1944 in Italy
Events from the year 1944 in Italy. Incumbents. Northern Italy is formally ruled by the Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic. The effective power in Italy was in the hands of the German and allied occupiers. From spring to autumn, several free republics were constituted by the Italian partisans (particularly Ossola), but they had all fallen to the Germans and fascists by the end of the year. Literature and culture. In the freed Italy, the first cultural magazines inspired to the antifascist beliefs appear : "Aretusa", "Mercurio", "La nuova Europa" and "Rinascita" (official  review of the PCI). In Florence , "Italia e Civiltà", voice of the more moderate fascist wing, goes out for a few months. Cinema. In spite of the tragic war situation, a fair number of new Italian movies, generally realized before the armistice, goes out in cinemas, (Sorelle Materassi, by Poggioli; The innkeeper, by Chiarini ; La donna della montagna, by Castellani). A limited film production goes on North Italy. Vivere ancora, began by Leo Longanesi in Rome the last year, is completed in Turin by Francesco de Robertis. In Venice, the authorities of the Italian Social Republic try to establish a new Cinecittà, called Cinevillaggio but the  studios realize only a dozen of movies, of poor artistic value. In Rome, Vittorio De Sica directs The gates of heaven, produced by the Vatican. The processing of the movie, protracted for seven months, allows many antifascists, as De Sica himself, to wait in relative tranquility for the liberation of the city.