Museo Nazionale del Cinema

The Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, Italy's National Cinema Museum, is located in the magnificently OTT La Mole Antonelliana near the heart of the town.

Turin was once the Hollywood of Italy, home to a number of major Italian film studios, and it is an apt host of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema.

Although the museum is fairly comprehensive, it is oddly disappointing, perhaps because of its focus on Italian cinema rather than Hollywood with which we are all much more familiar.

The cinema museum is divided into 5 sections, each focusing on a different aspect of cinema, from the its beginnings as a home amusement to the large scale industrial machine it has become today.

The Archaeology of Cinema

This first section takes the visitor through the complete history of projection. The displays include pre-cinematic beginnings such as the camera obscura, magic lanterns, stroboscopes and other devices, with explanations of how each functioned.

Temple Hall

The huge Temple Hall is the main area and consists of a central hall in the dome of La Mole, through which the panoramic lift passes, surrounded by 10 "chapels".

The main area has lines of chaises longues on which visitors can rest while watching one of two giant screens. Around this area are the chapels focusing on different aspects of the cinema.

Television and Cinema

From the Temple Hall is a walkway that spirals around the inside of the building, demonstrating different aspects of the filmaking process. This includes practical demonstrations of special effects, including a green screen in front of which you can make a fool of yourself - but be warned, as you progress along the walkway you're in for a shock!

The Cinema Machine

A tour through the filmaking process, including exhibits of scripts, costumes and other props. This section includes one of Darth Vader's helmets used in the filming of The Empire Strikes Back as well as a cast from a helmet used in the original Star Wars film - the difference in size between the two is enormous.

Poster Gallery

The poster gallery includes a selection of the museum's extensive collection of posters - the collection numbers more than 200,000 posters.

The cinema museum also includes a three screen multiplex cinema, with a strong focus on cultural events, retrospectives, premieres and first screenings of foreign films.

Find more information on the web site for the Cinema Museum. The museum also has a wifi intranet that you can connect to using a wifi equipped PDA to give you a guided audio-visual tour, although we have not tested this yet.

Museo Nazionale del Cinema
Via Montebello, 20
Open Tuesday to Friday, 09:00-20:00; Saturday, 09:00-23:00; Sunday, 09:00-20:00. Closed Monday.

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