La Mole Antonelliana is cinema and architecture, is there anything more cool?
As much as it is tried to avoid it, the tourist mojo in Turin that **drives all visitors crazy is the Mole Antonelliana **. There it is, planted as if nothing had happened, peeking around corners, in the arches of bare arcades or above churches. It's a strange beacon of curious attraction that is easily satiated looking at the sky, letting himself be guided by the singular needle that crowns it, strolling through the city and reaching his door.
"Oooooh, but it's a damn museum" most will think. But before many turn away in disgust, the magnetizing capacity of this place takes effect again with the word 'cinema'. But the doubts continue: What can we expect from a film museum? Isn't it a kind of denaturation/kidnapping of the seventh art? After all, movies already have their own sanctuaries in the theaters.
Well this museum reaches the top of the scale of molonism , something that helps (and a lot) the fact that it begins with a small elevator trip. It is a kind of warning. Dude, this is different. What comes from then on is a most varied downhill. It has its didactic point, with a bit of cinema prehistory told with a resource that never fails to dazzle the most attention-deficit audience: interactivity . Playing, looking through holes, entering small dark chambers and experimenting with Chinese shadows. It is true that this first area does not leave with the necessary knowledge to understand how the hell the egoblogger they record their cats with their smartphones and they put on such elaborate videos, but at least one laughs at the past, at how the first spectators were terrified when they saw the locomotives entering the theaters thanks to the screens.
Turin view from Molle Antonelliana
Turn for fetishism. The National Cinema Museum was born thanks to the collection of Maria Adriana Prolo . This woman from Turin was not a fan of celluloid, nor was she one of those people who lined rooms, folders and dreams of youth with the prints of the most charismatic actors and actresses of her time. Simply, she had a documentary, librarian and scientific interest for everything that surrounded an art that she saw evolve in Italy and in the rest of the planet. Of what is exposed here, some copies of many of the most emblematic scripts of classic Hollywood or, even, the clothes that authentic icons like Marilyn Monroe wore in certain films stand out. Props, mythical clapperboards, shooting photographs or film posters that they are a work of art and that they hypnotize by themselves complete the most anecdotal part. There should be no confusion: although the character of what is exhibited is somewhat frivolous, the value of gathering so much material is incalculable, and for that it deserves praise.
Ok, very good, but What would a museum of this type be without the moving image? The ramp that surrounds the interior of the mass ends in an immense hall where the surprising red seats that bloom from the ground. About them, visitors lie back and contemplate (or fall asleep) the scenes that are projected on the dome. In addition, on the walls, gigantic sculptures representing film genres give way to small rooms where the best moments are exhibited, such as westerns, science fiction, romantic drama, etc. has given to our retinas. There is a certain cliché and a certain tendency to simplify everything, but we must not forget that it is what the coolest museums have, who know how to please the widest spectrum of visitors . The most movie buffs will go to bed that day with a lot of new knowledge and the most neophytes will be left with the comforting experience of having visited a not boring museum.
Before returning to the hustle and bustle of Turin vermouth and aperitif , two tips. The first, do not stop visiting the Souvenirs Store where you can find absolutely everything related to cinema, from "that poster I always wanted to put up in my living room" to "the book of compromised photographs of X actress". The second, take the elevator that crosses the center of the mass to go out to the viewpoint . The view of the interior, where everything is seen again but from a more zenithal perspective, is not wasted. The exterior panoramic view, once you reach the viewpoint, captivates because it allows admire the whole city, from the banks of the Po to where the red roofs merge with the Alps. architecture and cinema, Can you ask for more from a cool museum?
this is cinema
The elevator: a vertiginous 'must', a meeting in the 'third phase'