Angelo Drovetti’s travel diary, aboard the steamship Regina of the Lloyd Sabaudo Shipping Lines, going from Genoa to Australia, by way of Egypt, the Middle East, and India. The film constitutes a mature expression of documentary cinema, strongly marked by aspirations to realism. Such aspirations can be traced back to the noblest escapades of early cinema, and particularly to the Lumière brothers’ apt intuition to use their Cinematograph as a tool for documentation and rediscovery of reality. Dall’Italia all’Australia is furthermore marked by a strong authorial force which inevitably causes fin de siècle exoticism to leave way for a more disenchanted, personal gaze. In addition to the fascinating and unique nature of this film, its exceptional historical relevance must be mentioned. Not only does it belong to an era of Italian cinema (the 1920s) not yet fully explored by scholars, it moreover constitutes, within this unfinished chapter of historiography, an as yet unseen page, until now confined to film archives. The film was produced by the Pittaluga joint-stock corporation, by far the most prestigious Italian production company of that time.

Matteo Pavesi (Fondazione Cineteca Italiana)