Italian Film

Examines the extraordinary cinematic tradition of Italy, from the silent era to the present.

Marcia Landy (Author)

9780521649773, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 April 2000

460 pages, 80 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.65 kg

Italian Film examines the extraordinary cinematic tradition of Italy, from the silent era to the present. Analyzing film within the framework of Italy's historical, social, political, and cultural evolution during the twentieth century, Marcia Landy traces the construction of a coherent national cinema and its changes over time. Examining the cinematic uses of landscape, architecture, regional, rural, and metropolitan locales, and representations of social customs and rituals, Landy also discusses genres, stars, narrative and anti-narrative forms. This study traces how social institutions as well as Italian notions of masculinity and femininity are dealt with in cinema and how they are central to the conceptions (and misconceptions) of national identity. It also demonstrates the vital links between Italian film and other art forms, including opera, popular music, literature, and painting. A comprehensive survey of this subject, Italian Film also offers fresh readings of key films from each period surveyed.

Introduction
1. Early cinema attractions
2. National history as retrospective illusion
3. Challenging the folklore romance
4. Comedy and the cinematic machine
5. The urban landscape, before and after Neorealism
6. Gramsci and Italian cinema
7. History and the Italian Western
8. The cinematic family and the nation
9. A cinema of childhood
10. The Folklore of femininity and stardom
11. Conversion, impersonation, and masculinity
12. Cinema on cinema and television.

Subject Areas: Films, cinema [APF]