Cinema Sala Trevi - Alberto Sordi

Bill,
Yes, and I presume others can’t find it either. I recently went to see “Amore in città” here during my trip to Rome, and I was the only person in the audience! At another film there were about twenty. The entrance never should have been put on that back street but rather on the main street where the Mondadori Bookstore is and where the entrance to the original Cinema Trevi was. A million people a day probably walk down that street! They do, however, publish a nice descriptive calendar and are listed in the papers. They must attract a good faithful little audience for many of their shows.

Here are some recent shots of the exterior and interior of the Sala Trevi…a cinema built in the middle of Roman archeological ruins.
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Gerald— I’ve seen neither “Ti ho sposato” nor “Non ti pago,” though I know that the film version of the former has played on RAI (with Monica Vitti in one of the in-law roles!). The family cast of “Non ti pago” would add to the play’s Hamletic -fremito d'orrore-: did De Filippo’s father act as the hero’s father? The only screen performance of De Filippo that I’ve seen is in “L'Oro di Napoli.” I imagine “Fortunella” is available on tape? I’d like to see the original film-version of “Filumena” and compare it with De Sica’s remake in a back-to-back viewing. I know the teatro Rossini, but can’t recall seeing anything there. The pope should see “Christ Stopped at Eboli” at the Azzurro Scipioni, no? Ars longa, but vita has to move forward.

Many, many thanks, Gerald — Your info about this theater is valuable, because the programming seems terrific. The via San Vicenzo is indeed the major touristic feed from the Quirinale, and the vicolo Scanderbeg runs off it with prominent tourist attractions (as your attachment points out)—I don’t know how we missed the Puttarello (perhaps we were distracted by a quirky “Museo di prodotto artigianiale di pasta” on the Scanderbeg). In the opposite direction (toward the via Tritone) is the teatro Vittorio Gassman, on a street off the left named via delle Vergini. It hosts travelling groups — currently “King Lear,” to be followed by Natalia Ginzburg’s debut play, “Ti ho sposato per allegria” ‘I Married You for a Good Time,’ and then by Eduardo De Filipo’s “Non ti pago” ‘I’m Not Paying You.’ Elsewhere, the Filmstudio was showing the five “Creamaster Cycle” films ‘round the clock on two screens (!), while the Azzurro Scipioni was screening “Bowling for Columbine” upstairs, and a Wim Wenders festival downstairs. Quite a feast, largely unavailable at most North American outposts.

Molte grazie: but the streets are narrow and tortuosi. By “walking away,” do you mean toward the Quirinale (with your back to the fountain), or toward the via Tritone (passing the fountain face forward), or diagonally toward the Corso (with the fountain on your right) or toward the Traforo (with the fountain on your left)? Faro un tentativo di ricordare questo consiglio la prossima volta.

I couldn’t find this theater during a work-trip to Rome last month. According to my reasonably detailed map (Blue Guide Rome), the vicolo del Puttarello should run off from the Piazza della Republica, but I couldn’t find it. But the theater is apparently alive and well, since the Corriere della Sera listed among its Rome attractions an homage there to ninety-year old Suso Cecchi d’Amico, a scriptwriter who worked with Visconti (“Bellissima,” “Rocco and His Brothers,” “The Leopard,” “Senso”), Zampa (“Angelina”), and Monicelli (“Big Deal on Madonna Street,” “Caro Michelle”). Closer to Trevi is the teatro Vittorio Gassman, a stage for live theater and music presenting a small-scale “Magic Flute” and other classical repertoire.