Many people have helped shape this book. Mary Ann Doane, Philip Rosen, and John Caughie were invaluable readers during the early stages of the project, while Corey Creekmur and Sasha Waters Freyer offered detailed and insightful commentary on later versions. Nicole Rizzuto read drafts tirelessly and offered both editorial insight and intellectual inspiration. With Karl Schoonover, Kerry Herman, Rebecca Wingfield, Chris Cagle, and Kirsten Ostherr, I debated film theory, feminism, and art history. This project developed in dialogue with their work, and I hope it bears some traces of their brilliance. Friends, teachers, and colleagues who have contributed ideas, criticism, and support include Neil Lazarus, Ellen Rooney, Massimo Riva, Réda Bensmaïa, Loren Noveck, Paul Haacke, Mette Hjort, Angela dalle Vacche, Dudley Andrew, Steve Ungar, Rick Altman, Louis Schwartz, Kathleen Newman, Lisa Collins, Jessica Levin, and Evelyn So. Claudia Pümmer helped with research and formatting, and Anastasia Saverino worked on the index. Chapter 2 benefited greatly from discussions with participants at the 2001 Screen Studies Conference, and chapter 5 from the anonymous readers at Cinema Journal who reviewed a shorter form of the argument. Thanks also go to the readers for Columbia University Press, who offered productive suggestions for revision. Last but by no means least, this project has gained tremendously from discussions with my students over the years.
In tracking down film prints, Richard Manning at Brown University was a stellar resource and a gonzo movie god. Also helpful were the staff at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Film Study Center, the New York Public Library, the Donnell Library, and the British Film Institute. Staff at the University of Iowa’s library provided technical and research assistance. Some films proved difficult to locate, and here I received help from Ellen Elias-Bursac, Radmila Gorup, and Vitaly Chernetsky. Misha Nedeljković kindly sent me tapes of some rare Yugoslav films and in addition offered readings, advice, and historical perspective. Thanks also to filmmakers Bettina Ellerkamp and Jörg Heitman, who graciously shared their work with me. Thanks also go to all at Columbia University Press, especially Irene Pavitt, Cynthia Garver, and Juree Sondker.
Parts of chapter 2 were published as “Italy’s Landscapes of Loss: Historical Mourning and the Dialectical Image in Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, and Il Postino,” Screen 43, no. 2 (2002). Parts of chapter 5 were published as “Back Projection: Visualizing Past and Present Europe in Lars von Trier’s Zentropa,” Cinema Journal 45, no. 2 (2005).
Finally, I want to thank those closest to me for their love and support: Adrian Goycoolea, who, in addition to sharing my life, spent countless hours on this project preparing frame stills; my mother, who was my first role model as a feminist and cultural critic; and my late father. My father instilled in me a love of Italian landscape and culture, with which came a foundational narrative of leftist loss. He served in Italy in World War II and returned with our family year after year as a tourist and student of Italian. I could not have formulated my reading of the Italian political landscape without his memory.