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One of the most discussed feelings in the history of humanity is certainly love. From poetry to legends, from music to books, to TV series and cinema: romance continues to inspire again and again, producing timeless masterpieces. Mediterranean countries have received great attention from foreign cameras: over the years, they have taken up more and more space on the big screen, forming the backdrop to iconic plots.
From the last century to today, multiple international productions, even by big names, have made some Mediterranean countries the real protagonists: it almost becomes a guarantee of complete success. Why not retrace, then, this profound love story between the camera and the countries belonging to the great basin?
The most loved at the cinema: Italy
The crown jewel among the choices made regarding the settings of foreign films is certainly Italy. Since the origins of cinema, the Belpaese has been an important part of cinematographic settings: we need to go back to 1902 to The Trip To The Moon by George Méliès, who decided to set part of the science fiction short film in a setting with Italian artistic and cultural references, making Italy part of a film for the first time.
During the following years, Italy once again returned to the top of the list among the favorite settings, this time for a feature film: The Taming of the Shrew, released in 1908 and directed by David W. Griffith, although it was a Shakespearean work, was set between Rome and other surrounding cities.
But the real “boom” occurred from the 1950s onwards. Just think of the unforgettable Roman Holiday of 1953, the story of the impossible love between Princess Audrey Hepburn and the American journalist Gregory Peck, set in the Eternal City. The following year, 1954, it was the turn of Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders, protagonists of Journey to Italy, interpreters of a couple in crisis who travel to Naples and Pompeii to find each other again.
How to not mention masterpieces of cinema history such as La Dolce Vita? Even today, despite over sixty years having passed since the release of the legendary film starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, this title has become almost a leitmotif for the thousands of travelers who decide to travel to Italy, immersing themselves in it. James Bond also often appears in Italy: famous are the chases featuring Ian Fleming’s agent 007 in Venice, Rome or Matera, the latter during the last chapter of the series, No Time To Die.
Not only “dated” films, but also more recent movies have led spectators to discover the Belpaese: the attention, in contemporary times, is increasingly shifting towards the South. This is how, therefore, to cite a very recent example, Sicily became the main protagonist in the final chapter of the Indiana Jones saga, The Dial of Destiny; however, it is worth remembering that it was not the first time that the famous archaeologist traveled to Italy: the initial sequences of The Last Crusade, in fact, took place in Venice.
The Mediterranean countries on the big screen
Naturally, although Italy holds a rather prominent position in the history of cinema, the other Mediterranean countries should not be forgotten which, over the years, have in turn been the undisputed protagonists of some famous film titles. Just think, for example, of the splendid landscapes of Greece in the famous Mamma mia! and Mamma mia! Here we go again; not only that, the French Riviera is the setting for the unfolding story of Café Society, the love story between Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart directed by Woody Allen in 2016.
These are just some of the numerous films which, over the course of more than a century of cinema history have led the Mediterranean countries to be not only the setting, but sometimes the very protagonists of hundreds of films: successful or not, they allowed their spectators to turn off the lights of their own reality, embarking on a journey towards unforgettable destinations.
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