From 1896 to our own day, the history of the special tie between Parma and the cinema. From the screening of the first works of the Lumière brothers to a group of movie-loving intellectuals who in the thirties gave rise to a movement that involved many of the most important names in Italian cinema. From Attilio Bertolucci to Pietro Bianchi, from Bernardo Bertolucci to Vittorio Storaro, the curious series of events that turned a small provincial city into a filmmaking center of worldwide significance. The documentary is structured like a university lecture that, starting out from Bernardo Bertolucci’s film Prima della rivoluzione, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, goes on to recount a century of history of Italian cinema through interviews with directors, actors, cinematographers, art directors, musicians and movie experts and with rare footage from the archives.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
I have dedicated this work to the fiftieth anniversary of the first movie in which I played a leading role: Bernardo Bertolucci’s Prima della rivoluzione. I wanted to tell a wonderful story that involved me, many dear friends and my city, Parma. Almost a work of “cinematic archeology” in search of rare relics unknown to the general public. A long and assiduous research that has taken up all my time for years but that has paid me back by reviving forgotten emotions.