UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
DEPARTMENT OF FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES
BA in Film and Literature/ BA in Film Studies
NATIONAL CINEMAS
Autumn Term 2015
ITALIAN CINEMA FROM FASCISM TO THE COLD WAR:
THE RISE AND FALL OF NEO-REALISM
Lecturer: Stephen Gundle
Seminar tutor: Owen Weetch
PRESENTATION
This part of the course will be devoted to understanding the development and decline
of Italian Neorealism, a cinematic movement that broadly lasted from 1945 to 1952
(although its influence continued long afterwards). The focus will be on a diverse
group of Neorealist films and the cultural, social and political context in which they
were made and exhibited, namely Italy following the fall of Mussolini’s Fascist
regime.
In the first part of the course we shall be looking at a selection of films made in the
years immediately before the fall of Fascism. Some of these films of the late Fascist
period exhibit critical features that would be further developed through Neorealism. In
exploring them, we need to bear in mind Fascism’s own plans for harnessing cinema
to its vision of national development.
In the second part of the course we shall be examining Neorealism in detail, exploring
a key moment in film history whose products are characterised by specific aesthetic
properties which were seen as conveying ‘authenticity’ and ‘truth’. We shall consider
Neorealism as a phenomenon which was marked by an attempt to break away from
both the models of entertainment and representation of the Fascist era and the
dominant industrial forms of cinema (including Hollywood).
One of our aims will be to assess the measure of success it achieved. Another will be
to explore Neorealism as a crucial contributor to the development of a distinctive
Italian national cinema free of the subservience to foreign models that marked much
of the cinema of the earlier era. In doing this, we shall reflect on a specific historical
conjuncture and the opportunities and obstacles it presented for film makers. We shall
examine the relationship between the films featured and the social, political and
cultural issues of the period in which they were made.
Three directors feature strongly on the course: Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini
and Vittorio De Sica. The three were very different in terms of their backgrounds,
approaches to film-making, and political attitudes. But they shared a belief in the
years around the end of the war in a type of cinema that aspired to ‘tell the truth’,
share collective concerns, and participate in the democratic reconstruction of the
country. They sided with the poor and the powerless and through this signalled their
engagement with the great issues facing the country. To achieve this, they tried to
escape the conventions of commercial film-making and to explore way of making
cinema more immediate and realistic.
Inevitably, Neorealism involved compromises with existing forms of film-making not
to mention distribution and exhibition. The films belonging to this school were not
made on the cheap and they were largely the work of professionals. They included in
addition to drama and tragedy, elements of humour and spectacle, as well as
melodrama. Furthermore, the movement, which was broadly hostile to stars, bred
stars of its own, with whom sections of the audience identified strongly.
Although the demise of Fascism and the politics of national unity favoured the
neorealist project, the onset of the Cold War undermined some of its key premises.
Political, aesthetic and industrial considerations all contributed to its demise.
TIMETABLE
Lecture: 13.00 – 14.00 Monday
Seminars: Tuesday, various times
Screenings: 14.00-16.00 Monday. All films are shown in Italian with English subtitles.
Please note that lectures are intended to provide you with a general overview. Each
week attention will be paid to the week’s film, its production history, and to the social
and political context in which it was made and released. You should take notes.
Seminars provide you with the opportunity to ask questions, express your views and
clarify issues. You should be prepared to intervene actively. Each week there will be a
reading that you should go through carefully before your seminar. Please note that
your reading does not begin and end with the week’s assigned text. It is expected that
you will read widely from the reading list in your own time and especially when
preparing your essay.
ASSESSMENT
There will be one examination of 2 hours on both parts of the module (ie Autumn
term and Spring term). The mark achieved by your two answers (one on each term’s
work) will count for 60%. The examination questions on Italian cinema will focus
solely on Part II (see the schedule below) of this part of the module (i.e. weeks 410).
Essays: you write one essay of 3,000 words. All questions will relate to Part I of the
course only (ie weeks 1-3). Questions will be circulated in week 2. The essay deadline
is 12.00 on Monday 16 November 2014 (week 7).
DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE
PART I: ITALIAN CINEMA UNDER FASCISM
Week 1
Film: Quattro passi tra le nuvole/ Four Steps in the Clouds, dir.: Alessandro Blasetti
(1942)
Lecture: Blasetti and the State Institutions of Cinema
Seminar reading: Seminar reading: J. Reich, ‘Mussolini at the Movies’ in Reich, J.
and Garofalo, P. (eds.), Re-viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema, 1922-43, pp.3-29
Week 2
Film: I bambini ci guardano/The Children are Watching Us, dir.: Vittorio De Sica
(1943)
Lecture: De Sica as Actor and as Director
Seminar reading: G.Toles, ‘On a Train to the Kingdom of the Earth: Watching De
Sica’s Children’ in B.Cardullo (ed.), Vittorio De Sica: Contemporary Perspectives,
pp.101-29
Week 3
Film: Ossessione (Obsession), dir.: Luchino Visconti (1943)
Lecture: The Critique of Fascism
Seminar Reading: G.Nowell-Smith, Visconti (chapter on Ossessione)
PART II: NEOREALISM, WAR AND THE POSTWAR WORLD
Week 4
Film: Roma città aperta/Rome Open City, dir.: Roberto Rossellini (1945)
Lecture: The Birth of Neorealism and the Shadows of War and Dictatorship
Seminar readings: C.Wagstaff, ‘Rossellini and Neorealism’ in Forgacs, D. Lutton, S.
and Nowell-Smith, G. (eds.), Roberto Rossellini: Magician of the Real, pp.36-49;
M.Wood, ‘Anna Magnani’ in Sieglhor, U.(ed.), Heroines Without Heroes
Week 5
Film: Paisa/Paisan, dir.: Roberto Rossellini (1946)
Lecture: The Discovery of Italy: Neorealism as Method
Seminar reading: K.Schoonover, ‘Neorealism at a distance’, in T.Trifonova (ed.),
European Film Theory, pp.301-18
Additional recommended viewing: A Bell for Adano (Henry King, 1945)
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7
Film: Sciuscià (Shoeshine), dir.: Vittorio De Sica (1946)
Lecture: De Sica as Neorealist: Observation and Engagement
Seminar reading: C. Zavattini, ‘A Thesis on Neorealism’ in D.Overbey (ed).
Springtime in Italy, pp.67-78
Week 8
Film: Bitter Rice/Riso amaro, dir.: Giuseppe De Santis (1949)
Lecture: Neorealism and the Postwar Impact of Hollywood
Seminar reading: extract from S.Gundle, Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of
Italy, pp.107-24
Week 9
Film: Bellissima, Dir.: Luchino Visconti (1951)
Lecture: Neorealism and the Critique of Cinema
Seminar reading: M.Marcus, ‘Visconti’s Bellissima: The Diva, The Mirror, the
Screen’ Chap 2 of After Fellini: National Cinema in the Postmodern Age
Week 10
Film: Umberto D, dir. Vittorio De Sica (1952)
Lecture: The End of Neorealism
Seminar reading: D. Forgacs, ‘The Making and Unmaking of Neorealism in Postwar
Italy’ in N.Hewitt (ed.), The Culture of Reconstruction
OTHER NEOREALIST FILMS YOU MAY WISH TO WATCH:
Germania anno zero/Germany year zero, dir.: Roberto Rossellini (1947)
Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves, dir.: Vittorio De Sica (1948)
Miracolo a Milano/Miracle in Milan, dir.: Vittorio De Sica (1951)
La terra trema/The Earth Trembles, dir. Luchino Visconti (1949)
READING
You should plan to read about contemporary Italian history and culture as well as
about the films and the directors we shall be studying. Part I of this reading list points
you towards survey materials. Part II lists books about neo-realism. Part III refers to
the main directors on the course. Part IV provides suggestions for reading on specific
political and cultural topics.
PART I: SURVEY TEXTS
NATIONAL CINEMAS
Vitali, V and Willeman, P. Theorising National Cinema
Hill, J. and Rockett, K, (eds.) Film History and National Cinema
Cook, J,
Higson and the concept of national cinema
Higson, A.
Waving the Flag: Constructing a national cinema in
Britain
WORKS ON FILM AND HISTORY
Sorlin, P., The Film in History: Restaging the Past
Sorlin P., European Cinemas, European Societies
Ellwood, D., The Movies as History: Visions of the Twentieth Century
Rosenstone, R., History on Film, Film on History
Chapman, J., Film and History
HISTORIES OF ITALIAN CINEMA
Bondanella, P., Italian Cinema From Neorealism to the Present
Bondanella, P. A History of Italian Cinema
Brunetta, G.P. The History of Italian Cinema
Landy, M., Italian Film
Liehm, M., Passion and Defiance: film in Italy from 1942 to the present
Wood, M., Italian Cinema
Sorlin, P., Italian National Cinema, 1896-1996
HISTORIES OF ITALY
Ginsborg, P., A History of Contemporary Italy, 1943-88
Dunnage, J. Twentieth Century Italy: A Social History
Clark, M., Modern Italy, 1871-1995
Duggan, C., A Concise History of Italy
Duggan, C., The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796
ITALIAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Forgacs, D & Gundle, S., Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the Cold
War
Forgacs, D. Italian Culture in the Industrial Era 1880 -1980
Baranski, Z & Lumley, R., (eds.), Culture and Conflict in Postwar Italy (chap by
Gundle)
Forgacs, D. & Lumley, R. (eds.), Italian Cultural Studies (chaps by Wagstaff,
Gundle)
Gundle, S. Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy
Gundle, S. `Visions of Prosperity: Consumerism and Popular Culture in Italy from the
1920s to the 1950s' in Levy, C. and Roseman, M. (eds.), Three Postwar Eras in
Comparison: Western Europe 1918 – 1945 - 1989
Gundle, S., Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s
PART II: CINEMA AND FASCISM
Gundle, S., Mussolini’s Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy
Ricci, S., Cinema & Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922-1943
Hay, J., Popular Film Culture in Fascist Italy
Landy, M., Fascism in Film: Italian Commercial Cinema, 1931-1943
Landy, M., The Folklore of Consensus: Theatricality in the Italian Cinema, 19301943
Reich, J. and Garofalo, P. (eds.), Re-Viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema 1922-1943
Forgacs, D. and Gundle, S., Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the
Cold War
Ben-Ghiat, R., Fascist Modernities: Italy 1922-1945
Ben-Ghiat, R., Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema
PART III: NEO-REALISM
Wagstaff, C., Italian Neorealist Cinema
Bayman, L., The Operatic and the Everyday in Postwar Italian Film Melodrama
Cardullo, B. (ed.), André Bazin and Italian Neorealism
Schoonover, K., Brutal Vision: The neorealist body in postwar Italian cinema
Overbey, D . (ed.), Springtime in Italy: A Reader on Neo-realism
Forgacs, D., ‘The Making and Unmaking of Neorealism in Postwar Italy’ in Hewitt,
N. (ed.), The Culture of Reconstruction
Wagstaff, C., ‘The Place of Neorealism in Italian Cinema from 1945 to 1954’ in
Hewitt, N. (ed.), The Culture of Reconstruction
Gundle, S., `From Neorealism to Luci rosse: Cinema, Politics, Society 1945 - 85' in
Baranski, Z. and Lumley, R. (eds.), Culture and Conflict in Postwar Italy: Essays on
Mass and Popular Culture
Monticelli, S. ‘Italian Postwar Cinema and Neorealism in Hill, J. and Church Gibson,
P. (eds.), Oxford Guide to Film Studies
Marcus, M., Italian Cinema in the Light of Neorealism (Introduction)
Ruberto, L & Wilson, K., Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema
Shiel, M., Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City
Lichtner, G., Fascism in Italian Cinema Since 1945
Minghelli, G., Landscape and Memory in Post-Fascist Italian Film
Craig, S.S., Cinema After Fascism: The Shattered Screen
PART III: FILM DIRECTORS
Roberto Rossellini
Brunette, P. Roberto Rossellini
Ranvaud, D. (ed.), Roberto Rossellini
Bondanella, P., The Films of Roberto Rossellini
Forgacs, D. Roma città aperta
Gallagher, T. The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini
Forgacs, D. Sarah Lutton, S. and Nowell-Smith, G. (eds.), Roberto Rossellini:
Magician of the Real
Rossellini, I. In the Name of the Father
Gottlieb, S. (ed.), Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City
Vittorio De Sica
Curle, H. & Snyder, S. (eds.), Vittorio De Sica: Contemporary Perspectives
Cardullo, B., Vittorio De Sica: director, actor, screenwriter
Gordon, R.S.C., Bicycle Thieves
Luchino Visconti
Nowell-Smith, G., Luchino Visconti
Tonetti, C., Luchino Visconti
Servadio, G., Luchino Visconti: a biography
Stirling, M., A Screen of Time
PART IV: ITALIAN FILM STARDOM
Gundle, S.
Wood, M.
Mussolini’s Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy
‘Anna Magnani’ in Sieglhor, U.(ed.), Heroines Without Heroes
Gundle, S.
`Saint Ingrid at the Stake: Stardom and Scandal in the
Bergman-Rossellini Collaboration' in Forgacs, D., Lutton, S.
and Nowell-Smith, G. (eds.), Roberto Rossellini: Magician of
the Real
Gundle, S.
`Film Stars and Society in Fascist Italy' in Garofalo, P. and
Reich, J. (eds.), Re-viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema 1922-43
Landy, M.
Stardom Italian Style
Masi, S. & E.Lancia Italian Movie Goddesses
PART V: POLITICS, CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Fascism
Morgan, R.
Bosworth, R.
Bosworth, R.
Mack Smith, D.
Ben-Ghiat, R.
Falasca-Zamponi, S.
Duggan, C.
Gundle, S et al (eds)
De Grazia, V.
The Fall of Mussolini
Mussolini
Mussolini’s Italy
Mussolini
Fascist Modernities: Italy 1922-45
Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy
Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Italian Fascism
The Cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians
How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy 1922-45
Resistance and Reconstruction
Ginsborg, P.
Cooke, P.
Lamb, R.
Ellwood, D.W.
Woolf, S. (ed)
Mammarella, G.
Travis, D.
Clark, M.
Ginsborg
Ellwood, D.
Allum, P.
Mammarella, G.
Gundle, S.
History of Contemporary Italy (chaps 1 - 3)
The Legacy of the Italian Resistance
War in Italy
Italy 1943 – 1945
The Rebirth of Italy (chaps by Warner, Quazza)
Italy after Fascism
`Italy' in Judt. T. (ed.) Resistance
Modern Italy 1871 - 1982 (Chap 15)
History of Contemporary Italy (Chap 3)
Rebuilding Europe
'Italy' in McCauley, M. (ed.), Communist Power in Europe
1944 – 1948
Italy after Fascism
`The “Civic Religion” of the Resistance in Postwar Italy',
Modern Italy, 5:2, 2000, 113-32
Patterns of Postwar Party Politics
Gundle, S & Parker, S (eds.), The New Italian Republic
Farneti, P.
Hine, D.
Gundle, S.
The Italian party System (1945 – 1980)
Governing Italy (chaps 3 and 4)
`Italy' in Butler, D., and Ranney A.
(eds.) Electioneering
The Christian Democrats (DC) and the Catholic Church
Ginsborg, P.
Clark, M.
Allum, P.
Jemolo, A.C.
Hine, D.
History of Contemporary Italy (Chap 5)
Modern Italy (Chap 16)
Politics and Society in Postwar Naples
Church and State in Italy
Governing Italy (Chaps 2,3)
The Communist Party (PCI)
Gundle, S
Ginsborg
Sassoon, D.
Hine, D.
Hellman, S.
Between Hollywood and Moscow: the Italian Communists and
the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91
History of Contemporary Italy (Chap 6)
The Strategy of the Italian Communist Party
Governing Italy (Chaps 3, 4)
`Italian Communism in the First Republic' in Gundle and
Parker, The New Italian Republic
The Idea of America
De Grazia, V.
Ellwood, D. W.
Ellwood, D. W.
Duggan, C. &
Gundle, S.
Gundle, S.
Gundle, S.
`Mass Culture and Sovereignty: The American Challenge to
European Cinemas, 1920-60', Journal of Modern History 61
(1989)
Rebuilding Europe
Italy 1943 – 45
Italy in the Cold War (chaps by Zamagni and Wagstaff)
Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy (chap 5)
`Memory and Identity: Popular Culture in Postwar Italy' in
McCarthy, P. (ed.), Italy Since 1945
`Hollywood Glamour and Mass Consumption in Postwar Italy'
in Kushnar, R. (ed.), Histories of Leisure
Women and Family
De Grazia, V.
Hellman, J.
Caldwell, L.
Clark, M.
Ciorni, M. and
Prunster, N.(eds.)
Morris, P. (ed.)
How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy 1922-45
Journeys Among Women
Italian Family Matters
Modern Italy (relevant sections)
Visions and Revisions: Women in Italian Culture
Women in Italy, 1945-1960
Willson, P.
Gundle, S.
Women in Twentieth Century Italy
Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy