Telefoni bianchi

A still of Nina Campo from The House of Shame, displaying the white telephones that gave the genre its name

Telefoni bianchi (Italian: "white telephones") is a Gylian–Megelanese film genre. It was especially popular during the 1920s and 1930s and was associated with Alscia's Free Megelanese community.

The genre was named after its high production values, manifested in expensive Art Deco sets featuring white telephones as a status symbol. Telefoni bianchi films were comedies of manners and screwball comedies, characterised by jovial tone, complicated romantic entanglements, and a farcical embrace of the hurried province's contemporary prosperity and mores.

The genre entered a period of dormancy during the Liberation War, but saw a resurgence in independent Gylias — where it served as a forerunner for demopolitan art and orgone films — and post-Futurist Megelan.

Characteristics

Telefoni bianchi films originated in the tumult of 1910s–1920s Megelan; many of the genre's best-known practitioners fled the Futurist regime and joined the Free Megelanese community of Alscia. The light comedy and elegant aesthetics of telefoni bianchi were well acclimatised to the prosperity and mania for modernisation of Alscia, but also contained a deeper context of social criticism and opposition to the Futurists.

The genre drew on contemporary light entertainment, particularly comedy of manners and screwball comedy, to produce comedies characterised by witty dialogue, complicated romantic entanglements, and an idealised depiction of modernity. The Art Deco sets, highlighted by the white telephones that served as the genre's metonym, completed the picture of a carefree, wealthy, advanced, and educated society.

The representation of well-being and progress of telefoni bianchi films also provided an anti-Futurist subtext. The more classical ideals of refinement shown in the genre emerged in opposition to the Futurists' regimented worship of modernity and attempts to destroy Megelan's past. Villains of telefoni bianchi films are invariably depicted as violence-obsessed, thuggish, and simple-minded cretins, mocking the totalitarian ideal of the Futurist Political Party by contrasting it with the more "noble" and civilised protagonists.

Telefoni bianchi films were overwhelmingly made in Italian and French, reflecting both the strong Italianisation of Alscia and French influence.

History

Doris Duranti, one of the leading stars of the genre

The genre originated in Megelan, but was forced to relocate by the censorship of the Futurist regime. Many famous practitioners emigrated to Alscia, where they joined the larger Free Megelanese exile community.

The first successful telefoni bianchi film was released in 1924. The genre became a hit among Alscian audiences, enjoying a period of peak popularity from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. It made stars out of actresses like Doris Duranti, Nina Campo, and Lucia Borloni, some of whom also sang successful songs from the more musical-inclined films.

Philosopher Margot Fontaine writes that the genre's success came from its ability to reflect the various facets of Alscian life, allowing them to be many things to many people. Their elaborate production values, cheerful atmosphere, and comedic love triangles reflected the newfound wealth and social liberalisation of the province. At the same time, the films promoted a non-judgemental "gentle conservatism", emphasising the unorthodox virtue of their protagonists, modest respect for authority, and noblesse oblige among the upper class.

Virtually all telefoni bianchi stars and directors were part of the Anarchofuturist Association of Alscia.

Thanks to contacts between the Free Megelanese and the anti-Futurist resistance, telefoni bianchi films were smuggled into Megelan and shown clandestinely, where they served to maintain spirits and entertain resistants, who perceived the politicised subtext that often escaped Alscian audiences.

The genre maintained its audience in Alscia even as its scenarios grew predictable with repetition. However, its best days ended when Alscia voted to join the Free Territories in 1939. Although Alscia remained a centre of film production for the Free Territories, the radical anarchist transformations engendered and the hardships of the Liberation War curtailed access to the genre's characteristic high production values, and it had largely disappeared by the 1950s.

Legacy

Telefoni bianchi films experienced a resurgence in interest in Gylias after 1958. Regarded as a symbol of Alscian popular culture, their style found a new resonance in the Golden Revolution and economic boom of the 1960s–1970s. The orgone film genre emerged as their successor, picking up the strands of carefree urban modernity while taking the romantic aspect further into gleeful eroticism. The films of Alike Demetriou were similarly influenced by the genre, replicating its playful nostalgia and easygoing conservatism.

The demopolitan movement added to the embrace of telefoni bianchi as its predecessors in terms of celebratory cosmopolitanism. Since then, the vintage glamour of telefoni bianchi has attracted references and homages, particularly from the Neo-Gylian Sound and new old hat scenes. Ane Seşel's oeuvre from the 2000s on has been strongly influenced by telefoni bianchi and orgone films, and she has been described as a "revivalist" of those genres.

Lucia Borloni inadvertently became known for her association with the Lucian Purge, timed to coincide with her 1956 goodwill tour of the Free Territories.

A late appreciation of the genre took place in Megelan after the Great War. The neorealist movement of the 1950s emerged in part as a reaction to the idealised telefoni bianchi style — it rejected the elaborate production of the genre in favour of gritty realism, the dishevelled beauty of everyday life, and working on location with non-professional actors.