With this last letter of the alphabet we conclude this little primer on cinema. We wanted to provide readers with FIRST Art a useful tool to understand, get to know some of the fundamental elements that make up the "seventh art". In the choice of names, titles, themes, we have deliberately been summary, partial and biased. Summaries because the characteristics of this work are addressed to those who are already passionate about cinema and to those who are close to them and who therefore already possess sufficient knowledge; partial because the available space is not infinite and we did not want to propose an encyclopaedic approach; biased because, simply, everyone has their own sensitivity, their history, their culture which is original and not always available to be shared. For this last point, we may have omitted important names or titles.
Cesare Zavattini he belongs to that glorious generation of directors, screenwriters and storytellers who made the fortune of Italian cinema starting in the 30s. It includes names such as Vittorio De Sica, Alessandro Blasetti, and Mario Camerini. With De Sica, in particular, he contributes to giving birth to the history of Italian neorealism starting from The children watch us of 1943 which will be followed by historical titles such as Sciuscià of '46, Bicycle Thieves of '48 and UmertoD. From '52. At the beginning of the 60s, always as a subject writer, he resumed a prolific and long collaboration with De sica and with him he achieved great successes such as La ciociara del '60, Italian wedding of '64, The garden of the Finzi-Continis of '71. Of Zavattini it is necessary to mention a splendid photographic work made in 1954 with the famous American photographer Paul Strand: Un Paese.
Franco Zeffirelli he made his debut as a collaborator of big names in Italian cinema such as Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. He specialized in theater directing and only towards the end of the 70s did he make his film debut with works based on British dramatic works such as The Taming of the Shrew of '67, Romeo and Juliet of '68. Titles of a religious nature will follow such as Brother Sun, Sister Moon of '71 and the Jesus of Nazareth of '77.
Zhang Yimou is one of the best-known signatures of Chinese cinematography. He made his debut in 1987 with Sorgo rosso but notoriety came in '91 with Red lanterns, starring the beautiful Li Gong. Her cinema is all focused on the aesthetics of images up to the "oriental action" genre with The forest of flying daggers of 2005.
It cannot be forgotten Fred zinnemann and some of his most famous titles. In 54 he created a small masterpiece of the western genre: Mezzogiorno di fuoco. The following year he won an Oscar with From here to eternity, in the war genre. In the thriller genre to remember The day of the jackal, Of 1973.
Among the important films for this last letter of the alphabet, it occupies a special place Zabriskie Point, written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1970. It is the manifesto film of a generation, that of the protest, of '68, which contains all the symbolic, iconic elements of that period. The scene of the explosion, created with 17 cameras, is epic, a visual metaphor for the possible apocalypse of the consumer society. Giovanni Grazzini wrote in this regard: "it is a film that strikes with the authentic weapons of poetry".
We close with a film to remember: Z – The orgy of power, directed by Costa-Gavras from 1969. It is a strongly political work and refers to a true story that happened in Greece which, at the end of the 60s, suffered a coup by the military who established a brutal dictatorship . Soundtrack by Mikis Theodorakis and between actors Yves Montand and Irene Papas.
