Department of Italian

Paper It 9

Italian Cinema: The Realities of History

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Course description

Italian film-making continues to be most highly regarded for the films made by directors, such as Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, and Luchino Visconti, who belonged to the Neo-realist movement (1945-53). At the end of the Second World War, Italy was in a devastated condition, and Hollywood films flooded into the country. However, some Italian film-makers rejected escapist cinema, whether produced in the United States or under fascism (the so-called 'white telephone' and 'calligraphic' films). Instead, they tried to make films, using very small budgets, that examined the contemporary experiences of ordinary Italians. The films became known as Neo-realist, and were part of a wider cultural activity in which Italians were examining their society and recent history, as well as expressing their aspirations for the future. Despite the often bleak vision of existence that the films portrayed, they were fundamentally optimistic. Neo-realist films were inspired by the belief that, by presenting a truthful reflection of life in Italy which gave spectators information about the experiences of their fellow citizens, they would lead to greater love and understanding, and hence to a better society.

Such was the impact of Neo-realist cinema on Italian culture in general and on Italian film-making in particular that its influence may be discerned in most films that have been made from the mid 1950s to this day. This state of affairs, as well as the movement's message of tolerant humanism, has led to the assumption that, both culturally and cinematically, Neo-realism marks a decisive break with Italy's pre-war past. Yet, even though Neo-realism did constitute, in strictly ideological terms, a clear departure from fascism, its stylistic roots, its sense of the need for commitment, and its faith in the efficacy of a realist aesthetic all establish important and strong ties both with the ventennio and with Liberal Italy.

It is one of the two principal aims of this course to explore the construction and development of the Italian cinematic realist tradition from the silent era to the early 1970s, although its primary focus is on the period 1934-1966, which stretches from the appearance of Blasetti's openly fascist 'historical' reconstruction, La vecchia guardia, to Pasolini's 'eccentric' exercise in left-wing commitment, Uccellacci e uccellini, with its mix of expressionist and hyper-realist techniques. In particular, the course examines the formal and ideological continuities and differences between Neo-realist films and their silent and fascist predecessors. In a similar way, it analyses Neo-realism's impact on later film-makers, such as Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Dino Risi, and Francesco Rosi, who attempted to develop new versions of cinematic realism. Indeed, Neo-realism itself was anything but a monolithic movement, with different directors embracing different styles and concerns.

The course's other principal aim is to assess the nature of the relationship between Italian cinema and the culture and society which so many of the film-makers were attempting to depict and to influence. In particular, it investigates the links between the cinema and the other arts (especially literature), and between the cinema and contemporary political and cultural debates (especially on notions of realism and of commitment). As Ettore Scola famously depicted in C'eravamo tanto amati (1974), the development of Italian cinema was intimately associated with the country's history, so that it is difficult to understand the one without considering the other.

The course also addresses a number of secondary issues connected with the study of Italy's realist cinematic tradition: the problem of the degree to which it is valid and useful to consider cinema in national terms; the role of industrial and commercial factors in the cinema; the role of the director ('auteurism'); the notion of 'realism' in film theory; the relationship between verbal and visual texts; and the representation of gender. The course aims not only to deal with the specific problem of Italian film realism, but also to introduce students to some of the major questions in film studies.

The course is taught in a series of 16 lectures and 8 seminars spread over two terms. The third term is given over to 4 revision classes. Total number of contact hours: 28.

Students are encouraged to attend the general lectures on the cinema given as part of the Modern European Film paper (CS.6).

Students are strongly advised to see all the films on the list.

Films

• Silent
  • Cabiria (1914, d. G. Pastrone)
  • Assunta Spina (1915, d. G. Serena)
• Fascism
• Vecchia guardia (1934, d. A. Blasetti)
• 1860 (1934, d. A. Blasetti)
• Il Signor Max (1937, d. M. Camerini)
• Un pilota ritorna (1942, d. R. Rossellini)
• Uomini sul fondo (1941, d. F. De Robertis)
• Ossessione (1942, L. Visconti)
• Neo-realism
• Roma città aperta (1945, d. R. Rossellini)
• Paisà (1946, R. Rossellini)
• Ladri di biciclette (1948, d. V. De Sica)
• Riso amaro (1948, d. G. De Santis)
• La terra trema (1948, d. L. Visconti)
• Miracolo a Milano (1950, d. V. De Sica)
• Bellissima (1951, d. L. Visconti)
• Transition
  • I vitelloni (1953, d. F. Fellini)
  • Senso (1954, d. L. Visconti)
  • La strada (1954, d. F. Fellini)
• Reaction and Continuity
  • La dolce vita (1959, d. F. Fellini)
  • La notte (1961, d. M. Antonioni)
  • Accattone (1961, d. P.P. Pasolini)
  • Una vita difficile (1961, d. D. Risi)
  • 81/2 (1961, d. F. Fellini)
  • Le mani sulla città (1963, d. F. Rosi)
  • Sedotta e abbandonata (1964, d. P. Germi)
  • Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (1964, d. P.P. Pasolini)
  • La battaglia di Algeri (1965, d. G. Pontecorvo)
  • Uccellacci e uccellini (1966, d. P.P.Pasolini)
  • C'eravamo tanto amati (1974, d. E. Scola)

Basic bibliography

• R. Armes, Patterns of Realism. A Study of Italian Neo-Realism, London: Tantivy Press, 1971
• Z.G. Baranski & R. West, eds, Modern Italian Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
• P. Bondanella, Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present, 3rd rev. edn, New York: Continuum, 2001
• G.P. Brunetta, Storia del cinema italiano, 4 vols, Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1993
• J. Caughie, ed., Theories of Authorship, London: Routledge, 1981
• A. Dalle Vacche, The Body in the Mirror. Shapes of History in Italian Cinema, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992
• C. Duggan & C. Wagstaff, eds, Italy in the Cold War. Politics, Culture and Society 1948-58, Oxford: Berg, 1995
• D. Forgacs, Italian Culture in the Industrial Era 1880-1980. Cultural Industries, Politics and the Public, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990
• D. Forgacs & R. Lumley, eds, Italian Cultural Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
• P. Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy. Society and Politics 1943-1988, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990
• J. Hay, Popular Film Culture in Fascist Italy, Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987
• M. Landy, Italian Film, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000
• M. Marcus, Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986
• V.P. Rocchio, Cinema of Anxiety: A Psychoanalysis of Italian Neorealism, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999
• P. Sorlin, Italian National Cinema 1896-1996, London: Routledge, 1996
• C. Williams, ed., Realism and the Cinema, London: Routledge, 1980

Further information

For further information, please contact Professor Zyg Baranski (zgb20@cam.ac.uk).