PACCHIONI, ITALO

(1872-1940)

Cameraman and film pioneer. Owner of a photographic studio in Milan in the early 1890s, Pacchioni was greatly excited by the Lumierecinematographebut was unable to acquire one for himself. Consequently, with the help of his brother Enrico, he built his own version of a Lumiere-style movie camera and began taking films. Pacchioni's footage of a train arriving at the station in Milan is thus probably the first film shot in Italy with an Italian camera. This was followed by some basic comic sketches such asIl finto storpio al Castello Sforzesco di Milano(The Sham Cripple at the Sforza Castle in Milan, 1896) and a number of other attempts at short filmic narratives, some reputedly shot on the terrace of his own house with his relatives as actors. At the same time, again in partnership with his brother, he opened and managed some of the earliest movie houses in the cities of Modena and Ravenna. Soon after, however, he and his brother took to the road in an elaborate traveling pavilion in which they screened films regularly at provincial fairs throughout northern Italy. In 1901 Pacchioni filmed the elaborate funeral of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, which he screened in March that year. For unknown reasons, however, after such a flurry of activity, by 1902 Pacchioni appears to have returned to his photographic studio and never been involved with the cinema again.