Cult Italo-American film director Martin Scorsese is in talks with the Italian ministry of culture to donate his entire archive to the city of Rome, Corriere della Sera reports Tuesday.
    And this - as Ilaria Sacchettoni says in a long article - "means original scripts, costumes, set props, equipment, even letters in which he communicates with the production about this or that film." The great Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas director, born to parents of Sicilian origin, has repeatedly reaffirmed his strong bond with Italian cinema, Cosrea notes.
    "Italian cinema has shaped my conception of cinema and my work," he repeated recently, while the proposal (later accepted) for him to be honorary president of the David di Donatello Awards (Italy's Oscars) was being made, the newspaper on Milan's Via Solferino recalls.
    "The ministry, led by Alessandro Giuli," the daily explains, "is now rushing to (acquire the archive).
    "They would like to link this donation to a free title and a training program dedicated to young talent, but this is only a hypothesis under consideration, a pious desire yet to be evaluated.
    "The priority, at the moment, is something else: housing the material in a suitable, usable, logistically sound space.

The management of Palazzo Venezia (in Rome) has also been consulted, which could perhaps offer support for some solution and has already led to a meeting in which a representative of the director was present." The work of acquiring the material alone promises to be monumental.
    "There will also be time for the captions.

Suffice it to say, first of all, that the archive covers about 50 years of American cinema," the article explains, noting that "this is not the New York director's first gift to our country: in past years, there was a tribute to the Bologna Film Archive, which today houses a sample of the scripts Scorsese used to participate in festivals and anniversaries over the years."
   

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