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The exploitation of methane and oil in 1949 provides a crucial boost to economic and industrial development and decisively concurs to the beginning of Italian modernity. From mass motorization to the foreshadowing of backwards working migration from north to south, mining activity is represented as the determining factor in the revolution of the forms of mobility, conceived as the crucial element of such modernity.

By analyzing rhetorics and images connected to hydrocarbons and their derivatives, this paper will show how the attention to modern substances is a main concern shared by techno-films of the period and highlights fuels’ pivotal role in shaping the new imaginary of the economic miracle.