Italy went on with peplum and divismo movies after the end of World War I. But meanwhile the situation on the international film market had completely changed with the rise of the United States and European countries. That concerned not only the economy but also the aesthetics, so that those outdated Italian genres no longer attracted domestic or international audiences. Therefore, at the end of the 1920s Italian fiction film production was near zero. Fascism was first interested in the production of documentary and newsreel films and only dealt seriously with fiction film production through economic and institutional support after 1930. Aesthetic innovations started in 1929, a broad expansion of production began in 1935 and went on until 1943. There were a certain number of officially declared propaganda films, but for the most part propaganda was more subtly integrated into ‘normal’ melodramatic or comical movies. With the beginning of World War II, the melodramas were telling more and more escapist stories. At the same time, during fascism, discussions began about new film aesthetics, looking for a new realism with the result of a few corresponding films.