Uses and Society

Cinema and Theatre

Cinema once became a very important factor regarding tourism in Cefalù. Beside several film sets from local organizations the town once hosted an international set; the film “Immagine meravigliosa”, directed by Richard Brooks (The Light Touch, comedy, USA 1951) with Stewart Granger, George Sanders, Pier Angeli e Kurt Kasznar was produced in Cefalù. After this first film a lot of important national and international actors like Gian Maria Volontè, Irene Papas, Gabriele Ferzetti, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Scaccia, Salvo Randone, Leopoldo Trieste came here, and also for example the directors Elio Petri (A ciascuno il suo, 1967, based on a novel by Leonardo Sciascia); T. Gradler (Le avventure del Barone Luckner, episody Elena di Troia, 1970, Horst film, Germany).

Other important personalities who came to Cefalù are Mehringer (Rallye 70 - Itinerario siciliano, 1970, documentary following Rranko Zivkovic); Mylène Demongeot and Richard Harrison (L’uomo di Marsiglia, 1971); Catherine Spaak and Lando Buzanca (La schiava io ce l’ho e tu no, 1974); Edwige Fenech, Vittorio Caprioli, Mario Carotenuto and Gianfranco D’Angelo (L’Insegnante, l975); Giuseppe Tornatore and Philippe Noiret (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, 1988); Claus - Maria Brandauer and Anna Galiena (Mario e il Mago, 1993). In 2005 Marco Bellocchio and the actor Sergio Castellitto came to Cefalù to shoot the film Il regista di matrimoni.

In 1957 at the Club du Village Magique the Club de la Mediterranée , was founded and on the 1st of June it opened. The ingenuity of two men, the Belgian Gerard Blitz and the French Gilbert Trigano, inventors and founders of Club de la Mediterranée , was rewarded after a few months. Between 1960 and 1961 the gatehouse and the railroad crossing Santa Lucia were constructed to permit a train stop at request for the tourist trains near the Club Mediterranée. In these years the famous dance-waggons were put in special trains from Cefalù to Paris and the stop at Cefalù became obligatory for all trains. Thanks to Club de la Mediterranée , “Giro di Sicilia” and “Targa Florio”, demonstrations that continued to bring famous names of glamour and automobile sports to the town, Cefalù’s promotional power as a tourist place increased a lot and it became an obligatory stop for many travelers.

Also in 1968 Vittorio Gassman opened the Cine-Teatro Astro, which became a meeting point also for fans of soft music with guests from all over . In the summer of 1970 the princess Soraya, former empress of , came to Cefalù to spend some days on board of a yacht, accompanied by the director Franco Indovina.

In 1971 the first “Rassegna Nazionale del Cabaret” took place and it also continued the following year. The big and final success came with the third edition in 1973. In the three years of the Rassegna personalities like Renzino Barbera, Roberto Brivio, Franco Califano, Gianfranco D’Angelo, Fiorenzo Fiorentini, Lando Fiorini, Giorgio Gaber, Gianni Magni, Enrico Montesano, Franca Valeri, and formations like Il Bagaglino, I Cavernicoli, L’Incontro, Il Municipio and I Travaglini showed up in the Teatro Astro.

From 1991 to 1998 Cefalù always presented Le Città del Cinema in the autumn, aimed to promote Cefalù regarding cinema, but it did not last longer than for eight seasons. Besides, in these years other important events were offered in the summer months, for example Il Centro Storico dal vivo (1993 and 1994), a genial invention of the directors Giovanni Biondo and Nico Marino who organized a variety of entertainment-events at the most famous and nice places of the old town center, and also Cefalù in blues (from 1995 on), a jazz music fracases.

In recent years Cefalù has had the great pleasure to host the Royals of Belgium, Alberto II e Paola Ruffo from Calabria, the American Ambassador in Italy J. Foglietta, Professor Arold Aronson, director of the Theatre and the Visual Arts of the Columbia University in New York, the Ambassador of Georgia in Italy Dott.ssa Rusudan Lordkipanidze, the relatives of ambassadors and politicians who participated on the World Conference of the United nations and the LL. AA. RR. Carlo and Camilla di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, Dukes of Calabria.

The town has managed to play an important role when it comes to theatre; it has hosted Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Marina Suma, Jerri Calà, Franco Nero, Tiziana Lodato, Paola Pitagora, Pamela Villoresi and Fioretta Mari, and also Edoardo Bennato, Nicolò Fabi, Noha, Ron and Irene Grandi.

Edward Alexander Crowley
To complete the picture about Cefalù’s folkloristic life it is important to mention the story of Edward Alexander Crowley, an Englishman with a very strange and adventurous life that was definitely different from the norm.

This man was born at the end of the 19th century. In his youth he developed a very rebellious and difficult character and he had visions of a warlock who told him to write the book “Il libro della legge”. This book was the base of a new very personal religion. For all his life he dealt with black magic and strange practices, some people see him as the initial person for the Satanism movement.

In 1920 Crowley decided to found l´abbazia di Thelema (the abbey of Thelema) in Cefalù to practice his rites. These events unsettled the peace of the little town significantly, particularly because of the presence of some women, le infedeli (the infidels), who had to stay naked in the beach for nights or were lashed on some rock spur of the Rock for punishment. The citizens’ complaints about these occurrences to the responsible authority lead to the immediate and final expulsion of Crowley