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Epilogue: Dante and Early Italian Cinema: The 1911 Milano-Films Inferno and Italian Nationalism

Nick Havely

in Dante in the Long Nineteenth Century: Nationality, Identity, and Appropriation

This chapter revisits Italy and turns to Dante on screen. It considers the role of early Italian cinema, giving particular attention to the cultural and political contexts of the 1911 Milano-Films ... More

This chapter revisits Italy and turns to Dante on screen. It considers the role of early Italian cinema, giving particular attention to the cultural and political contexts of the 1911 Milano-Films Inferno — a project that took shape during a decade which also saw significant developments in Italian nationalism before the country's entry into the First World War.Less

Sovereign Consumption: Italian Americans’ Transnational Film Culture in 1920s New York City

Giorgio Bertellini

in Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities

Italian-produced films found a vast audience in New York City theaters, encompassing motives of emotional longing and diasporic nationalism among immigrant spectators well into the 1920s. The essay ... More

Italian-produced films found a vast audience in New York City theaters, encompassing motives of emotional longing and diasporic nationalism among immigrant spectators well into the 1920s. The essay investigates whether and how 1920s Italian American film culture resonated with assertive transnational connections. In particular, it looks at how the largest Italian American newspaper, Il Progresso Italo Americano, articulated self-assured ideas of cultural dialogue and exchange through film reviews, reports about film reception and stars, and advertisements for new films or talent agencies. The evidence Il Progresso provides reveals a dense circuit of newsmaking and popular response, indeed a culture of film consumption, that positioned Italy and America not as opposed, but in dialogue with one another. For an emigrant community long accustomed to endure racial and cultural prejudice and perceived to be strenuously attached to European customs and lifestyles, the 1920s saw the emergence of a geocultural confidence that impacted ideas and practices of film consumption turning manifest and inescapable affiliation into choice.Less

The Italian Film Industry (1945–1985)

Michael Guarneri

in Vampires in Italian Cinema, 1956-1975

The chapter provides an overview of the history of the post-war Italian film industry from crisis to crisis, that is to say from the ground zero of 1945 (when the whole Italian film business had to ... More

The chapter provides an overview of the history of the post-war Italian film industry from crisis to crisis, that is to say from the ground zero of 1945 (when the whole Italian film business had to be politically and economically reorganised, together with the rest of the war-torn country) to the ground zero of 1985 (the year in which, for the first time in almost three decades, Italian film production fell below the rate of 100 films made per year, as the culmination of a crisis that started in the mid-1970s). The chapter opens with an in-depth production history of I vampiri / Lust of the Vampire (Riccardo Freda, 1957), followed by an account of the 1958-1964 boom in the production of pepla, the historical-mythological adventures of the sword-and-sandal kind. Both cases (an isolated commercial failure the former; a short-lived box-office goldmine, or filone, the latter) are emblematic of the functioning of the Italian film industry between the early 1950s and the mid-1980s – a state-subsidised system mostly based on a constellation of medium, small and minuscule business ventures piggy-backing on popular genres/trends in the local and/or global film market.Less

Introduction

Michael Guarneri

in Vampires in Italian Cinema, 1956-1975

The aim of the introductory chapter is threefold. Firstly, the chapter points out the monograph’s originality by contextualising the book in relation to ongoing scholarly debates about vampire ... More

The aim of the introductory chapter is threefold. Firstly, the chapter points out the monograph’s originality by contextualising the book in relation to ongoing scholarly debates about vampire fiction and Italian film history. Secondly, the chapter presents the corpus of thirty-three films to be studied, outlining the thematic and industrial criteria behind the selection. The corpus goes from vampiric/Frankensteinian monster-mash I vampiri / Lust of the Vampire (Riccardo Freda, 1957), which is generally considered the first Italian horror film, to horror parody Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniaco, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza / Dracula in the Provinces (Lucio Fulci, 1975). Thirdly, in order to introduce some key elements of Italian cultural specificity, the chapter provides a brief history of literary and cinematic horror fiction in Italy prior to 1956, with particular attention to vampire-themed works.Less

Nostalgic Gangsters and the Mafia Filone

Austin Fisher

in Blood in the Streets: Histories of Violence in Italian Crime Cinema

This chapter examines a filone of mafia films that proliferated in Italy between 1972 and 1974, and analyses how they inherit, recycle and perpetuate a number of pre-existing popular myths that frame ... More

This chapter examines a filone of mafia films that proliferated in Italy between 1972 and 1974, and analyses how they inherit, recycle and perpetuate a number of pre-existing popular myths that frame the mafia as a repository for elegiac nostalgia. Transatlantic myths that crystallised in The Godfather are themselves shown to emerge from traditions of representation and stereotyping, in which the mafia film has always acted as a chronicle of cultural displacement. The Italian mafia film, meanwhile, is shown to be a component part of a broader tendency to stereotype the 'backward' southern regions of Italy as a window into the nation's history and a forum for taking stock of the contemporary moment in relation to a benighted past. The mafia filone of 1972-1974 is thereby seen to be an illuminating document of production decisions, marketing ploys and ruminations on the state of contemporary Italy.Less

Importing Neorealism, Exporting Cinema: Indian Cinema and Film Festivals in the 1950s

Neepa Majumdar

in Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style

This chapter explores 1950s discussions of realism in India as catalyzed by what filmmakers and audiences described as the eye-opening experience of watching the three Italian neorealist films that ... More

This chapter explores 1950s discussions of realism in India as catalyzed by what filmmakers and audiences described as the eye-opening experience of watching the three Italian neorealist films that were screened at the first International Film Festival in India, held from January 24—February 1, 1952. Specifically, it considers this festival’s impact, and its echoes in cinematic and journalistic discourse in the early 1950s. Within the discourse of realism, one can find a continuum of films ranging from mainstream studio products such as Footpath (Zia Sarhady, 1953) to hybrid independent and studio films such as Do bigha zamin (Two Acres of Land, Bimol Roy, 1953) to state-supported independent films such as Pather panchali.Less

An Aesthetics of Aggression: German Fascist vs. Classical Hollywood Melodrama

Laura Heins

in Nazi Film Melodrama

This chapter attempts to delineate the generic and aesthetic differences between film melodrama in Third Reich and classical Hollywood cinema, and to a lesser extent, between German and Italian ... More

This chapter attempts to delineate the generic and aesthetic differences between film melodrama in Third Reich and classical Hollywood cinema, and to a lesser extent, between German and Italian Fascist film. Hollywood cinema's greater emphasis on the communicative codes of mise-en-scène, dynamic editing, and camera movement was countered in Nazi cinema with a greater stress on bodily displays and a theatrical acting style that subordinated the intimacy of the face in close-up to the authority of the actor's voice and scripted dialogue. Subtle formal and narrative differences in the Nazi melodrama also encouraged a more aggressive form of voyeurism than was common in the Hollywood melodrama. Instead of the masochistic aesthetic of many Hollywood melodramas, therefore, the Nazi melodrama distinguished itself by its formally encoded appeals to spectatorial sadism and by the masculinity of its pathos.Less

Italian Crime Films and the Years of Lead

Austin Fisher

in Blood in the Streets: Histories of Violence in Italian Crime Cinema

This chapter places Italy's 1970s within a broad continuum in post-war Western Europe, in which wartime schisms were silenced and shelved, only to reappear decades later into a transformed cultural ... More

This chapter places Italy's 1970s within a broad continuum in post-war Western Europe, in which wartime schisms were silenced and shelved, only to reappear decades later into a transformed cultural landscape. An attendant sense of national 'taking stock' manifested itself in an acute awareness of the weight of the past, and of the present moment's significance as a turning point in Italian history. The chapter analyses this point in detail by looking at the influence of the USA in the post-war years, with a particular focus on Italy's film industry. As a barometer for the intimate economic and cultural relationship between the two nations, Italian cinema embodied wider tensions between the local and the global, and the 'crime film' is taken as a case in point.Less

The Women of Ercole

Arthur J. Pomeroy

in Ancient Greek Women in Film

Le fatiche di Ercole (1958) initiated a line of Italian adventure films set in the ancient world and turned their body-builder protagonists into stars. Their female love ... More

Le fatiche di Ercole (1958) initiated a line of Italian adventure films set in the ancient world and turned their body-builder protagonists into stars. Their female love interests also reflect the fantasies of contemporary Italian audiences. Sylva Koscina as Iole appears as both the ‘modern’ female and fairy-tale princess. Hercules is immune to the charms of the more typical Mediterranean seductress in his first outing, but, once he is married, the tension in later films arises from the attractions of other women. Either Hercules is unfaithful unintentionally or, as family man, he becomes a reluctant hero, while an associate assumes the romantic lead. The loss of dramatic interest in Iole (or Deianeira) after marriage reflects the mores of the time: the female is now restricted to the domestic sphere, while her husband must attempt to balance duty to family and country.Less

From Italian Neorealism to New Latin American Cinema: Ruptures and Continuities during the 1960s

Mariano Mestman

in Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style

This chapter examines the influence of Italian postwar neorealist films on the so-called New Latin American Cinema (NLAC) of the 1960s, and narrates a story that goes from the 1950s cinema of ... More

This chapter examines the influence of Italian postwar neorealist films on the so-called New Latin American Cinema (NLAC) of the 1960s, and narrates a story that goes from the 1950s cinema of Fernando Birri to the 1970s films of Glauber Rocha. It suggests that the neorealist “influence” on the NLAC was mediated by an intricate, complex network of cultural and political processes that developed throughout the years between the immediate postwar period and the 1960s.Less

Epilogue: Neorealism, Cinema of Poetry, and Italian Contemporary Cinema

Silvia Carlorosi

in Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style

This chapter looks at examples of neorealism in recent Italian cinema. It focuses on two films—Andrea and Antonio Frazzi’s Certi bambini (A Children’s Story, 2004), and Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra ... More

This chapter looks at examples of neorealism in recent Italian cinema. It focuses on two films—Andrea and Antonio Frazzi’s Certi bambini (A Children’s Story, 2004), and Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra (Gomorrah 2008)—which demonstrate how contemporary Italian cinema is dealing with its neorealist legacy, pushing it in the direction of what we can call, using Pier Paolo Pasolini’s intuition, a “cinema of poetry.” The chapter analyzes how the “cinema of poetry” of these films can be considered the contemporary legacy of neorealism, with its main interest in representing the real, even in its multifaceted expressions.Less

‘A more permanent world’: Quo vadis (1951), Runaway Production, and the Internationalization of Hollywood

Jonathan Stubbs

in The Novel of Neronian Rome and its Multimedial Transformations: Sienkiewicz's Quo vadis

This chapter traces the long production history of Quo Vadis at MGM, beginning in the mid-1930s and including an unsuccessful attempt to bring Sienkiewicz’s novel to the screen during the Second ... More

This chapter traces the long production history of Quo Vadis at MGM, beginning in the mid-1930s and including an unsuccessful attempt to bring Sienkiewicz’s novel to the screen during the Second World War. It examines the predominantly economic factors which led to the film being made as a ‘runaway’ production, initially bound for locations in Italy and studios in London but ultimately realized as an all-Italian production based at the revived Cinecittà studio. MGM’s need to repatriate revenues which had been temporarily blocked by the Italian government was instrumental in this decision: their money could not be withdrawn from Italy directly, but it could be invested in local production and then exported back to America as materials for a film. This chapter also considers the legacy of Quo Vadis, both in Italy and America. The film’s success not only propelled a cycle of highly profitable epic movies set in the ancient world but also established a model for relocating big-budget film production overseas. Giulio Andreotti later claimed that the film ‘did more for Italy than the Marshall Plan’, but others have been less sanguine about the industrial restructuring which occurred in its wake. More than sixty years later, overseas production (buttressed by an array of tax-incentive schemes) remains a key element in the American film and TV industry’s global reach. In this context, the transnational production history of Quo Vadis is perhaps more relevant than ever.Less

Bava Goes Fashion

Roberto Curti and Roberto Curti

in Devil’s Advocates

This chapter recounts Mario Bava's seventh official solo feature film as a director, a present-day thriller set in the world of high fashion titled The Atelier of Death (L'atelier della morte). It ... More

This chapter recounts Mario Bava's seventh official solo feature film as a director, a present-day thriller set in the world of high fashion titled The Atelier of Death (L'atelier della morte). It also mentions Bava's two other Gothic horror movies released in Italy in the summer of 1963 that were destined primarily for foreign markets, especially in America. It discusses I tre volti della paura starring Boris Karloff and Mark Damon, and La frusta e il corpo with Christopher Lee and Daliah Lavi. The chapter describes Bava's debut film La maschera del demonio in 1960, which distributed overseas by American International Pictures under the title Black Sunday. It points out how the Italian film industry had increasingly been involved in bilateral and multinational co-productions since the first agreement signed with France in 1949.Less

Introduction

in The Time of the Crime: Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis, Italian Film

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about crime in Italian films in the early 1960s and late 1970s. It explores the phenomenology and provides a psychoanalysis of ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about crime in Italian films in the early 1960s and late 1970s. It explores the phenomenology and provides a psychoanalysis of the films Blow-Up and The Passenger directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, The Night Porter directed by Liliana Cavani, Oedipus Rex directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini and The Spider's Stratagem directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. These films revolve around the image of the crime scene and present a crime to be “seen” in the folds of the landscape as well as on the faces of people and things. This volume discusses the vicissitudes of cinematic vision through an intermingling of media and proposes a writing of spectatorship that attempts to retrace the patterns and rhythms through which each film says or shows that something “will have been.”Less

Spectres of War in Cannibal Holocaust

Calum Waddell

in Cannibal Holocaust

This chapter talks about Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust as the first of the Italian flesh-eating films since Man from Deep River that was shot in the same area of Leticia, Columbia in which its ... More

This chapter talks about Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust as the first of the Italian flesh-eating films since Man from Deep River that was shot in the same area of Leticia, Columbia in which its story is set. It mentions Cannibal Ferox, a film that drew on cocaine trafficking and was inspired by the actual narcotics trade within Colombia and specifically Leticia's role as a trading port. It also examines the US theatrical poster for Cannibal Holocaust, which boasted that the production was actually filmed in the Amazon jungles. The chapter analyzes the use of a legitimate location with illegitimate representations of their inhabitants that allowed Cannibal Holocaust to ground its own fake-documentary in a neorealist sense. It discusses how Cannibal Holocaust touches on thematic ideas that would have been better suited to a Southeast Asian locale.Less