Mole Antonelliana/Museo Nazionale del Cinema (National Film Museum) ★★

Turin's most peculiar building by a long shot

In fact, it’s one of the strangest structures anywhere. It is comprised of a squat brick base, a steep conelike roof supporting several layers of Greek temples piled one atop the other, and a needlelike spire, all of it rising 166m (552 ft.) above the rooftops of the city center—a height that, at one time, made the Mole the world's tallest building. Begun in 1863 and designed as a synagogue, the Mole is now a monument to Italian unification and architectural hubris and, as of fall 2000, home to the thoroughly fascinating Museo Nazionale del Cinema (National Film Museum) The museum's first section tracks the development of moving pictures from shadow puppets to kinescopes. The rest is more a tribute to film than a true museum, offering clips and stills to illustrate some of the major aspects of movie production, from The Empire Strikes Back storyboards to the creepy steady-cam work in The Shining. Of memorabilia, masks from Planet of the Apes, Satyricon, and Star Wars hang together near Lawrence of Arabia's robe, Chaplin's bowler, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'s dress. Curiously, most of the clips , as well as posters and other memorabilia, are heavily weighted toward American movies, with exceptions mainly for the major players of European/international cinema like Fellini, Bertolucci, Truffaut, and Wim Wenders. Even if you skip the museum, you can ride the dramatic glass elevator to an observation platform at the top of the spire, an experience that affords two advantages; the view of Turin and the surrounding countryside, backed by the Alps, is stunning, and, as Guy de Maupassant once said of the Eiffel Tower, it's the only place in Turin where you won't have to look at the damned thing.

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