Photo by Vaselli

Together with Aurelio Pesce and Osvaldo Civirani, Arnaldo Vaselli was one of the founders of Italian stills photography. Already at an early stage, in 1928, he started his career, working for various film companies. He founded one of the longest lasting and active companies in Italian cinema: Foto Vaselli. Vaselli provided the maximum number of Italian film stills. His label was printed on the back of many of his photographs, even if Vaselli had many collaborators.


Isa Miranda. Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1942. Photo: Vaselli.


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Albore, Milano. Photo Vaselli / Manenti Film. Part of a set of 10 postcards for the Italian period piece Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941), starring Carola Höhn as the title character. This card shows the beheading of Beatrice Cenci.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Italbore, Milano, no. 1. Photo: Vaselli / Manenti Film. Alida Valli as Anna in Ore 9: lezione di chimica/Schoolgirl Diary (Mario Mattoli, 1941).


Italian postcard by Casa editrice Italbore, Milano, no. 7. Photo Vaselli / Manenti Film. Publicity card for Ore 9: lezione di chimica/Schoolgirl Diary (Mario Mattoli, 1941), starring Alida Valli.


Paola Veneroni. Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1941. Photo: Vaselli.

A huge production of stills between 1939 and 1943

Foto Vaselli was active between 1936 and 1969. Arnaldo Vaselli started with the stills for Cavallleria (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1936) and ending with L'asino d'oro (Sergio, Spina, 1969). Between 1939 and 1943 Vaselli had a huge production of stills for dozens of film titles: 1939 (15), 1940 (18), 1941 (22), 1942 (31) and 1944 (27).

These included famous titles such as Mille lire al mese (Max Neufeld, 1939), Dora Nelson (Mario Soldati, 1939), La gerla di papà Martin (Mario Bonnard, 1940), La peccatrice (Amleto Palermi, 1940), Addio giovinezza (F.M. Poggioli, 1940), Caravaggio, il pittore maledetto (Alessandrini, 1940), Il pirata sono io! (Mario Mattoli, 1940), Piccolo mondo antico (Soldati, 1941), I promessi sposi (Mario Camerini, 1941), Ore 9: lezione di chimica (Mattoli, 1941), Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941), Malombra (Soldati, 1942), Un colpo di pistola (Renato Castellani, 1942), Fra Diavolo (Luigi Zampa, 1942), Zazà (Castellani, 1942), Bengasi (Augusto Genina, 1942), Fari nella nebbia (Gianni Franciolini, 1942), Le sorelle Materassi (Poggioli, 1943), L'uomo della croce (Roberto Rossellini, 1943), and Gelosia (Poggioli, 1943).

Among these titles were several films with Isa Miranda, Amedeo Nazzari, Macario, Alida Valli and others. The main companies for which Vaselli made his stills then were Lux Film, I.C.I., E.N.I.C., Italcine, and Juventus.

During the war Vaselli did the stils for a few films shot at the FERT studios in Turin, including Documento Z-3 (Alfreo Guarini, 1943), starring Guarini's wife Isa Miranda.


Luisella Beghi. Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Florence) Edit., no. 2039. Photo: Vaselli / E.N.I.C.


Italian postcard by Ed. B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 2415. Photo: Vaselli / ICI. Elsa Merlini in Amicizia (Oreste Biancoli, 1938).


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Florence, no. 4341. Photo: Vaselli / Lux Film. Isa Miranda in Malombra (Mario Soldati, 1942), an adaptation from the classic novel by Antonio Fogazzaro.


Mariella Lotti. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 4357. Photo: Vaselli / E.N.I.C.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Florence) Edit., no. 4387. Photo: Vaselli / E.N.I.C. Oretta Fiume in La fabbrica dell'imprevisto (Jacopo Comin, 1942).


Andrea Checchi. Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Florence) Edit., no. 4390. Photo Vaselli / I.C.I.


Antonio Centa. Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Florence) Edit., no. 4391. Photo: Vaselli / I.C.I.

Massimo Serato. Italian postcard by B.F.F. (Ballerini & Fratini, Florence) Edit., no. 21620. Photo Vaselli / I.C.I.

The Sergio Leone trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns

After the war stills production at Vaselli was relative low, though in 1951-1952 a new boom occurred.

In addition to countless lesser known genre films, Vaselli provided the stills for the neorealist films of Luigi Zampa (Vivere in pace, 1946; L'onorevole Angelina, 1947 and Alberto Lattuada (Il delitto di Giovanni Episcopo, 1947), the melodramas of Raffaele Matarazzo (Catene, 1949; Tormento, 1950; I figli di nessuno, 1951), comedies by Mario Mattoli and with Totò, star vehicles for Silvana Pampanini, and many historical films, by both prewar routinés such as Mario Bonnard and Mario Camerini as well as new generations.

Apparently, Vaselli also made the stills for the Sergio Leone trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of dollars (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più/For a few dollars more (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, e il cattivo/The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966).

Among the professional stills photographers who started their careers with Foto Vaselli were Sandro Baio, Vincenzo Palmarini, Ugo Urbino, Aldo Tonti, and Tonino Benedetti.

From 1937 Foto Vaselli has a photo studio at Via dei Mille 3a in Rome, but the agency also had a subsidiary in Turin, in Via Lombardia 104. The last known address of Vaselli in Rome, dating of 1968, was Via Imperia 2.


Andrea Checchi. Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4288-A. Photo: Vaselli / Italcine.


Vera Bergmann aka Bergmann. Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4331. Photo: Vaselli / I.C.I.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4364. Photo: Vaselli / Atlas Film / Artisti Associati. Laura Nucci in Rita da Cascia (Antonio Leonviola, 1943).


Carlo Campanini. Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 4419 Photo: Vaselli / Lux Film.


Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 122. Photo: Vaselli / Fauno Film. Mariella Lotti in Fari nella nebbia/Headlights in the fog (Gianni Franciolini, 1941).


Assia Noris. Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 166. Photo: Vaselli.


Paola Borboni. Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Edizioni Roma), no. 205. Photo: Vaselli / Lux Film.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Edizioni Roma), no. 226. Photo: Vaselli / Fauno Film. Fosco Giachetti in Fari nella nebbia (Gianni Franciolini, 1942).


Paolo Stoppa. Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed. Roma), no. 241. Photo: Vaselli / Atlas Film.


Antonio Gandusio. Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Edizioni Roma), no. 299. Photo: Vaselli / Lux Film.


Italian postcard by ASER, no. 322. Photo: Vaselli / Juventus Film. Evi Maltagliati in Il nemico/The enemy (Guglielmo Giannini, 1943).


Vittorio De Sica. Italian postcard by Aser, Roma (Rome), no. 333. Photo: Vaselli.


British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC2041. Clint Eastwood in Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964).

Source: Elisabetta Bruscolini ed. (Roma nel cinema: Tra realtà e finzione, 2000). With thanks to Viridiana Rotondi (Centro Sperimentale).