‘Vacanze Romane’: A Journey in the Dreamlife of Postwar Italy

Following the success of “Tarnished Angels,” its 2022 tribute to director Douglas Sirk and the Sirk-inspired art of local artist Sabina Streeter, Sag Harbor Cinema explores another film-related vein of the Munich-born painter’s work, combining a screening of Federico Fellini’s first feature film, “The White Sheik,” with an art exhibit on the cinema’s third floor. The screening will be on Saturday, May 24, at 6 p.m.

“Vacanze Romane” evolved from Streeter’s series “Tempeste di Primavera,” a group of paintings shown at MoMA PS1 in 1987, as well as in Berlin and Munich. The work is based on the popular mid-20th century phenomenon of the Italian Fotoromanzi, a genre of serialized, illustrated storytelling where the narrative is expressed through photographs enhanced with comic style word balloons. Appearing in general interest magazines, as well as in specially dedicated ones, Fotoromanzi came with catchy titles and often featured well-known actors. Italian divas Sofia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida appeared in several Fotoromanzi at the beginning of their careers.

Many are stylistically inspired by the 1940s and 1950s Italian movie genre Telefoni Bianchi as well as the films by Vittorio de Sica, Dino Risi and Federico Fellini. With emotional drama, humorous narratives and the optimism of postwar Italy, sometimes indulging in elegant settings while navigating love and social conflict, the films reflected a desire for escapism in contrast to the more gritty imagery of Italian neorealism.

“As a child, Fotoromanzi were a forbidden object of fascination, the adult, racier version of my Mickey Mouse comic books,” said Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, the cinema’s artistic director. “I would secretly peek at the black and white pages of those magazines, full of dramatic close ups, laying around in the babysitter’s room. As wonderfully portrayed in ‘The White Sheik,’ Fotoromanzi evoked a dream life dense with mystery, romance and adventure. I was immediately taken by the idea of collaborating with Sabina on this.”

“I first came across the Fotoromanzi magazines during my youth while working in Florence where, not speaking a word of Italian, I tried to teach myself the language with the literature of this captivating genre,” Streeter added. “I became fascinated by their dramatic, sometimes naive storytelling reenacted by mostly unknown actors, trying to evoke struggles of love and the pursuit of happiness in staged photographs.

“I use mostly charcoal and oil in typically large format and the work consists of gestural drawings and paintings that reflect the source material, numerous screenshots of my favorite postwar Cinecitta films,” she continued. “After selecting the most evocative images, in my eyes, I incorporate text, not necessarily based on the original still, but with Italian being a crucial element for maintaining authenticity.”

Sabina Streeter’s portraits are based in classical traditions and include a diverse range of present and historical figures. Streeter enlarges reality, then cuts to the emotional with an unblinking clarity of detail. Her work dramatizes issues of history, popular culture, and universal longing. The freely gestural strokes are executed in charcoal, pastel, gouache and oil and result in a movement between figurative painting and abstraction. Streeter was born in Munich, Germany to a family of artists. She has lived and worked in Sag Harbor since 1992.

In “The White Sheik,” Federico Fellini’s 1952 film which was written by Michelangelo Antonioni, a young bride traveling to Rome ditches a visit with the Pope to meet her favorite Fotoromanzo star, a dashing Arab prince improbably played by pudgy Alberto Sordi. This film is a 4K restoration by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with RTI-Mediaset and Infinity, as part of Fellini 100. Restored from the original camera negative, the soundtrack negative was provided by Studio Cine and the restoration carried out at L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.

The 6 p.m. screening at the cinema on May 24 will be followed by a Q&A with Sabina Streeter. Dino Risi’s Il Sorpasso, a subject of study in Streeter’s artwork, will also be part of the series.

The reception for Sabina Streeter’s “Vacanze Romane” follows at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 24, on the cinema’s third floor and is open to the public.

Tickets to “The White Sheik” are available at the box office or sagharborcinema.org. The gallery exhibit is open to the public through June 30. Sag Harbor Cinema is at 90 Main Street in Sag Harbor.