Table of Contents

1. Cover
2. Title Page
3. Acknowledgments
4. Notes on Contributors
5. Editor’s Notes
6. Glossary
7. Preface and In Memoriam
8. Part I: First Things
   1. 1 Introduction
      1. Italian Cinema and (Very Briefly) Visual Culture
      2. Contributors and Aims of This Volume
      3. The Contents of the Companion
      4. “Metathemes”
      5. Italian Cinema as Other
      6. References
   2. 2 Italian Cinema Studies
      1. References
9. Part II: Historical/Chronological Perspectives
   1. Silent Cinema
   2. 3 Silent Italian Cinema
      1. Before 1905: Films about Italy
      2. Domestic Production
      3. Arte Muta, Dive, and Auteurs
      4. Vernacular Realism
      5. The Great War and Beyond
      6. Film Discourse
      7. References
   3. 4 Stardom in Italian Silent Cinema
      1. Introduction
      2. Terminology
      3. The Birth of Divismo
      4. The Dive, and the Diva Film
      5. The Divo
      6. References
   4. Fascism and Italian Cinema
   5. 5 Genre, Politics, and the Fascist Subject in the Cinema of Italy (1922–1945)
      1. Industrial and Political Efforts to Create a Popular Film Industry
      2. Refashioning Genres: Directors and the Comedy
      3. Comedy and Stardom
      4. The Forms of Melodrama
      5. History, Politics, and Myth: Luis Trenker and Alessandro Blasetti
      6. Melodrama and Stardom
      7. Calligraphism: Melodrama, Formalism, and War
      8. Afterthoughts
      9. References
   6. The Italian Film Industry
   7. 6 Staying Alive
      1. References
   8. Cinema and Religion
   9. 7 Italian Cinema and Catholicism: From Vigilanti cura to Vatican II and Beyond
      1. Introduction
      2. First Stage: Art or Morality?
      3. Second Stage: Catholic Production
      4. Third Stage: The “Folly” of the “Povericristi”
      5. Fourth Stage: Toward the Second Vatican Council and Beyond
      6. References
   10. Neorealism
   11. 8 The Italian Neorealist Experience
       1. Introduction
       2. Rossellini’s (Anti‐)War Trilogy
       3. De Sica’s Subversive Orphan Children
       4. The Italian Neorealist Experience: Beyond Camps
       5. References
   12. 9 Italian Neorealism
       1. Introduction
       2. Initial Observations on Neorealism
       3. Italian Neorealism Beyond the First Years
       4. Multiple Directions of Influence
       5. Roma città aperta and Ladri di biciclette: Echoes, Parallels, Influence
       6. The Most Quotidian Story, an Epilogue
       7. References
   13. Stardom and the 1950s
   14. 10 Italian Female Stars and Their Fans in the 1950s and 1960s
       1. Introduction
       2. Italian Fan Studies
       3. Methodology
       4. The Peculiarity of Fandom in Italy
       5. The Magazines
       6. The Place of Fan Mail in the Stars’ Relationship with Their Fans
       7. The Fans’ Relationships to the Stars
       8. Conclusion
       9. References
   15. Film Comedy—the 1950s and Beyond
   16. 11 The Popularity of Italian Film Comedy
       1. From Early Italian Comedy to the Hunger and Harmony of Pink Neorealism
       2. Toward commedia all’italiana: Spectacle, Masks, Totò, and Sordi
       3. The Economic Miracle and commedia all’italiana
       4. After the “Boom”: The 1970s and Beyond
       5. What’s So Funny?
       6. References
   17. 12 The Question of Italian National Character and the Limits of Commedia all’italiana
       1. Cinema and Social Commentary
       2. The Sordi Persona and Italian Modernity
       3. Fellini and National Vices and Virtues
       4. Carlo Lizzani and the Cinema of History and Actuality
       5. Conclusion
       6. References
   18. French‐Italian Film Collaborations into the 1960s
   19. 13 Cross‐Fertilization between France and Italy from Neorealism through the 1960s
       1. Before Neorealism
       2. Neorealism between France and Italy
       3. The Case of Rossellini
       4. De Sica and Zavattini
       5. Coproductions
       6. The 1960s
       7. The Nouvelle Vague and New Italian Cinema of the 1960s
       8. New Theoretical Perspectives
       9. References
   20. Auteur Cinema (1960s and 1970s)
   21. 14 Italian 1960s Auteur Cinema (and beyond)
       1. Theoretical Introduction
       2. Visconti, Popular Auteur
       3. Antonioni, the Modern Auteur Par Excellence
       4. Fellini, from the “World Text” to the “Self Text”
       5. From Modern to Postmodern Auteur
       6. References
   22. Popular Film Genres (1950s to 1970s)
   23. 15 Italian Popular Film Genres
       1. The Peplum
       2. The Spaghetti Western
       3. Italian Horror
       4. The Poliziottesco
       5. Conclusion
       6. References
   24. Politics and/of Terrorism (1960s to the Present)
   25. 16 The Representation of Terrorism in Italian Cinema
       1. The Warning Signs
       2. Genre Cinema and the Affairs of State
       3. The Auteurs’ Disorientation
       4. The 1980s: Between the Political and the Individual Spheres
       5. A Rendering of Accounts: The 1990s
       6. The New Millennium: “Vintage” and Revival
       7. References
   26. Italian Cinema from the 1970s to the Present
   27. 17 From Cinecittà to the Small Screen
       1. Prologue
       2. Introduction
       3. The End of the “Golden Age”
       4. The April 7 Trial
       5. Politics and Economy of the Intimate Screen
       6. 1968: “Like Polaroids”
       7. How to Make a Movie in Time of Crisis
       8. Conclusion
       9. References
   28. 18 Contemporary Italian Film in the New Media World
       1. References
10. Part III: Alternative Film Forms
    1. 19 Thinking Cinema
       1. The Origins and Development of the Essay Film
       2. Essayist Nonfiction Today
       3. References
    2. 20 Italian Experimental Cinema
       1. Sandra Lischi
       2. Avant‐garde, Independents, Experimentalists: A Premise
       3. The Italian Panorama: From the Futurists Onward
       4. The 1960s and Beyond
       5. Boundary Crossings: Pathways in Artist Cinema
       6. Alchemies, Memory, History
       7. Animations, Research, Theater
       8. The Passage to Video
       9. References
    3. 21 Notes on the History of Italian Nonfiction Film
       1. Beginnings
       2. Italian Documentary after World War II
       3. References
11. Part IV: Critical, Aesthetic, and Theoretical Issues
    1. 22 A Century of Music in Italian Cinema
       1. The Sound of Silence (1896–1930)
       2. It’s Time to Sing a Song (1930–1945)
       3. Reconstructing the Country: The “Liberation” of Film Music (1945–1960)
       4. Specialists and Film Genres (1960–1980)
       5. The Auteur Is Dead, Long Live the Auteur (1980–2010)
       6. References
    2. 23 The Practice of Dubbing and the Evolution of the Soundtrack in Italian Cinema
       1. Celluloid Hybrids and Greta Garbo
       2. Patrolling the Soundtrack
       3. The Visual Regime of Cinema
       4. Crafting Sound in National Cinema
       5. Antonioni and the New Sound of Cinema
       6. Listening to Make Sense
       7. References
    3. 24 Watching Italians Turn Around
       1. Rome’s Awkward Modernity
       2. Looking (for Love) in the Neorealist City
       3. Seeing What Is and Is Not There
       4. Conclusion (Looking and Seeing)
       5. References
    4. 25 Women in Italian Cinema
       1. From the Silent Era to Fascism
       2. The Post–World War II Period
       3. From the 1980s to the End of the Twentieth Century
       4. The Third Millennium
       5. Conclusion
       6. References
    5. 26 Imagining the Mezzogiorno
       1. Preface
       2. The Sociohistorical Mezzogiorno: A Theoretical Framework
       3. Filmic Representations of the Mezzogiorno, Part 1: Until 1989
       4. Filmic Representations of the Mezzogiorno, Part 2: After 1989
       5. References
    6. 27 The Queerness of Italian Cinema
       1. Introduction
       2. Queer Cinemas
       3. Queering Italians
       4. The Queer Signature
       5. The New Queer Cinema
       6. References
    7. 28 An Accented Gaze
       1. References
    8. 29 How to Tell Time
       1. Crisis in the Action‐Image
       2. The Crystals of Time
       3. Pasolini and Free Indirect Discourse
       4. Time, Thought, and Body
       5. References
    9. 30 The Screen in the Mirror
       1. The Concept of Reflexivity
       2. The Postmodern Gaze
       3. A Classic Spectacle of Modernity
       4. Cinema’s Modern Conscience
       5. The Archive of Dreams, Bodies, and Tales
       6. References
    10. 31 Deterritorialized Spaces and Queer Clocks
        1. Literary and Visual Contexts
        2. Theory
        3. Practice
        4. A Worldwide Hyperfilm
        5. “Queer Clocks”
        6. References
12. Part V: Last Things
    1. 32 Forum: The Present State and Likely Prospects of Italian Cinema and Cinema Studies
       1. Editor’s Introduction
       2. On (the Notion of) Methodology
       3. Cinema, Impegno, and the Local
       4. Globalization, Transnationalism, Translocality, Nationality
       5. Ecocinema
       6. The Current Cinematic and Cultural Scene
       7. The Crisis of Exhibition/Importance of Curatorial Work
       8. (Other) Material and Institutional Conditions and Limitations
       9. Current Areas of Investigation
       10. Pleasure, the Popular (Again), Cultural and Gender Studies
       11. Italian Cinema and Cinema Studies: The Road from Here
       12. References
13. Index
14. End User License Agreement

List of Tables

1. Chapter 06
   1. Table 6.1 Coproductions (Gyory and Glas 1992, 168)
   2. Table 6.2 Italian films distributed abroad (Ruggeri 2001, 61–77)
   3. Table 6.3 Foreign films imported into Italy (Bertozzi and Russo 2000, 476–77)
2. Chapter 17
   1. Table 17.1 Films produced by production companies, 1980–1985
   2. Table 17.2 Average number of films produced annually, by production company

List of Illustrations

1. Chapter 03
   1. Figure 3.1 Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914). Author’s personal collection.
   2. Figure 3.2 Lyda Borelli in Carnevalesca (Amleto Palermi, 1918). Author’s personal collection.
2. Chapter 04
   1. Figure 4.1 Pina Menichelli (second from right), Il romanzo di un giovane povero (Amleto Palermi, 1920).
   2. Figure 4.2 Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste.
3. Chapter 05
   1. Figure 5.1 Assia Noris and Vittorio De Sica in Darò un milione (I’ll Give a Million, Mario Camerini, 1935).
   2. Figure 5.2 The heroic man on horseback: Condottieri (Luis Trenker, 1937).
   3. Figure 5.3 Isa Miranda as a woman of two worlds in Zazà (Renato Castellani, 1942).
4. Chapter 07
   1. Figure 7.1 The faithful in search of a miracle in La porta del cielo (Doorway to Heaven, Vittorio De Sica, 1945).
   2. Figure 7.2 Nannina (Anna Magnani) reenacts the Passion in Roberto Rossellini’s “Il miracolo” (Amore, 1948).
   3. Figure 7.3 Actors reenact the Passion in Pasolini’s “La ricotta” (Ro.Go.Pa.G., Roberto Rossellini, Jean‐Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ugo Gregoretti, 1963).
5. Chapter 08
   1. Figure 8.1 The Palazzo della civiltà italiana in the background of the partisan ambush: Roma città aperta (Rome Open City, Roberto Rossellini, 1945). Screen grab.
   2. Figure 8.2 Pricò willfully turning his back on his mother: I bambini ci guardano (The Children are Watching Us, Vittorio De Sica, 1942). Screen grab.
   3. Figure 8.3 Irene, as the consummate Other, is isolated and confined to an asylum: Europa ’51. (Europe ’51, Roberto Rossellini, 1952). Screen grab.
6. Chapter 09
   1. Figure 9.1 La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966). Screen grab.
   2. Figure 9.2 Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, 1948). Screen grab.
   3. Figure 9.3 El mégano (The Charcoal Worker, Julio García Espinosa and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1955). Screen grab.
7. Chapter 10
   1. Figure 10.1 Gina Lollobrigida surrounded by her fan mail in La Settimana Incom Illustrata (November 17, 1951). Author’s collection.
   2. Figure 10.2 Lollobrigida on the front cover of La Domenica del Corriere (August 11, 1957). Author’s collection.
   3. Figure 10.3 The first issue of Primo amore (February 14, 1954) features Silvana Pampanini on its front cover with the caption “Silvana Pampanini: Come ho amato per la prima volta” (“Silvana Pampanini: How I fell in love for the first time”). Author’s collection.
   4. Figure 10.4 Fan art: A portrait of Gina Lollobrigida, made by a fan and sent to the star. Oggi (February 17, 1955). Author’s collection.
8. Chapter 11
   1. Figure 11.1 Guardie e ladri (Cops and Robbers, Mario Monicelli and Steno, 1951). Screen grab.
   2. Figure 11.2 Ieri, oggi e domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Vittorio De Sica, 1963). Screen grab.
9. Chapter 12
   1. Figure 12.1 Alberto Sordi as cowardly antihero in La grande guerra (The Great War, Mario Monicelli, 1960). Screen grab.
   2. Figure 12.2 Marcello Mastroianni, whose urban, soft, good looks represent a different version of the “flawed” Italian character (Federico Fellini, La dolce vita, 1960). Screen grab.
10. Chapter 14
    1. Figure 14.1 The prince looks at a painting identified in the novel as La mort du juste. In fact, the misidentified painting is Jean‐Baptiste Greuze’s Le Fils puni (The Son Punished, 1778). Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, Luchino Visconti, 1963). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 14.2 One of the many instances of Claudia waiting in L’avventura. (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960). Screen grab.
11. Chapter 15
    1. Figure 15.1 Franco Nero in Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 15.2 Letícia Román in La ragazza che sapeva troppo (The Evil Eye, Mario Bava, 1963). Screen grab.
12. Chapter 16
    1. Figure 16.1 The camera as inquisitive device in Colpire al cuore (Gianni Amelio, 1983). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 16.2 In Marco Bellocchio’s revision of history, Aldo Moro breathes the fresh air of freedom at the end of Buongiorno, notte (Good Morning, Night, Marco Bellocchio, 2003). Screen grab.
13. Chapter 17
    1. Figure 17.1 Aldo Moro’s kidnappers watch the news of the kidnapping on television. Buongiorno, notte (Good Morning, Night, Marco Bellocchio, 2003). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 17.2 Freccia at the local “refuge‐island” bar in Radiofreccia (Radio Arrow, Luciano Ligabue, 1998). Famed singer–songwriter Francesco Guccini plays the bartender. Screen grab.
    3. Figure 17.3 Diego Abatantuono escapes to Puerto Escondido. Puerto Escondido (Gabriele Salvatores, 1992). Screen grab.
    4. Figure 17.4 The growth in number of production companies.
14. Chapter 18
    1. Figure 18.1 Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980). Naked, impaled, young woman filmed within the film. Screen grab.
    2. Figure 18.2 Le conseguenze dell’amore (The Consequences of Love, Paolo Sorrentino, 2004). Titta goes to meet the mafia boss in a hotel conference room, suggesting mafia penetration of the world‐at‐large and, in the context of the film, the link between mafia business practices and those of multinational corporations. Screen grab.
    3. Figure 18.3 Io sono l’amore (Luca Guadagnino, 2009). Characters dwarfed by elegant, dehumanizing surroundings. Screen grab.
    4. Figure 18.4 Pietro (Daniele Gaglianone, 2010). Pietro bullied by his drug‐addict brother. Screen grab.
15. Chapter 19
    1. Figure 19.1 Pier Paolo Pasolini taking notes in his essayistic notebook film, Sopralluoghi in Palestina per il Vangelo secondo Matteo (1965). Screen shot.
    2. Figure 19.2 Archival footage of Primo Levi in Davide Ferrario’s La strada di Levi (Primo Levi’s Journey, 2006). Screen shot.
    3. Figure 19.3 Enzo and the environs of Genoa, which the story of his relationship with Mary serves to explore in Pietro Marcello’s La bocca del lupo (The Mouth of the Wolf, 2009). Screen shot.
16. Chapter 20
    1. Figure 20.1 Commutazioni con mutazione and the importance of the filmstrip. Paolo Gioli, 1969.
    2. Figure 20.2 Filmstenopeico (l’uomo senza machina da presa), Paolo Gioli, reninventor of the stenopeico, 1973, 1981, 1989.
    3. Figure 20.3 Tonino de Bernardi and Jonas Mekas, Lucca Film Festival, 2008. Photo by Elena Marcheschi. (Rights secured by author.)
    4. Figure 20.4 Planetopolis, video artist Gianni Toti, 1993. Screen grab.
17. Chapter 21
    1. Figure 21.1 The humanizing quality of the quotidian in Uomini sul fondo (SOS Submarine), Francesco De Robertis, 1941. Screen grab.
    2. Figure 21.2 Three barely discernible human figures, surrounded by the fruits of their labor, capturing the integration of the human and the natural in Le quattro volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010). Screen grab.
18. Chapter 24
    1. Figure 24.1 The Via delle Isole Curzolane: moving from periphery to center. “Gli italiani si voltano” (Alberto Lattuada, 1953). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 24.2 The Mausoleum of Augustus, glimpsed from the Via del Corso: seeing through urban space. “Gli italiani si voltano” (Alberto Lattuada, 1953). Screen grab.
19. Chapter 25
    1. Figure 25.1 Francesca Bertini, star and recently credited director of Assunta Spina (Bertini with Gustavo Serena, 1915). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 25.2 Chiara, representing the future generation of women filmmakers, in possession of the camera in Il più bel giorno della mia vita (The Best Day of My Life, Cristina Comencini, 2002). Screen grab.
    3. Figure 25.3 Mothers inhabiting the “white space” in Lo spazio bianco (The White Space, Francesca Comencini), 2009. Screen grab.
20. Chapter 26
    1. Figure 26.1 Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread, Love, and Dreams, Luigi Comencini, 1953). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 26.2 Tano da morire (To Die for Tano, Roberta Torre, 1997). Screen grab.
21. Chapter 27
    1. Figure 27.1 The unnatural palette of queer color. Gloss—Cambiare si può (Valentina Brandoli, 2007). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 27.2 The queer court of Madame Royale. Splendori e miserie di Royale (Vittorio Caprioli, 1970). Screen grab.
    3. Figure 27.3 The death of the queer subject in Splendori e miserie di Madame Royale (Vittorio Caprioli, 1970). Screen grab.
22. Chapter 28
    1. Figure 28.1 Intercultural rapprochement through sharing food in Le fate ignoranti. (The Ignorant Fairies, Ferzan Ozpetek, 2000). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 28.2 Crisis outside a newly adapted mosque in Pitza e datteri (Fariborz Kamkari, 2015). Screen grab.
23. Chapter 30
    1. Figure 30.1 Magical machinations: Due milioni per un sorriso (Carlo Borghesio and Mario Soldati, 1939). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 30.2 The dissociation of the film‐within‐the‐film: Stella del cinema (Mario Almirante, 1931). Screen grab.
    3. Figure 30.3 The neorealist mythology of the “actor from the street” is called into question by the figure of the child in Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951). Screen grab.
    4. Figure 30.4 Cinema and/as life and vice versa: La signora senza camelie (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953). Screen grab.
24. Chapter 31
    1. Figure 31.1 In search of loved ones, Massimo and Harriet traverse the Vasari corridor as the rectangles of light on the pavement resemble a strip of celluloid: Paisà (Paisan, Roberto Rossellini, 1946). Screen grab.
    2. Figure 31.2 Three Fascist snipers executed by partisans: Paisà (Paisan, Roberto Rossellini, 1946). Screen grab.
    3. Figure 31.3 The shooting of the three Fascist snipers in Paisà is echoed in La notte di San Lorenzo (Night of the Shooting Stars, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 1982) as Tuscan partisans kill a Blackshirt 15‐year‐old in front of his father. Screen grab.
    4. Figure 31.4 Antonio Ricci pasting the poster of Rita Hayworth on the wall as he is about to have his bicycle stolen in Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, 1948). Screen grab.

Guide

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