(Andreas Solaro/ AFP/Getty Images ) - Staff picket the entrance of the Cinecitta films studio as they protest against a modernization plan in Rome on July 21, 2012. The bone of contention is a modernization plan that would increase the number of sub-contractors, split off parts of the studios and build a hotel for visiting crews which management says will restore Cinecitta as an international hub.
Plans to transform Rome’s storied Cinecitta studios by adding a glitzy hotel and theme park has ignited “Occupy”-style outrage from some of the Italian film industry’s most skilled set designers and costumers.
More than 200 artisans approached a fourth week of demonstrations Thursday against the projected makeover, which includes a 200-plus-room hotel and spa, an expansive subterranean parking structure and several upscale restaurants.
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Top studio executives, including Cinecitta Studios president Luigi Abete, say the $200 million makeover will help lure international film crews back to its famed back lots, the site of American epics like Ben-Hur and Cleopatra, and the contemporary productions of Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York and Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
According the studio’s Web site, it has executed changes that transform Cinecitta, the undisputed hub of Italian cinema, from a “large monolithic, state owned entity” into a group of smaller companies that are “more agile” and specialize in streamlined production.
This doesn’t sit well with Simona Balducci, a set designer who has worked at Cinecitta for 15 years. Balducci said she’s been on strike, camping outside Cinecitta for the past three weeks, in an “Occupy Wall Street” fashion. Her concern: By breaking up Cinecitta, the smaller companies would be able to “rent and sell workers to third parties.”
“How does the building of a hotel and other [amenities], along with the depletion of workers from the Studios, guarantee the preservation of [our] vocation?” said Balducci.
Developers also plan to break ground next year on “Cinecitta World,” a studio-inspired, $600 million theme park akin to Universal Studios Hollywood, although the park continues to be postponed.
Once a wholly public institution, Cinecitta’s transformation is a symptom of the contemporary “global entertainment market” and of Italy trying to find its niche under the current framework, explained Karen Pinkus, a professor of Italian and comparative literature at Cornell University, who specializes in Italian cinema.
“Italian cinema has been pretty moribund for a long time,” said Pinkus, adding that the privatization of Cinecitta, coupled with their skilled laborers, could conceivably bring back foreign filmmakers.
Although the studio’s workforce and executives disagree on Cinecitta’s future, there’s no question the historic studio could use the business. Once an international film powerhouse, Cinecitta hosted just eight films and six television shows in 2011. Escaping the high cost of production in Rome, Italian filmmakers and those previously drawn to Cinecitta, are setting up their cameras elsewhere.
“This year, they even filmed an Italian television show about Tuscany in Argentina,” said Fabrizio Laurenti, a director and documentary filmmaker in Rome.
At the heart of the issue is the studio management’s desire to compete in the global marketplace. Production costs in nearby Eastern Europe countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia are much lower than those in Italy, driving filmmakers away from Rome.
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