Film Forum

In the postwar years, as Italy emerged from rubble and poverty, a new era began in which Italian movie stars and intellectuals became international celebrities. From 1954–1968, Paolo Di Paolo took stunning, candid, elegant photographs of Anna Magnani, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Moravia, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Grace Kelly, and a mind-boggling host of others. But by the late ‘60s, the photographer had hung up his Leica, uncomfortable with the sensibility of sensationalism that younger paparazzi brought to the job. Decades later, his grown daughter Silvia discovers his archive – some of the most gorgeous images of European glamour ever created. American photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber, deeply admiring of Paolo Di Paolo’s work, meets with the nonagenarian to consider his life and the world he recorded, one neatly summed up by Tennessee Williams: “When I die, let me just go to Italy.”

109 MIN.     USA     LITTLE BEAR FILMS

With Support from The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund.

Reviews

CRITIC’S PICK. “CHARMING, EXHILARATING AND REVELATORY. The American photographer Bruce Weber was inspired to direct THE TREASURE OF HIS YOUTH: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF PAOLO DI PAOLO after coming upon some startling Di Paolo prints several years ago, at an Italian gallery… Energetic and articulate, frequently with his daughter Silvia, a champion of his rediscovered work, at his side, (Di Paolo) is full of stories that directly reflect the artistic temperament he still possesses in retirement… Di Paolo’s images remain breathtaking. Weber assembles them to create mini-essays about some still-startling Italian figures, such as the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini and the actress Anna Magnani. Weber sprinkles the movie with that quirky dolce-vita dust that distinguishes his own sensibility… It not only fits – it’s delightful.”
– Glenn Kenny, The New York Times

“Celebrates the extraordinary life and work of Paolo Di Paolo….(who) creates revelatory portraits of some of postwar Italy’s culture heroes, such as Anna Magnani and Pier Paolo Pasolini. (The photographer) displays a personality that’s as original as his art.”
– The New Yorker

“Here were some of the emblematic records of postwar Italy. (The film) traces Di Paolo’s 16-year career through his most memorable shots. Some of the candor and intimacy that emerges
in Di Paolo’s work is typical of Weber, too.” 
– Elena Clavarino, Air Mail

“The photographs taken by Di Paolo during the period (1954-1968)... document, in black and white, Italy in the midst of extraordinary social change – recovering at last from two decades of fascism and the devastation of war, the country was modernizing fast. Writers, actors and artists alike were in the grip of a creative fever that in turn transformed the beautiful cities of Rome and Venice into glamorous playgrounds for the international cinema set. Di Paolo picked up his first camera in the early 1950s. By 1954, his photographs were appearing regularly in Italy’s era-defining periodical Il Mondo. He photographed everyone from Brigitte Bardot skipping up the steps in Spoleto in Umbria and Charlotte Rampling smoldering on set in Sardinia
to prison inmates and the rural poor.”
– Hettie Judah, Vogue