In the following year — 1895 — the "Cinematographe" was invented by the
Lumière brothers of Lyon, that is to say an apparatus which made it possible
to project animated pictures and show them to hundreds of people gathered
together in one large room, and made its spectacular entrance! I invented
many different apparatuses in the ensuing years. I worked on them day and
night, and was completely obsessed with them. They kept me awake for two
whole years!»
Filoteo Alberini designed and built many different pieces of