Ambrosio Film

Ambrosio Film was an Italian

short films

, but its output quickly grew more ambitious.

In 1908 the company made The Last Days of Pompeii (directed by Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi). The film was a major success, further enhancing the company's status and creating a fashion for Italian historical epics which other studios copied. In the wake of this, Ambrosio oversaw the production of a series of literary adaptations.^[1] The company built a large studio and picture house in Turin, and the city emerged as a major centre of the early Italian film industry.

In February 1909 Ambrosio took part in the Paris Film Congress, an attempt by leading European producers to form a cartel similar to that operated by the MPPC in the United States. However this plan fell through when Pathe, then the largest film company in the world, withdrew from the group. The same year one of his employees Ernesto Maria Pasquali left to form his own Pasquali Film.

The company enjoyed success exporting its films to lucrative foreign markets such as Britain and America (Ambrosio opened an affiliate in

liquidated.^[4]

References

^ Moliterno p.7
^ Moliterno p.8
^ Moliterno p.7
^ Moliterno p.8

Bibliography

Moliterno, Gino. The A to Z of Italian Cinema. Scarecrow Press, 2009.

[1] Moliterno p.7

[2] Moliterno p.8

[3] Moliterno p.7

[4] Moliterno p.8

[1]

[4]