Abstract

The essay analyzes the relationship between film critics and the Italian trade press, with the aim of shedding light on one of the tools made available to exhibitors to schedule films between 1949 and 1954. The study that follows is the result of research on articles and reviews contained within Araldo dello Spettacolo and Cinemundus. After introducing the specifics of the journals, I highlight their film criticism columns, which were in charge of determining whether a film was able to attract more or fewer viewers, and I analyze the different positions of the journals with regard to the industry-criticism relationship. In this way it will be possible to place the research both in the broader discourse on the Italian film publishing system and to identify discursive modes and practices that function as a guide for exhibitors between the late ’40s and early ’50s.