This year, thanks to the valuable collaboration between Fondazione Puglia and Fondazione Apulia Film Commission, Bif&st presents an immersive audio-photographic exhibition held in the restored Palazzo Starita, curated by journalist and film critic Silvio Danese, entitled SEMBRA CH’È PASSATO UN GIORNO. VOICES, STORIES, IMAGES FROM THE ROMANCE OF ITALIAN CINEMA. An exhibition designed as an audiovisual journey through the history of Italian cinema, featuring rare photographs, archive material and sound recordings from public and private collections.
The exhibition will open on Friday 20 March at 18.30 and will run until Sunday 12 April. The opening will be attended by Antonio Castorani, president of the Puglia Foundation, Anna Maria Tosto, president of the Apulia Film Commission Foundation, Oscar Iarussi, artistic director of Bif&st, and Silvio Danese, curator of the exhibition.
In the wake of the memory and history of Italian cinema, the exhibition Sembra ch’è passato un giorno invites the public to take a journey through time via some of the figures who have shaped the cinematic imagination of the 20th century.
Alberto Sordi and Mario Monicelli, Roberto Rossellini and Anna Magnani, Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Dino Risi and Vittorio Gassman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti, Luchino Visconti and Pier Paolo Pasolini: these are just some of the leading figures of an artistic community that played a decisive role in defining the cultural identity of the Republic and in bringing Italian cinema to unprecedented international success. Alongside them, many other key figures — from Nino Manfredi to Ugo Tognazzi, from Valentina Cortese to Gina Lollobrigida, right through to Luigi Comencini and Carlo Lizzani — make up the mosaic of a unique era.
The exhibition stems from the idea that the cinema of the last century continues to accompany us like an invisible travelling companion. Through rare photographs, archival materials and sound recordings from public and private collections, the exhibition reconstructs a narrative made up of images, words and memories, bringing the great stars of Italian cinema to life even off-set, featuring around 200 prints, 40 texts and a montage of voices that accompanies the visitor’s journey through the rooms of Palazzo Starita.
Visitors are invited to embark on a veritable audiovisual journey, built around historical prints, photographic archives and recordings drawn from interviews and testimonies of the era. The texts and audio materials on display reveal anecdotes, reflections and memories that capture the cultural energy of post-war Italy.
In the spirit of unconventional research, the exhibition is enriched by a selection of photographs by Paul Ronald (from the Maraldi archive), photographer to Luchino Visconti and of one of Federico Fellini’s most famous sets, 8½, and by the shots of Giuseppe Palmas, a sensitive photojournalist – a ‘non-paparazzo’ of the Dolce Vita (from the archive of his son Roberto Palmas).
A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to Claudia Cardinale, to whom the festival pays tribute with the poster for the 17th edition, featuring the screen tests taken at the start of her career by Franco Pinna for Franco Cristaldi’s Vides, and the documentary Claudia Cardinale – La plus belle italienne de Tunisi by Mohamed Challouf and Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud, focusing on the actress’s years in Tunisia.
The exhibition’s sound dimension completes the immersive experience: two pieces — Nocturnes Nos. 1 and 7 from Eleven Nocturnes by the New York composer and musicologist Kyle Gann, performed by pianist Emanuele Arciuli — accompany the exhibition route like a musical tapestry that amplifies the evocative power of the journey through time.
EXHIBITION OPENING TIMES
21–29 March 2026, 10:00–19:00
4–5–6 April 2026, 10:00–19:00
30 March–3 April 2026, 16:00–19:00
7–12 April 2026, 16:00–19:00