In mid-century Italy, going to the cinema was the thing to do. The release of a new Totò film, the most recent Fellini, or Sergio Leone’s latest western were unmissable events.

The next day’s water cooler chatter, newspaper headlines, and dinnertime gossip would revolve around new releases and their lingo, and to not be up to date was a special form of social faux-pas. Thanks to the cost of cinema tickets being much more negligible than today, it was one of few truly democratic social activities that most anyone could participate in.