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06 November1951
Gone with the car
Author
Ermenegildo Boccafogli
Format
16mm
Duration
2'01''
Credits
Sound design curated by Workshop di sonorizzazione degli archivi filmici - Archivio Aperto 2023

While the colossal film Gone with the Wind is finally released in an Italian dubbed edition, sanctioning its extraordinary success more than ten years after it was made (in the meantime, there has been a world war and American films have started to circulate again), on 6 November 1951, a delivery of FIAT utility cars arrives in Ferrara, which Ermenegildo Boccafogli promptly shoots on 16mm. FIAT Topolino 500 for everyone? This sequence represents well the climate of the period, mass motorisation with the spread of cars being one of the cornerstones of the economic rebirth. On the other side of the ocean, Ford led the way and here, too, the goal is that one day all families will have a car and there will be cheap ones within reach of all budgets. There are already over 425 thousand cars on the road in Italy, but annual production has just exceeded 100 thousand units. These figures are still a long way from the target but very promising for growth, allowing us to look to the future with great optimism. In the background, on top of a building stands the large advertising sign of 'Gone with the Wind'. It does not refer to the cars racing on Italian roads, but you can read it that way too given the times.

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