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Screening of “Borsalino City” By Enrica Viola

Screening of “Borsalino City” by Enrica Viola (2016, 78 Min)

Thursday, October 4, 6:00 PM

Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago

 

4 ott vero

 

The history of the birth of an icon, the Borsalino hat. From the factory where it was conceived in a small Italian town, to the glamorous world of Hollywood. Starring Robert Redford, Richard Bohringer, Piero Tosi, Deborah Nadoolman.

This documentary will be introduced by Graham Thomspon, owner of Optimo Hats, Chicago (www.optimo.com), located in Beverly inside a 100-year-old decommissioned firehouse that was redesigned by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

A reception will follow.

Film synopsis:

“Dear Vittorio, you may remember me…my name is Robert Redford”. This is the beginning of a letter sent by Robert Redford to a Borsalino family member asking for a hat that the actor saw in Marcello Mastroianni’s head in the movie of Fellini: 8 and ½. This is a telling letter if you want to understand the history of the Borsalino hat, an item that traveled throughout the world to become a mythical object but was produced with love and passion in Alessandria, a small Northern Italy town.

The documentary is based on different testimonies, drawing a picture of two worlds: the small provincial town and its entrepreneurs, workers and local historians as well as the star system world, with people like Robert Redford, Jean Claude Carrière, Piero Tosi and Deborah Nadoolman Landis. These two worlds make one main dialogue, with the Borsalino hat acting as the uniting force.

It all started with Giuseppe Borsalino, founder together with his brother Lazzaro in 1857 of the first fulling plant in Alessandria, just after having obtained the “trade certificate” in Paris. Production rose fast, from 35 hats a day to 2000 at the end of the century. Giuseppe had two major intuitions: industrial mass production and the opening of new markets. He himself did several long journeys to market his new hat, firstly exploring Europe and Latin America, then the United States and ending in New Zealand. Thanks to his salesman network, by the end of the 19th century the reputation of the Borsalino hat’s high quality was established.

Teresio Borsalino took over the company at his father’s death in 1900, yet still the road to success was paved with obstacles. His cousin Giovanni Battista, feeling betrayed after being pushed out of family firm, opened a rival hat company in Alessandria – “G.N. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co”. The two companies started a commercial battle, fought with manifestos and industrial films, enduring until the Antica casa madre bought the Nuova Borsalino in 1938 During the two first decades of the Twentieth century, Borsalino’s fame grew in each continent, boosted by ad campaigns aimed at consolidating the older clientele, mostly the bourgeoisie, as well as reaching the expanding cultural and movie industries. From that moment on, Borsalino looked at new ways of brand promotion, for instance through the production of great industrial movies. As Borsalino took this direction, Hollywood and the star system were born, together with the social character of the gangster. People like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Dillinger were wearing Borsalinos and movies looked at them for inspiration. It was through the noir genre that Borsalino entered into mainstream culture, becoming a synonym for hat. Gangsters, cops and private investigators all wore a fedora, a wide-brim hat, whose shadow made characters dark and mysterious. Borsalino spread rapidly across all genres, appearing in adventure films, romantic comedies or musicals, the hat defining roles, professions, style and class.

Free and open to the public.

For more information or to RSVP, please visit https://borsalinocity.eventbrite.com

  • Organizzato da: Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago