Calligrafismo (En: caligraphism) is an Italian style of filmmaking in the first half of the 1940s.
Characteristics of the style
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704224320im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/La_bella_addormentata_1942.jpg/170px-La_bella_addormentata_1942.jpg)
A scene from La bella addormentata (1942)
In the 1940s the two most significant styles of the Italian movie scene were the telefoni bianchi (En: white telephones) and calligrafismo.
Calligrafismo is in a sharp contrast to telefoni bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material,[1] above all the pieces of Italian realism from authors like Corrado Alvaro, Ennio Flaiano, Emilio Cecchi, Francesco Pasinetti, Vitaliano Brancati, Mario Bonfantini and Umberto Barbaro.[2]
The most important directors and scriptwriters
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704224320im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Tragica_notte_fotoscena.jpg/170px-Tragica_notte_fotoscena.jpg)
Scene from Tragica notte (1942)
Directors
Scriptwriters
References
Sources
- Roberto Campari, Il fantasma del bello. Iconologia del cinema italiano, Marsilio, Venezia, 1994. ISBN 88-317-5898-5
- ISBN 88-317-5774-1
- Lontani dalla gloria (Narrativa) (Italian Edition)
- After Neorealism: Italian Filmmakers and Their Films; Essays and Interviews