Business on the Big Screen. The Pirelli Foundation and Muse Factory of Projects at the 23rd Business Culture Week
As part of the 23rd Business Culture Week, promoted by Confindustria and Museimpresa, the Pirelli Foundation and Muse Factory of Projects present Il cinema racconta l’impresa, on how business appears on the big screen.
On Wednesday, 27 November, at 6:30 p.m., the Sala Astra at the Anteo Spazio Cinema will screen a series of audio-visual works that run along a timeline with genres ranging from the Carosello TV commercials to documentaries, short films, and animations. The selection tells the story of Pirelli and its product and corporate culture.
The programme features La ruota, a Pirelli commercial for the cinema directed by Toni Pagot in 1956, and produced by Pagot Film. Upon its release, this film captivated Walt Disney himself, who requested a copy for his production company. The animated short Donald and the Wheel (1961), directed by Hamilton Luske for Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista, does indeed appear to take inspiration from Pagot’s film.
The evening will continue with the Olympic misadventures of the cave dwellers Mammut, Babbut, and Figliut, stars of the popular series of Carosello TV commercials directed by the brothers Roberto and Gino Gavioli and produced by Gamma Film for Pirelli. A familiar sight on Italian televisions between 1962 and 1965, viewers enjoyed two minutes of chaos until the reminder “we’re no longer in the Stone Age!” was heard, and viewers were given a quick invitation to embrace the modern world of rubber.
Drawing inspiration from La Fontaine’s famous fable, The Tortoise and the Hare presents a snapshot of 1960s Italy, balancing tradition with modernity. This award-winning film triumphed at the 1966 International Industrial Film Festival and at the 1968 Moscow Industrial Fair. Directed in 1966 by Hugh Hudson, who would later make Chariots of Fire, the film was produced by Cammell Hudson and Brownjohn Associates for Pirelli Ltd in the UK. Now also preserved in the MoMA archives, the film’s credits were designed by Robert Brownjohn, the celebrated designer known for creating the iconic title sequences for Goldfinger and From Russia with Love.
In the mid-1980s, Pirelli commissioned the then-twenty-seven-year-old Silvio Soldini to create La fabbrica sospesa. This documentary, with Luca Bigazzi as director of photography, tells the story of the transformation of Milan’s Bicocca industrial area through a series of personal accounts from those who experienced it. Rather than merely describing the redevelopment of the spaces, the film seeks to capture how these changes resonated with those who had lived—and still lived—in the district.
The programme ends with NOI SIAMO, a Pirelli Foundation project produced by Muse Factory of Projects and curated by Francesca Molteni. Written and directed in 2023 by Mattia Colombo and Davide Fois, this seven-minute short film uses the artistic language of the cinema to illustrate the corporate culture of Pirelli, which it portrays as “a stage for the arts and technology”. A story in pictures, it is inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, which runs through various aspects of corporate culture: theatre, music, art, research, and innovation, highlighting the combination of artistic and scientific creativity that has always defined Pirelli’s corporate identity.
The screenings will be introduced and discussed by Antonio Calabrò, the director and producer Francesca Molteni, the director and producer Maurizio Nichetti, and the director Silvio Soldini. Admission is free, with booking required by Monday, 25 November, until all seats are taken, using the online registration form.
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