Lancia is back in the movies, as the new Ypsilon is playing a role in an Italian cinema film Notte prima degli esami - Oggi (The Night Before Finals - Today), directed by Fausto Brizzi, which went on general release last week to coincide with the occasion of St. Valentine's Day. As well as an appearance by the new Ypsilon hatchback, one of the most famous and evocative of historical Lancia's, the glorious Flavia Convertible by Vignale, also appears in Brizzi's innovative new film.

Notte prima degli esami - Oggi is something of an experiment, admits Brizzi. It’s a film that reunites the same cast from the first film, reprising their characters but transplants them from the period of the 1980s to the Italy of 2006. This leap has allowed the filmmaker to compare and contrast youth culture across generations, from the era of the call box to the era of cell phones, text messages and online chatting. The film stars Giorgio Panariello, Carolina Crescentini, Serena Autieri, Nicolas Vaporidis, Sarah Maestri and Andrea Di Rosa. Directed by Brizzi, it is produced by Fulvio and Federica Lucisano and Giannandrea Pecorelli. Production is by Italian International Film (IIF) and Rai Cinema, while it is being distributed across Italy by 01 Distribution.

During the last year Lancia has cemented its long relationship with the cinema world, in particular sponsoring the 63rd Venice Film Festival, time to coincide with the occasion of the brand's 100th anniversary. The movie stars and directors were all whisked onto the red carpet in Venice by a fleet of Lancia's, including the Thesis, Phedra and Musa.

In fact Lancia’s relationship with the cinema is extremely close and dates back to the beginning of the last century. In the words of Gian Piero Brunetta, Lecturer in Cinematic History and Criticism at the University of Padua: ‘Certain car models, and Lancia cars in particular, were present in the first silent films to emerge from Turin, when they added the magical touch that aided the ascent of the great tradition of male and female Italian film stars. Emilio Ghione used Lancia cars in his films, for example. It was not, however, until the cinema of the 1930s and the ‘white telephone’ films in particular, that this type of car was chosen to embody the Italian dream of earning over one thousand lire a month and virtually represent the key to modernity’.

Lancia cars have also co-starred in hugely successful films more recently. Cars made by Lancia have made frequent appearances on the screen since the 1950s. In some cases they have acted as style icons representative of certain periods. The Italian post-war period was the setting for a series of films taken from the novels of Guareschi and an élite, high performing Lancia Astura produced in the 1930s made an appearance in ‘The little world of Don Camillo’ dating from 1952. A Lancia Aurelia B10 appeared in ‘Big Deal on Madonna Street [I soliti Ignoti]’ (1958). After the war, this car represented living proof of Lancia’s philosophy and is the direct forerunner of the Aurelia B24 convertible, which starred in 1962 in ‘The Easy life [Il Sorpasso]’ by Dino Risi, performed by Catherine Spaak, Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant, which was certainly the most famous car in Italian cinema. Claude Lelouch also made an interesting decision to use a racing version of the sporty Flavia Coupé in ‘A Man and a Woman’ of 1966, while a Lancia Thema was significantly chosen to star in the less well known 1986 sequel ‘A Man and a Woman 20 years later’.
 

Contemporary cars appeared in historical films and it is significant that Lancia models were always the finest cars of their day. This was true of the Lancia Artena in the film Last days of Mussolini (1974).Lancia cars also appeared in more eclectic films: Dario Argento’s Deep Red [Profondo Rosso] (1975) featured a Fulvia Coupé, a state-of-the-art model for its searing performance, style and beautiful finish.‘

The world of cinema paid homage to Lancia cars in ‘Herbie goes to Montecarlo’ (1977), where two Lancia cars, the Scorpion and the Stratos, expressed their different characters in two separate and convincing roles.‘In 1981, Alain Delon shared the screen in ‘Pour la peau d’un flic’ with a Delta that had recently been voted car of the year. The model went on to set a still unbeaten record by winning six consecutive World Rally Championships from 1987 to 1992 in later permanent four-wheel drive versions.

More recently, the Lancia Ypsilon starred in the short film Elective affinities [Affinità elettive] (2003) shot by Gabriele Muccino and performed by Nicoletta Romanoff and Milena Mancini. In the same way, the Lancia Thesis also starred in the original short The Call (2006) by Antoine Fuqua, which marked Pirelli’s cinema debut. The Lancia flagship was the powerful saloon that noiselessly carried the exorcist (John Malkovich) to his appointment with Evil. The sculpted lines of the Thesis and the outlines of the great buildings of the capital city conspired to create a gothic, gloomy atmosphere. Overlooked by a mysterious, all-enveloping night-time Rome as it majestically and solemnly slipped through its streets, the car was the perfect foil for its important passenger, a mysterious man from the Vatican. The partnership between Pirelli and Lancia came into being because the Pirelli PZEROROSSO 18” tyres are part of the original equipment of the Thesis and, also, more importantly, because these two long-standing Italian companies have played a crucial role in the development of the car and Italian style in the world.