Cinema Italiano

Cinemas in Milan, like elsewhere else in the world, have had a turbulent history over the last 100 years.

In Milan cinema became more and more popular in the first half of the last century, The number of cinema theaters in Milan reached its peak from the 1950's - 1970's. However in the 1980's the number of cinemas in the city began to fall. This process has accelerated since the 1990's as large multiplexes have become more popular and the single screen cinemas of the last century have been forced to adapt or close.

I learnt all this from the marvelous La Storia delle Sale Cinematografiche, a timeline and map of cinemas in Milan. This map shows the location of Milan's cinemas, from the city's first cinema, the Lirico, which opened in 1894, right up to the modern day.

If you use the timeline, below the map, you can browse the history of cinema theaters in Milan through time. As you adjust the date on the timeline the map automatically updates to show the locations of all the theaters which were open in the selected year.


Pier Paolo Pasolini was an extraordinary Italian poet, writer and director. La Cinémathèque Française in Paris has developed a Google Map to explore Pasolini's life in Rome. The map is a "journey to the heart of what constituted and defined him: friendship, literature, politics, love, sex, cinema."

The map was created for the European exhibition on Pier Paolo Pasolini. The Pasolini Roma Map contains locations important in the life and work of Pasolini, interspersed with commentary, photos and clips from the artist's films. The map also includes a number of entries by Žilda, a street artist from Rennes (France), whose collages summon the phantoms of Pasolini at the corner of Roman alleyways.