Walter Alberti, Curator of the Cineteca Italiana in Milan since 1953, suddenly died on December 13, 1993. It is hard for me to write now about a friend with whom I shared, for over forty years, a battle for the preservation and diffusion of the film heritage.
Alberti started his career in film very early in his life. At the age of 20, in 1948, he had founded a University Film Centre (Centro Universitario Cinematografico) in Milan. Besides his work at the archive, he went into filmmaking with a group of local film amateurs, wrote articles for several film periodicals, and gained a reputation for his clever and enthusiastic style in introducing films at film clubs for retrospectives and previews. In 1956, Alberti organized the Festival of Industrial Cinema in the town of Monza; one of the first directors to be awarded was young Ermanno Olmi, who made some documentaries for the Montedison company.
Late in the Fifties, Alberti organized a groundbreaking roundtable with the young filmmakers of Goffredo Lombardo's Titanus company. Among them were future great authors like De Seta and Rosi, Ermanno Olmi and Elio Petri, Maselli and Lizzani. 1957 is the year of publication of his book Il cinema di animazione, perhaps the first relevant contribution in Italy to the study of film animation.
The core of Alberti's time and efforts, however, was devoted to the Cineteca Italiana. I believe we did great things together over all these years, despite the lack of interest demonstrated by the institutional milieu. We just had to save as many films as possible in the shortest possible time. We were doing so with a relentless, passionate commitment. I still remember, for example, the time when we managed to save from destruction several thousands of prints in a film laboratory which had gone bankrupt; or the day when Alberti found out that a deceased Swiss scholar, Antonio Chiattone, had decided to give his entire library to the Cineteca Italiana. We immediately went to Switzerland with Walter's cabriolet, an American car of the Fifties. (He was a collector of these old cars.) Back from Chiasso, with the car literally stuffed with books and papers, we were stopped by the Italian customs. They must have thought that we were some kind of subversive people, or just nuts, as it took several hours before we were allowed to go.
Alberti didn't like to travel. He used to say that he would never go beyond Lambrate, a train station in the suburbs of Milan. So I had to go to the FIAF meetings all by myself. An exception to this was the 1953 annual meeting in Vence, one of the most exciting and unpredictable events ever held by the Federation, organized by our dear friend Henri Langlois. (The evening screenings were held in the marketplace at Antibes, where Langlois showed the treasures of the Cinémathèque Française to the general audience.) Alberti's duty, as well as mine, was to look for chairs to be put in the screening area -- we became the raiders of all local bistrots.
Langlois came to Milan in 1951 with his assistants Charlot and Roger for the organization of an exhibition called "Fifty Years of French Cinema", held with the precious material preserved at the Musée du Cinéma in Paris. I will never forget the hectic work we had to deal with, even at night time, before the opening. We were so tired that Langlois and Alberti got into frequent arguments. "Walter, you're not an architect", Langlois said while Alberti was trying to put an object on display. "You're not an architect, either", Alberti replied; and we all laughed.
As we were constantly looking for rare or unknown films for our programming activities, and given the trouble involved in obtaining films from abroad, we made an agreement with Langlois, so that we could borrow his films after they had been screened at the Venice film festival. Langlois, however, didn't trust shipping agents; he would rather take the films by train, in his own sleeping car, straight to Venice. On his way back, he would stop in Lambrate (the furthest place where Alberti would dare to go), where Walter and I had to wait for the Orient Express at 3 a.m.; there, in the mist and cold of the night, we could hear a voice from the window of a sleeping car: "Walter, Gianni! ici, ici!". That was the voice of Lotte Eisner, the faithful vestal of Langlois' treasures, with her heavy trunks filled with film reels.
The Cineteca Italiana has lost a protagonist of its history. For sure, Walter Alberti has left an indelible mark upon this institution; his death symbolizes the end of an era, but his work stands as the base for all strategy of a much-needed reshaping of all the activities of our institution.
Gianni Comencini
Dans le texte qu'il nous a fait parvenir, Gianni Comencini remémore des moments importants et quelques anecdotes illustrant quarante ans de lutte pour la sauvegarde et la diffusion de la culture cinématographique en Italie.
Après avoir fondé le Centro Universitario Cinematografico à Milan en 1948, Alberti fut, des 1953, conservateur de la Cineteca Italiana à laquelle il consacrera l'essentiel de sa vie et de son travail. Critique de cinéma, associé des ses débuts (1956) au Festival du cinéma industriel de Monza, Walter Alberti sera aussi le grand présentateur et animateur de soirées de cinéma mémorables. Il aura contribué ainsi au lancement de jeunes cinéastes aux carrières prometteuses, de Seta à Rosi, de Olmi à Petri, de Maselli à Lizzani.
Avec Walter Alberti disparaît l'un des principaux artisans de l'Association. Une époque touche ainsi à sa fin mais le travail initié par Alberti aura jeté les bases d'un nouvel élan pour les activités de la Cineteca Italiana.
A la memoria de Walter Alberti
Walter Alberti falleció el 13 de diciembre de 1993.
En el texto que nos hizo llegar, Gianni Comencini recuerda momentos importantes y anécdotas que ilustran cuarenta años de lucha por la supervivencia y difusión de la cultura cinematográfica en Italia.
Luego de haber fundado el Centro Universitario Cinematográfico en Milán en 1948, Alberti fué, a partir de 1953, conservador de la Cineteca Italiana a la que dedicará la mayor parte de su vida y de su trabajo. Crítico cinematográfico, asociado desde sus comienzos (1956) al Festival de cine industrial de Monza, Walter Alberti ha sido también el gran presentador y animador de memorables noches de cine, dando así un primer apoyo a numerosos jóvenes directores de cine, de Seta a Rosi, de Olmi a Petri, de Maslli a Lizzani.
Con Walter Alberti desaparece uno de los principales artífices de la Asociación. Una época se acaba pero el trabajo iniciado por Alberti habrá establecido las bases necesarias para la renovación de las actividades de la Cineteca Italiana.