Umberto Barbaro (1902-1959) was a progressive intellectual who managed to make important contributions to specifically Italian culture and the appreciation of other cultures by his countrymen even during the Fascist period. A member of the Left Futurist movement in the 20s, he published his first work of fiction in 1931: Luce Fredda, a novel about alienated bourgeois youth in Rome. Also an art historian, he would later make two documentaries on Italian painters. His collaboration with fellow theorist Luigi Chiarini involved working as a teacher at the filmmaking school they cofounded in 1935, Centro Sperimentale, writing essays for magazines they were both involved with,and co-scripting several features. Barbaro led the tendency looking toward a more documentary like approach in Italian cinema and what would later be called Neo Realism. After WWII he succeeded in yet another career, as a translator, by bringing the theoretical writings of Soviet artists such as Eisenstein and Pudovkin to greater awareness in Italy as well as the work of German scholar Rudolph Arnheiim.

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Umberto Barbaro

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