“Ready, camera… action!”
Pirelli in Photography and Cinema
The development of Pirelli’s visual communication is a story of innovation, quality, and bold experimentation. For years, visionary artists—from painters and graphic artists to photographers, designers, and directors—have been enlisted to convey the powerful identity of the “Long P” brand. Right from the beginning of the twentieth century, the company recognised the vast potential of cinema, a medium then still in its infancy. This can be seen in the 1927 footage of King Victor Emmanuel III’s visit to the Pirelli factory in Bicocca, filmed by Luca Comerio, one of Italy’s leading filmmakers in the age of silent movies. This marked the beginning of a long bond between Pirelli and the movie camera, which became ever stronger as the years went by. We see this in Mario Milani’s documentary Correre un’ora, viaggiare una vita, on the technological influence of racing tyres on mass-market products, and in the short film The Tortoise and the Hare, directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Hugh Hudson. Then came the animated advertisements created by Nino and Toni Pagot in the early 1950s, and the appearance of Pirelli tyres in both Italian and international films about the world of motoring, such as The Racers, starring Kirk Douglas, and Last Meeting, with Amedeo Nazzari and Juan Manuel Fangio. The behind-the-scenes action of the latter was captured in a photo shoot on the Monza racetrack, where the film was set.
The photographs also capture the atmosphere at the meetings held at the Pirelli Cultural Centre, where film screenings brought in large numbers of employees for thematic series, debates, and even national premieres. The latter included the 1961 screening of The Hoodlum Priest, which was shown after its triumph at the Cannes Film Festival, with the stars Don Murray and Cindy Wood in attendance. Another notable premiere was Sergio Sollima’s The Big Gundown, one of the most highly acclaimed Italian Westerns. On 18 November 1966, shortly after the Venice Film Festival, Roberto Rossellini presented a special preview of his film Louis XIV at the Auditorium in the Pirelli Tower. He explained how the film’s historical accuracy was based on authentic documents and letters of the time, and how “reality is often more imaginative than a filmmaker can imagine”.
The big screen also came to the fore in Pirelli magazine, where some of the top film critics of the time reflected on the relationship between cinema and society. They looked at innovations in the industry—from the emergence of Cinerama to the rise of the drive-in—and chronicled the evolution of Italian cinema, the rise of Neorealism and the personal creativity of directors as auteurs. The texts were accompanied by iconic images from films that made the history of cinema. These included the shot by Paul Ronald, a celebrated set photographer admired by Visconti and Fellini, showing the kiss in Rocco and His Brothers between Annie Girardot and the “poor but handsome” Renato Salvatori on the Lungolago Europa in Bellagio. This set was where Girardot and Salvatori’s off-screen love story began, leading to their marriage two years later. Then there was the boat trip that opens Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Adventure, starring his muse Monica Vitti, who also appeared in his The Night and The Eclipse, part of his “existential trilogy of incommunicability”. And, of course, the famous scene at the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita, filmed in the dead of winter, where Marcello Mastroianni had to wear a wetsuit under his suit to withstand the cold.
Some photographs, on the other hand, offer a glimpse behind the scenes, such as one from the set of Europe ’51, with Rossellini giving directorial instructions to Ingrid Bergman in one of the most celebrated romantic and professional partnerships in cinema history. We see Pier Paolo Pasolini during the making of La ricotta, an episode from the film RoGoPaG, which blends the sacred and the profane, in a critique of the moral decline of the era. In the background is a striking tableau vivant of The Last Supper and The Crucifixion of Christ—symbols that ultimately led to the film being banned and the accusation of blasphemy. One shot captures the heroic cinematic endeavour led by Franco Zeffirelli during the devastating Florence flood of 1966. In the picture, Zeffirelli witnesses the destruction of the city’s historical and artistic treasures, standing alongside Professor Frederick Hartt, a renowned art historian of the Italian Renaissance and responsible for the recovery of artworks stolen during the Second World War. Having returned to Italy to assist, together with the other “mud angels”, Hartt was invited by Zeffirelli to take part in the filming of Days of Destruction. This emotional docufilm was a poignant tribute to the city’s tragedy and its efforts to rise up again. Completed in under a month with the support of RAI’s top executives, the documentary was a massive media effort for its time. It focused global attention on the disaster, and helped raise over $20 million for the reconstruction of Florence. As Richard Burton’s iconic voice-over stated, the funds allowed the families and cities affected to start up their lives again.
Meanwhile, Vado e torno, a bimonthly magazine launched in 1962 for the trucking community, captivated readers with its covers featuring the great divas of cinema—including Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren, Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot. The magazine explored the personal lives and performances of these actresses, with their black-and-white portraits becoming a distinctive feature of the publication.
The bond between Pirelli and cinema has never faltered over the years. It includes contributions by producers, actresses, and directors in the company’s magazine World—including interviews with Steven Soderbergh and Steven Spielberg—and its involvement as a partner in the new film on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, as well as the short film We Are, produced by the Pirelli Foundation and Muse Factory of Projects. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, this visual narrative explores various locations in Milan, illustrating different aspects of Pirelli’s corporate culture.
The development of Pirelli’s visual communication is a story of innovation, quality, and bold experimentation. For years, visionary artists—from painters and graphic artists to photographers, designers, and directors—have been enlisted to convey the powerful identity of the “Long P” brand. Right from the beginning of the twentieth century, the company recognised the vast potential of cinema, a medium then still in its infancy. This can be seen in the 1927 footage of King Victor Emmanuel III’s visit to the Pirelli factory in Bicocca, filmed by Luca Comerio, one of Italy’s leading filmmakers in the age of silent movies. This marked the beginning of a long bond between Pirelli and the movie camera, which became ever stronger as the years went by. We see this in Mario Milani’s documentary Correre un’ora, viaggiare una vita, on the technological influence of racing tyres on mass-market products, and in the short film The Tortoise and the Hare, directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Hugh Hudson. Then came the animated advertisements created by Nino and Toni Pagot in the early 1950s, and the appearance of Pirelli tyres in both Italian and international films about the world of motoring, such as The Racers, starring Kirk Douglas, and Last Meeting, with Amedeo Nazzari and Juan Manuel Fangio. The behind-the-scenes action of the latter was captured in a photo shoot on the Monza racetrack, where the film was set.
The photographs also capture the atmosphere at the meetings held at the Pirelli Cultural Centre, where film screenings brought in large numbers of employees for thematic series, debates, and even national premieres. The latter included the 1961 screening of The Hoodlum Priest, which was shown after its triumph at the Cannes Film Festival, with the stars Don Murray and Cindy Wood in attendance. Another notable premiere was Sergio Sollima’s The Big Gundown, one of the most highly acclaimed Italian Westerns. On 18 November 1966, shortly after the Venice Film Festival, Roberto Rossellini presented a special preview of his film Louis XIV at the Auditorium in the Pirelli Tower. He explained how the film’s historical accuracy was based on authentic documents and letters of the time, and how “reality is often more imaginative than a filmmaker can imagine”.
The big screen also came to the fore in Pirelli magazine, where some of the top film critics of the time reflected on the relationship between cinema and society. They looked at innovations in the industry—from the emergence of Cinerama to the rise of the drive-in—and chronicled the evolution of Italian cinema, the rise of Neorealism and the personal creativity of directors as auteurs. The texts were accompanied by iconic images from films that made the history of cinema. These included the shot by Paul Ronald, a celebrated set photographer admired by Visconti and Fellini, showing the kiss in Rocco and His Brothers between Annie Girardot and the “poor but handsome” Renato Salvatori on the Lungolago Europa in Bellagio. This set was where Girardot and Salvatori’s off-screen love story began, leading to their marriage two years later. Then there was the boat trip that opens Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Adventure, starring his muse Monica Vitti, who also appeared in his The Night and The Eclipse, part of his “existential trilogy of incommunicability”. And, of course, the famous scene at the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita, filmed in the dead of winter, where Marcello Mastroianni had to wear a wetsuit under his suit to withstand the cold.
Some photographs, on the other hand, offer a glimpse behind the scenes, such as one from the set of Europe ’51, with Rossellini giving directorial instructions to Ingrid Bergman in one of the most celebrated romantic and professional partnerships in cinema history. We see Pier Paolo Pasolini during the making of La ricotta, an episode from the film RoGoPaG, which blends the sacred and the profane, in a critique of the moral decline of the era. In the background is a striking tableau vivant of The Last Supper and The Crucifixion of Christ—symbols that ultimately led to the film being banned and the accusation of blasphemy. One shot captures the heroic cinematic endeavour led by Franco Zeffirelli during the devastating Florence flood of 1966. In the picture, Zeffirelli witnesses the destruction of the city’s historical and artistic treasures, standing alongside Professor Frederick Hartt, a renowned art historian of the Italian Renaissance and responsible for the recovery of artworks stolen during the Second World War. Having returned to Italy to assist, together with the other “mud angels”, Hartt was invited by Zeffirelli to take part in the filming of Days of Destruction. This emotional docufilm was a poignant tribute to the city’s tragedy and its efforts to rise up again. Completed in under a month with the support of RAI’s top executives, the documentary was a massive media effort for its time. It focused global attention on the disaster, and helped raise over $20 million for the reconstruction of Florence. As Richard Burton’s iconic voice-over stated, the funds allowed the families and cities affected to start up their lives again.
Meanwhile, Vado e torno, a bimonthly magazine launched in 1962 for the trucking community, captivated readers with its covers featuring the great divas of cinema—including Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren, Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot. The magazine explored the personal lives and performances of these actresses, with their black-and-white portraits becoming a distinctive feature of the publication.
The bond between Pirelli and cinema has never faltered over the years. It includes contributions by producers, actresses, and directors in the company’s magazine World—including interviews with Steven Soderbergh and Steven Spielberg—and its involvement as a partner in the new film on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, as well as the short film We Are, produced by the Pirelli Foundation and Muse Factory of Projects. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, this visual narrative explores various locations in Milan, illustrating different aspects of Pirelli’s corporate culture.
