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Contents
List of Figures
xi
Foreword
Patrizia Carrano
xiii
Preface
Dacia Maraini
xvii
Acknowledgments
xxiii
Introduction
Maristella Cantini
1
Part I
1
Napoli Terra d’Amore: The Eye on the Screen of Elvira Notari
Chiara Ricci
2
Grotesque Bodies, Fragmented Selves: Lina Wertmüller’s
Women in Love and Anarchy (1973)
Claudia Consolati
3
Don’t Bring a Gun to a Fistfight: Deconstructing
Hegemonic Masculinity through the Gun in Lina
Wertmüller’s Pasqualino Settebellezze
Lidia Hwa Soon Anchisi Hopkins and Luke Cuculis
4
Adventurous Identities: Cavani’s Thematic Imaginary
Gaetana Marrone
5
Healing the Daughter’s Body in Francesca
Archibugi’s Il Grande Cocomero
Daniela De Pau
6
Motherhood Revisited in Francesca Comencini’s Lo
Spazio Bianco
Claudia Karagoz
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15
33
53
73
89
103
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CONTENTS
7
8
9
10
11
Women in the Deserted City: Urban Space in Marina
Spada’s Cinema
Laura Di Bianco
121
Envisioning Our Mother’s Face: Reading Alina Marazzi’s
Un’ora sola ti vorrei and Vogliamo anche le rose
Cristina Gamberi
149
Alina Marazzi’s Women: A Director in Search of
Herself through a Female Genealogy
Fabiana Cecchini
173
Angela/o and the Gender Disruption of Masculine
Society in Purple Sea
Anita Virga
195
Ilaria Borrelli: Cinema and Postfeminism
Maristella Cantini
209
Part II
12
Skype Interview with Alina Marazzi (June 2012)
Cristina Gamberi
231
13
Interview with Marina Spada (Milan, June 2012)
Laura Di Bianco
237
14
Interview with Alice Rohrwacher (Rome, June 2012)
Laura Di Bianco
247
15
Interview with Paola Randi (Rome, June 2012)
Laura Di Bianco
253
16
Interview with Costanza Quatriglio (July 2012)
Giovanna Summerfield
263
Notes on Contributors
273
Index
279
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ITALIAN WOMEN FILMMAKERS AND THE GENDERED SCREEN
Copyright © Maristella Cantini, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–33650–7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
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Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Introduction
Maristella Cantini
Ma la ritorna poi fiacca e smarrita
oscura tema, che con lei si mesce,
che la sua luce tosto fia sparita.
—Gaspara Stampa
T
he idea for this book began to develop a long time ago. After much
consideration, I discussed the project with cinema scholars and several colleagues who work primarily on Italian film studies. The response
produced by our conversations was unmistakably similar: “Are you sure
you have enough material for a book? Besides Wertmüller and Cavani,
who else is there to fill up a book of essays about women filmmakers?”
These questions left me with the urge to respond. Despite the fact that
those I consulted were knowledgeable and possessed considerable expertise, they were unaware of the wealth of material available to explore.
Clearly, a widespread lack of visibility of women filmmakers exists, even
to experts in the field. Thus, development of such a volume of essays
became all the more necessary in order to promote the criticism I hope
it will encourage.
As a matter of fact, a profusion of material about Italian cinema does
exist. Specifically, topics such as Neorealism, women’s representation,
postwar cinema, fascism, new millennium cinema, and new contemporary trends are all profusely explored and discussed by Italian film scholars both in English and in Italian. In contrast, there seems to be an absence
of any serious, committed critique focusing on women filmmakers.
Feminist film criticism in Italy lacks energy and visibility, and the topic
of women directors’ authorship is, indeed, still marginalized. This dearth
of critical examination exists despite the proliferation of associations and
groups that intend to promote women’s art, literature, and cinema, such
as Associazione Ipazia, Laboratorio Immagine, Associazione Maude, and
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Associazione Ada, and the many festivals that promote women’s cultural
production in various fields. A persistent halo of isolation and silence
affects especially Italian cinema authored by women when it comes to academic debate, histories of Italian cinema, and film criticism collections.
No collections of essays, very few monographic works, and up until a few
years ago, very few online articles and critical contributions exist. In terms
of academic critique then, a deep void engulfs women filmmakers and
affects their work and professional distinctness.
As the editor of this project, my intention is to bring visibility to Italian
women directors, not as a niche topic, but as a central theme of Italian
cinema. Cinema authored by women has been ignored, if not “surgically
removed,” by traditional mainstream criticism. I would like, therefore,
to redress the established practice of critical analysis and invite a fresh,
transparent debate about the work of Italian women directors. This book
aims to reposition the idea of Italian cinema, which, today, remains a synonym for male-authored cinema, and intentionally challenges the existing body of work written by well-known critics that unmistakably favors
the work of male directors over that of their female counterparts.
I will mention one seminal academic work—Italian Cinema from
Neorealism to the Present by Peter Bondanella—that has served as an
important guide for me in recent years. As well as being adopted as a textbook in several courses of Italian cinema, including those that I had the
pleasure to attend, it has been a guide in terms of critical discourse. A
vast amount of feminist criticism by scholars ranging from Laura Mulvey,
Annette Kuhn, Ann Kaplan, and Jeanine Basinger, to Angela McRobbie
and Janet McCabe, and pro-postfeminist theorists such as Stephanie
Genz, Hilary Radner, and Yvonne Tasker, to name but a few, inspired
me to examine Italian film studies critical texts from a different angle. In
the introduction to Feminism and Film (2000), Kaplan explains that “film
is an important object—as literature was before it—that with feminist perspective may help to change entrenched male stances towards women, and
feminist film study may even change attitudes towards women” (2).
While Bondanella’s book is indeed an accurate work of refined criticism, it focuses exclusively on male directors’ work, and most importantly,
it is written from a male point of view. The more-than-five-hundred-page
book concisely presents Liliana Cavani and Lina Wertmüller among an
interminable list of male filmmakers, who are deeply explored. There is
no mention of any other female director. The first part of the book, moreover, offers an initial overview of silent cinema, and yet includes no trace
of Elvira Notari’s work.1 The Italian filmmaker directed a surprising
number of movies and documentaries, and enjoyed a full life dedicated
to filmmaking, which has only recently been critically reevaluated by
women scholars and writers such as Giuliana Bruno and Chiara Ricci.
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Furthermore, many comprehensive histories of Italian cinema,
published in Italian and English, portray Italian male-authored cinema
in a noble light, completely removing a whole category of films, namely
salacious comedies—by directors such as Nando Cicero—that flooded
Italian cinemas in the 1970s and proved popular with male audiences.
The “cinepanettone,” so called because the movies were often released
at Christmas time, is another “niche” category of popular comedy films,
quite successfully mastered by director Carlo Vanzina. The derogatory
treatment of women by these filmmakers and in these productions has
not, to my knowledge, been analyzed or debated, despite the considerable number of publications authored by male critics. Women filmmakers in Italy in the 1970s approached the camera more confidently and
used it for political activism, to promote crucial innovations in terms
of social and ethical revolution, debating on abortion, divorce, and the
fair regulation of work outside the family. Yet, all the while, male directors inundated Italian cinema with erotic, commercial comedies featuring young, naked female protagonists, insistently ignoring the women’s
movement, thereby nullifying its demands. Moreover, this kind of cinema gained its popularity through featuring idealized female characters
both, sexually available and inviting, ready to please men and tickle
their erotic fantasies, clearly reinstating women’s roles in the sphere of
the male-controlled realm.2
The Anglo-American debate in film criticism has dominated the international scene since the early 1970s. Coinciding with the rise of the feminist
voice, a number of significant works were published and these triggered a
crucial debate on women’s representation, a debate that continues to this
day with postfeminist, postmodern, and, to keep up with the terminology jam, poststructuralist inquiry. I refer to Claire Johnston, who in 1975
published research on Dorothy Arzner, an important step particularly, as
E. Ann Kaplan notes, “to list the basic situations of the female protagonists
in Arzner’ s films, showing the women’s efforts to transgress the male order
and assert themselves as subjects.”3 Laura Mulvey wrote an essay titled
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” which became a groundbreaking
intervention for feminist film criticism. Kaplan in 1978 edited a volume
on Women in Film Noir. I also refer to the blossoming of magazines on
film studies such as Screen in England, Cahiers du Cinema in France, and
Frauen und Film in Germany, which was first published in 1974.4 In Italy,
Cinzia Bellumori published Le donne del cinema contro questo cinema in
1972, a hundred-page report detailing women’s conditions in the Italian
film industry. Bellumori’s report reveals a dysfunctional environment
where the majority of women employed in the sector were chronically
unable to move forward, penalized by male chauvinism and by the impossible task of juggling motherhood and pressing job demands (70–84). She
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details their stories in interviews with actresses, screenwriters, secretaries,
costume designers, and assistants included in the book. Patrizia Carrano’s
book Malafemmina, published in 1977, served as an explosive denunciation of Italian cinema both in terms of commercial industry and as a
cultural production system. Carrano’s book was followed, in subsequent
years, only by isolated articles and debates, without any united front of
academics or critics active in this field.
Despite the great number of prominent female intellectuals, activists,
and politically engaged figures in Italy, the legacy of feminist criticism
has made a considerably less-durable (and incisive) contribution to the
debate. Since the 1970s that legacy has suffered an increasing degree of
isolation and fragmentation in terms of feminist film criticism. Even if the
production of feminist filmmakers in those years of activism and radical
change was surprisingly fruitful, the resistance didn’t last long enough to
create sufficient visibility for women directors. As Aine O’Healy writes,
“In the more conservative atmosphere that prevails in Italy in the mid1990s, feminist activism no longer has the momentum it once had, and
many gains have been threatened or retracted over time.”5 In the 1970s
and 1980s, numerous women directors were activists who decided to step
into the forbidden area and occupy the cinematic arena. Nevertheless,
there was no established, proactive debate on feminism and films to maintain and even force a long-lasting visibility on women’s authored cinema.
Subsequently, none of those names, apart from Lina Wertmüller and,
later, Liliana Cavani, entered in cinema’s manuals or studies. Giuliana
Bruno and Maria Nadotti’s writings on the modality of feminist dynamics in Italy strike me as particularly incisive. To use their words, the path
pursued by American feminism, that of acquiring the status of a formal
discipline, a field of “scholarship” or a path that has generated “feminist
film theory” has no parallel in Italy, in part due to the long-term lack of
academic institutionalization of the subject (Bruno and Nadotti 1988: 9).
This is an important facet of the theoretical approach to feminist film
studies. The absence of an established culture of debate does not mean
that there are no feminist intellectuals and competent critics; it means
that they operate in a very fragmented ideological and cultural setting.
I do not go so far as to imagine that this book will accomplish the ambitious task of filling the void that exists in Italian film criticism. The intent
is to stimulate criticism of and attention toward Italian women filmmakers and their position both in Italy and on a wider international platform.
I would like to continue the debate that Dacia Maraini, author of the preface in this volume, and Patrizia Carrano, author of the foreword, started
years ago, ignored by mainstream cinema, which is now, more than ever,
controlled by a strong androcentric pseudoculture. I believe that Italian
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cinema, as a medium reflecting the culture of our country, is relatively
unchanged, in terms of patriarchal conformation, from forty years ago.
In Ilaria Borrelli’s novels, in particular Domani si Gira (Tomorrow We
Shoot), which is strictly autobiographical, many details seem to actually coincide with Carrano’s invective. My questions are: Why has it not
changed even slightly? Why are women still struggling to find their own
space in this profession, free from male precepts and guidance? How can
such a sexist stronghold be overthrown? I asked Ilaria Borrelli the latter
question, and her immediate reply was: “We should have more women in
charge and in key positions.”6
No shortage of talented Italian female directors exists to uphold as
mentors, and alleged histories of Italian cinema continue to proliferate
through the systematic neglect of women’s documentaries and movies.
Women filmmakers’ “transparence-absence,” to use Patrizia Carrano’s
expression,7 is not a matter of cinematic ability or artistic maturity; rather,
it is the result of a deliberate act of marginalization from male-authored
cinema. It is the same kind of marginalization that Italian intellectuals
such as Dacia Maraini, Anna Bravo, Lilli Gruber, Daniela Danna, Chiara
Valentini, and many others have radically denounced in literature, journalism, art, politics, science, academic research, and a long list of primary
areas of knowledge. Cinema, one of those areas, is greatly affected by this
practice, and the contribution of women is greatly overshadowed by male
predominance in the field. In her book Mujeres de Cine. 360º alrededor de
la Cámara (2011), Maria Caballero Wangüemert states that exclusion of
women from filmmaking is a phenomenon resembling the treatment of a
minority group, if we consider that out of twenty thousand directors, only
3 percent are women, with Spain reaching 13 percent (21).8 No current
data are available for Italy: no statistics and no official records regarding
the work of women filmmakers. This lack of information provokes many
questions, including: How many women filmmakers are working in the
industry? How many movies are produced every year by female filmmakers? How are those films produced and distributed? How do they receive
funding? Who is eligible for funding? Why are many of the female directors recognized and awarded by the most ambitious festivals, only then to
disappear in a cloud of oblivion? Who does evaluate the artistic content of
movies authored by women and how many of those “experts” are women?
In other words, who is dictating and imposing a canonical, traditional
criticism that establishes who can enter a History of Italian Cinema and
who can be grouped in a general footnote (and be lucky to be there)?
Italian female directors are artists in a broader sense.9 Some are writers, musicians, painters, photographers, poets, or documentary-makers.
Many are scriptwriters, actresses, playwrights, and producers. The primary
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intention of this collection is to show how rich, intriguing, and “global”
their films are and how engaging the critical discussion they generate can
be. Their movies focus on women—although not exclusively—from different angles and quite distinctively from the way in which they are featured in male-authored cinema. Italian women filmmakers do not focus
on the divas, sex-symbols, or physically perfect icons that male fantasy
has produced in postwar cinema. In contrast, the directors included in
this book portray female characters that develop a stronger sense of self
within the cinematic narrative of each individual film by engaging in
more complex relations with other women, exploring a vast array of situations and viewpoints. These threads weave together to form the fabric of
women’s interactions that empower the characters and reposit the female
discourse at the center of the movie. Italian female directors observe their
environment, the space they inhabit, their family ties, their most important relationships, and their many roles. Social issues are always present
in these artists’ work, and the personal is still political, even in the case of
light-hearted comedies.
The intent to show the persistent engagement of female directors with
social topics as well as more personal ones determined the selection of
essays collected in this volume. In addition, universal themes such as
immigration, spatial or emotional displacement, and marginalization,
force the boundaries of national circuits, moving toward more global
issues that are specific to women. Those issues include motherhood, prostitution, domestic and cultural violence, lesbianism, work-related abuse,
and gender discrimination. I brought together voices that have been both
constitutive and representative of Italian cinema since its inception, in
order to give a sample of their powerful and subversive efficacy.
Italian Women Filmmakers and the Gendered Screen is divided into
two parts: the first section contains essays on women filmmakers, starting from Elvira Notari (1875–1946), who was the first Italian woman filmmaker and scriptwriter and who produced a great number of exceptional
films and documentaries. Next come two essays on Lina Wertmüller.
Claudia Consolati discusses Love and Anarchy (1973), which still generates polemics due to its antifeminist perception of female characters.
Lidia Hwa Soon Anchisi Hopkins and Luke Cuculis, with “Don’t Bring
a Gun to a Fist Fight: Deconstructing Hegemonic Masculinity through
Gun in Lina Wertmüller’s Pasqualino Settebellezze,” engage a reflection on masculinity impersonated by the male protagonist Pasqualino
Settebellezze. A concentration camp survivor, Settebellezze entraps
the spectator between the comical and grotesque urge to live over the
brutal sacrifice of his friend. Gaetana Marrone, a renowned scholar of
Liliana Cavani and author of her more recent biography, presents an
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article on Liliana Cavani’s Thematic Imaginary. Here the contributor
discusses the ability of the director to depict both spirituality and carnality on screen, through the figures of San Francesco (St. Francis),
Milarepa, and in Cavani’s last movie Le Clarisse, nuns of the Santa Clara’s
order. “Healing the Daughter’s Body in Francesca Archibugi’s Il Grande
Cocomero” opens a discussion on a mother-daughter relationship at different levels. It follows Claudia Karagoz’s analysis of the movie Lo Spazio
Bianco by director Francesca Comencini. Karagoz’s inquiry concentrates
on nontraditional maternity as chosen by the protagonist Maria and her
newborn daughter Irene. In her analysis, Karagoz also brings to the surface the sense of physical displacement of Maria’s character, both in terms
of space and emotional perception. Laura Di Bianco’s chapter “Women in
the Deserted City: Urban Space in Marina Spada’s Cinema” develops the
theme of urban environment as an element that cinematically contributes to frame the female protagonist from a more intimate perspective.
The role of the mother-daughter returns in terms of regaining possession of a female deeper self. The theme prevails in Alina Marazzi’s film
documentary Un’ora Sola ti Vorrei and Vogliamo anche le Rose as presented by Cristina Gamberi in her essay “Envisioning Our Mother’s Face.
Reading Alina Marazzi’s Un’ora sola ti vorrei and Vogliamo anche le rose.”
Gamberi deeply explores Marazzi’s attempt to “quilt” the memory of her
mother through a recuperation of images, sounds, and family videos, in
order to rehabilitate not only the mother as a component of her own identity, but as the woman in particular.
The second part of the book consists of recent and previously unpublished interviews. Some are with filmmakers discussed in the essays to
offer the critical interpretation and direct voice of the filmmakers themselves. Other interviews have been included to give voice to as many
women filmmakers as possible, in order to display their antinomies and
mirroring similarities. Marina Spada and Alina Marazzi answer the
authors who discuss their cinema, offering the possibility of other interpretations, while Costanza Quatriglio, Paola Randi, and Alice Rohrwacher
complement the studies of their work with their own opinions. It was a
very difficult choice to decide what material and author to select and how
to orchestrate a multilayered idea of their work and their personalities.
All proved engaging and incredibly inspiring.
Because, as noted earlier, I was unable to find similar material on
Italian cinema that reflected women’s work from a different perspective,
I have taken inspiration from collections edited by women scholars in
or about other cultural contexts such as: Women Filmmakers Refocusing,
edited by Jaqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis, and Valerie Raul; Reclaiming
the Archive, edited by Vicky Callahan; and collections on single women
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directors such as The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow. Hollywood Transgressor,
edited by Deborah Jermyn and Sean Redmond; Jane Campion. Cinema,
Nation, Identity, edited by Hilary Radner, Alistair Fox, and Irène Bessière;
Canadian Women Filmmakers: Re-imaging Authorships, Nationality, and
Gender; and Canadian Women Filmakers. The Gendered Screen,10 both
edited by Brenda Austin-Smith and George Melnyk. These works, among
many other groundbreaking studies, gave me ideas on how much freedom I had in editing this book. Many collections simply reject the path
of traditional analysis, even from a graphical point of view. They may
articulate their discourse through puzzling visual forms and stylistic creativity. However, my main purpose is to highlight the polyhedral content
of the filmmakers’ movies addressed in this collection, and the polemical
criticism all of them can engender.
The attempt to bring together critics from several areas of academia
seemed to pose uniformity as a central issue for some of our valued
reviewers. Uniformity is not my priority here. On the contrary, I aimed to
produce a collaborative and pioneering work (nothing at this time exists
for us to measure with) that offers unlimited possibilities for criticism,
changing the perception of Italian cinema from a monolithic, solid subject to a more fluid, prismatic, and global one. I privilege an idea of continuity instead of new cinema, because I believe in the much that has been
done and written and in the huge that is still undone.
Notes
1. While I have only mentioned this book, which I consider a great but partial
analysis, I can also add another classic by Gian Piero Brunetta, The History
of Italian Cinema. A Guide to Italian Film from its Origins to the TwentyFirst Century, translated by Jeremy Parzen (Princeton; Oxford: Princeton
University Press, 2003). The publications of the last ten years also follow
the same patterns, redefining and reinforcing the exclusion of women.
Some of these works, to mitigate the bias, may include a sporadic chapter on
one woman director but the essential core of such studies unavoidably focuses
on male cinema. Occasionally, some texts cite or acknowledge women directors’ names without undertaking any real analysis of their works. See, for
instance, Il Cinema Italiano del Terzo Millennio edited by Franco Montini
and published in 2002. In this book only Nina Di Majo is included of seven
directors interviewed. It is crucial to note that there are no comprehensive histories of Italian cinema written by women as of yet. Scholars such as Marcia
Landy, Marga Cottino-Jones, Flavia Brizio-Skov, and many other female film
scholars, did not attempt to write absolute histories of Italian cinema, but
instead focused their attention on quite distinctive parts or aspects of it, and
women’s issues are steadily at the center of the debate in the works of these
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3.
4.
5.
6.
9
authors. There are no histories of Italian cinema written by women scholars,
which is another big void in our body of criticism.
I refer here to movies such as L’insegnante (The Teacher) directed by Nando
Cicero, and La portiera nuda (The Naked Woman Porter, 1976) directed by
Luigi Cozzi. The list of titles for these comedies is endless and spans through
the 1980s with a rich, and quite pathetic, repertoire. Many of these movies also present scenes where women touch or undress other women, in a
vast range of male voyeuristic curiosity for women same-sex relationships,
with the morbid intent to visually control women’s bodies and sexuality.
Accurate feminist research about this aspect of Italian cinema is needed. In
Malafemmina, Patrizia Carrano speaks out against the perverted dynamics
“behind the scenes” in Italian cinema: the treatment experienced by women
of all ages, the objectification of their bodies, and the absence of a whole
generation of artists with the ability to interpret roles beyond the “young
and sexy” in a career-limiting sentence inflicted upon many of Italy’s best
actresses and women professionals (129–190). See the articles of Monica
Repetto, “Ciao Mamma. Ovvero Porno Soffice ed Erotismo da Ridere,” and
Angela Prudenzi, “Il Vizio di Famiglia. Ovvero Gruppo di Famiglia dal
Buco della Serratura,” in Lino Miccicchè, ed., Il Cinema del Riflusso. Film,
Cineasti Italiani degli anni ’70 (Venezia: Marsilio, 1997), 317–333 and 334–
340, respectively. These articles present the trash comedy trend of the 1970s
and 1980s with a condescending tone toward the male authors, but without
inquiring too deeply into how these movies trivialize women. Please note
that the book does not discuss women documentary makers or women filmmakers of those years.
http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/jc12–13folder/britfemtheory.
html (accessed March 15, 2013).
For an extensive reflection, see Ann Kaplan, Feminism and Film (Oxford,
UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Aine O’Healy, “Italian Feminism and Women’s Filmmaking: Intersections 1975–1995,” http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/RLA-Archive/1995/Italianhtml/O’Healy,Aine.htm (accessed October 25, 2012). The author traces a
vivid situation on the activity of cinema in Italy in the period 1975–1995.
Nevertheless, of these important filmmakers such as Lina Mangiacapre,
Wilma Labate, Emanuela Piovano, and many others, there is no trace in conventional academic studies.
The interview with the director via Skype on June 5, 2012, was recorded on
tape and Audacity. Amusingly, I read an article in Glamour magazine (June
2010, p. 64) where the title screams: “Hey Hollywood: DO Put More Women
in Charge.” Journalist Laurie Sandell speaks to Jane Fleming, the president
of WIF (Women in Film), a not-for-profit organization that aims to improve
women’s leadership in Hollywood and lobbies about the situation of women
in mainstream cinema. According to the journalist, there are a few “glass
ceilings left in the USA: the oval office, NFL, and cinema.” The American
numbers, according to Sandell, are quite clear: in 2009, out of 250 box-office
hits, only 7 percent were “helmed by women.”
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7. Patrizia Carrano used this term in an exchange of emails with the editor.
8. In her book Mujeres detrás de la Cámara. Entrevistas con Cineastas Españolas
1990–2004 (Madrid: Ocho y Medio, 2005), María Camí-Vela writes that in
Spain, during the last decade, the number of women filmmakers reached 20
percent of the total directors. She also lists a number of components for this
professional inferiority: a lack of self-confidence due to a long-term condition of exclusion from an active role in this field, as well as a time frame:
men start much earlier than women to direct movies. Women, moreover,
manifest the need to tell their own stories instead of interpreting others’, as
Iciar Bollain confirms in her interview (51–65). Please note that statistics can
be approximate and confusing, even for Spain. Both Caballero-Wangüemert
and Camí-Vela are not really clear about actual numbers.
9. This is a common feature in women filmmakers worldwide, and I believe it
is linked to their personal and professional paths.
10. Please note that the title of this book has been a fortuitous rework of several
possible titles, between the editor and the editorial board of Palgrave. I liked
the outcome: it is very close to the book of George Melnyk and Brenda Austin
Smith, The Gendered Screen:Canadian Women Filmmakers (Waterloo, ON:
Wilfried University Press, 2010). This is one of the first books that inspired
my work.
Bibliography
Basinger, Janine. How Hollywood Spoke to Women. New York: Alfred A. Knoff,
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Bellumori, Cinzia, a cura di. “Le Donne del Cinema Contro Questo Cinema.” In
Bianco e Nero, 1–2 (1972): 2–112. Roma: Società Gestioni Editoriali.
Blaetz, Robin, ed. Women’s Experimental Cinema. Critical Frameworks. Durham;
London: Duke University Press, 2007.
Bondanella, Peter. Italian Cinema. From Neorealism to the Present. New York;
London: Continuum, 2001.
Brunetta, Gian Piero. The History of Italian Cinema. A Guide to Italian Film
from its Origins to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton
University Press, 2003.
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Index
Note: Locators followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.
81/2 , 35
Abraham, Fred Murray, 210
Ahmed, Sara, 149
Akhmatova, Anna, 123, 243
Althusser, Louis, 64, 137
Amelie, 216, 226n11
Amore e violenza (Melandri), 97
Anchisi Hopkins, Lidia Hwa Soon, 6,
53–67, 273
Antonioni, Michelangelo, 121, 131–2,
138–9, 241, 244
Aprà, Adriano, 152
Archibugi, Francesca
biography, 98
filmography, 100–101
Il grande cocomero: family
dynamics in, 92; healing and,
96–8; illness and, 93–6; plot,
92–3
Mignon è partita, 92, 98
Verso Sera, 92
Argento, Dario, 175
Arzner, Dorothy, 3
Austin, J. L., 64–5
Austin-Smith, Brenda, 8
automediality, 181
“autrici interrotte,” 129, 145n13
avventura ancora attuale, 76
Bahktin, Mikhail, 43
Baldry, Anna Costanza, 91
Balestrini, Nanni, 123, 243
Barthes, Roland, 38, 139
Basilico, Gabriele, 131, 133–5, 237,
239–41, 243
Basinger, Jeanine, 2
Battiato, Franco, 174
Baudelaire, 122, 136
Bellassai, Sandro, 55–8, 69n9
Bellumori, Cinzia, 3
Benini, Stefania, 212
Bertolucci, Giuseppe, 178
Bettelheim, Bruno, 68n3
Bhabha, Homi, 197
Bondanella, Peter, 2, 48n8
“Border Traffic” (O’Healy), 137
Borrelli, Ilaria
biography, 224–5
Come le Formiche, 220–2
Domani si Gira, 5, 211
films, 218–24
Il piu bel Giorno della mia Vita, 222
Luccatmi, 211
Mariti in Affitto, 218–20, 222
novels, 5, 210–12
overview, 209
postfeminism, 212–18
Scosse, 210
Talking to the Trees, 222–4
Tanto Rumore per Tullia, 211–12
Bowlby, Rachel, 143
Brabon, Benjamin, 213–14
Bridget Jones’ Diary, 214–16
Brundson, Charlotte, 215–16
Bruno, Giuliana, 2, 4, 16–17, 19, 23–4
Butler, Judith, 54, 56, 63–7, 69n8, 197,
199, 207n6
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INDEX
Cannes Film Festival, 263
Cannistraro, Philip, 69n11
Canova, Gianni, 175–6
Cantini, Maristella, 1–8, 209–25, 273
Carmosino, Christian, 264
Carrano, Patrizia, 4–5, 9n2, 10n7,
225n1, 273–4
Cattaneo, Menotti, 19
Cavani, Liliana
early films, 73–4
filmography, 87–8
Francesco di Assisi, 73–7, 82, 84
Galileo, 77–8
I cannibali, 78–9
Le clarisse, 83–4
L’ospite, 79–80
Milarepa, 80–2
operas, 88
scholarship on, 1–2, 4, 6–7
secular view, 77
Seventh Circle, 83
Thematic Imaginary, 73–85
themes in works of, 82–5
Cecchini, Fabiana, 173–87, 274
Chick Flicks, 216–18, 222, 224, 226n11
Chinn, Sarah, 64
Cicero, Nando, 3, 9n2
Cicioni, Mirna, 178
cinèma vérité, 152, 232
cinepanettone, 3
“citational grafting,” 64–5
Color Purple, The, 216
Comencini, Francesca
biography, 115
filmography, 118–19
Lo spazio bianco: characters, 107–9;
inclination in, 114–15; mothers
and, 104; plot, 104; portrayal of
Naples, 108–11; staging spaces,
111–15; themes, 104–6, 110–11;
translation from book to film,
106–7; women’s bodies and, 104–5
SNOQ and, 103
Comenici, Luigi, 115
“concrete brotherhood,” 85
Connell, R. W., 55
Consolati, Claudia, 6, 33–46, 274
Conte, Paolo, 174
Criminal Woman (Lombroso), 203
Cuculis, Luke, 6, 53–67, 274
de Certeau, Michel, 125
de Lauretis, Teresa, 34, 37, 45, 48n7,
50n41, 150
De Pau, Daniela, 89–99, 275
Derrida, Jacques, 64–5
Di Bianco, Laura, 7, 121–44, 237–61,
275
Diaconescu-Blumenfeld, Rodica, 36,
40, 43
Diary of Sex and Politics, 164
Discipline and Punish (Foucault), 203
Doane, Mary Ann, 34, 44–5
Domani si Gira (Borrelli), 5, 209, 211
drag, 54, 63, 65–6, 69n8, 207n6
Dünne, Jörge, 181
Farinotti, Luisella, 159
Fellini, Federico, 29n6, 35–6, 40
femicide, 90
Ferris, Suzanne, 216
Festival of Bratislava, 263
Festival of Cuenca, 263
Festival of Montreal, 225
Festival of Pusan, 263
Festival of Turin, 263
Finocchiaro, Angela, 115n2
flânerie, 122, 125–7, 136, 138, 143
Forgacs, David, 122
Foucault, Michel, 76, 203, 207n8
found footage, 150–1, 153–4, 166, 176,
178–9, 182, 186, 231–3
Fraioli, Ilaria, 159, 161, 165, 167, 181,
183, 233
Franchi, Paolo, 173
Freud, Sigmund, 37–8
Fried Green Tomatoes, 216
Gamberi, Cristina, 7, 149–67, 178–9,
186, 231–5, 275–6
Garrone, Matteo, 173, 176, 257
Gay, Piergiorgio, 173, 178
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INDEX 281
gaze
Cavani and, 85n5
Come l’ombra and, 129, 131, 137–8
documentaries and, 232, 234,
240–1, 244–5
female, 138, 183, 252, 260, 268
Kaplan on, 42
La Notte and, 131
Lo spazio bianco and, 113–14
Love and Anarchy and, 34–7, 41, 44, 46
male, 34–7, 41–2, 44, 46, 155, 159,
201, 203
Marazzi and, 152, 155–6, 159, 169n7
oblique, 183
Pasqualino Settebellezze and, 55, 57
Rohrwacher and, 249, 252
subjectivization of, 152
violence and, 201
“Gendering Mobility and Migration”
(Scarparo and Luciano), 136
Genz, Stephanie, 3, 213–14
Ginsberg, Allen, 243
Giordana, Marco Tullio, 173, 188n1
Godard, Jean-Luc, 131, 137, 241, 254
Golini, Vera, 276
Gough, Kathleen, 199, 207n5
Gutierrez, Chus, 226n16
History of Sexuality, The (Foucault),
203, 207n8
Hollinger, Karen, 217, 222
Infascelli, Alex, 173
International Film Festival of Rome,
237
“Invisible Flâneuses: Women and
Literature of Modernity” (Wolff),
136
Invisibles, The, 264
Irigaray, Luce, 34, 37, 41, 209
Italian Cinema from Neorealism to
Present (Bondanella), 2
Italian National Television (RAI), 73,
161, 206, 235n1, 237–8, 263
Johnston, Claire, 3, 33–4, 38, 47n7
Kaplan, E. Ann, 2–3, 34, 42–3, 48n7
Karagoz, Claudia, 7, 103–15, 276
“la meglio gioventù,” 173, 175–6
La sconosciuta, 137
Laviosa, Flavia, 91, 96
Ligabue, Luciano, 174
Lincoln Center’s Italian Film Festival, 237
Lombroso, Cesare, 203
Lorcano Film Festival, 154
Luciano, Bernardette, 136, 265
Lucini, Luca, 173
Maderna, Giovanni, 178
Maggioni, Daniele, 135, 238
Maiorca, Donatella
biography, 206
Purple Sea: figure of Angelo/a, 195–9;
importance of, 204–6; overview,
195–6; patriarchal society, 199–204
Viola di mare, 117n14
Mamma Roma, 135
Marazzi, Alina
critical nostalgia, 166–7
cultural context of work, 152–3
“docu-diary” and, 178–9
early career, 178
feminist themes and, 150–2
interview, 231–5; on archival
material, 231–2; on early career,
231; on female displacement,
233–4; on motherhood, 234–5;
on Un’ora sola ti vorrei, 232–3; on
Vogliamo anche le rose, 233–4
La meglio Gioventù and, 173–6
literature and, 178
overview, 150, 176–7
scholarship on, 7
supplementary material released
with DVDs, 174, 180–2
themes in work, 177–8
Un’ora sola ti vorrei: critical
reception of, 154; form, 154–5;
fragmentation, 157–9; making of,
153–4; narrative structure, 155–7;
opening scene, 54; voiceover, 155–7
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INDEX
Marazzi, Alina—Continued
Vogliamo anche le rose: Anita’s
diary, 162–3; meaning of title,
159–60; opening sequence, 162;
parody and, 161–2; politics in,
165–6; relation to previous work,
160–1; Teresa’s diary, 163–4;
Valentina’s diary, 164–5
Marcellino pane e vino, 115
Mariaini, Dacia, 276–7
Mariaini, Umberto, 67n1
Marrone, Gaetana, 6, 73–85, 277
Masini, Mario, 165
Massey, Doreen, 141
Mastrandrea, Valerio, 255
Maude (cultural association), 1, 254, 258
Mazzacurati, Carlo, 137
McCabe, Janet, 2
McIsaac, Paul, 33, 47n6
McRobbie, Angela, 2, 226n8
Melandri, Lea, 97, 181–2
Menarini, Roy, 107–8, 117n15
Merini, Alda, 122–3, 144n1
mimicry, 64, 66, 162, 197
Minchia di Re (Pilati), 195
Monti, Adriana, 165
Mulvey, Laura, 2–3, 34, 36–8, 47n7,
48n17, 149, 159
Mussolini, Benito, 22–3, 30n25, 34,
38–9, 45, 54, 56, 58, 66–7, 69n11
Negra, Diane, 214
Newport International Film Festival, 154
Nobile, Robert, 271–2
Notari, Elvira
background, 29
Dora Film, 19, 22–3
Dora Film of America, 23–4
film production, 19–21
Gennariello Film, 21–2
lack of scholarship on, 2
overview, 6, 18
themes in works of, 24–9
O’Healy, Aine, 4, 117n20, 137
Ortese, Anna Maria, 247, 250
Parrella, Valeria, 104, 106–7, 109
Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF), 126,
245n1
Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 77, 81, 137, 156,
168n3
patriarchy
Archiburgi and, 89–93, 97
Borelli and, 210, 217, 220, 223
Doane and, 44
guns and, 55–7
Irigaray and, 37
Italian cinema and, 5
Kaplan and, 42–3
Maiorca and, 195–8, 201, 203
Marazzi and, 161, 167, 185
Massey and, 141
Mulvey and, 36–7, 39–40
Notari and, 19
postfeminism and, 215
Spada and, 122
Wertmüller and, 5, 39–40, 42–3,
45–6, 55–7, 59
Wilson and, 142
women’s political countercinema
and, 33
performativity, 54, 56, 63–5, 67, 69n8
Piccioni, Giuseppe, 178, 184
Pickering-Iazzi, Robin, 277
Pietrangeli, Antonio, 241
Pilati, Giacomo, 195, 204
postfeminism
Borrelli and, 212–18, 220
Chick Flicks and, 222, 224
explained, 225n3
film criticism and, 3
Pozzi, Antonia, 123, 125–8, 237, 239–
40, 243, 245
Practice of Everyday Life, The (de
Certeau), 125
Quatriglio, Costanza, 7, 251, 263–72
écosaimale, 267
interview: on documentaries,
264–5; on future, 272; on
Invisibles, 264; on L’isola,
266–70; on Robert Nobile, 271–2;
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on Terramata, 270–1; on themes
in work, 265–6; on women’s
portrayal in film, 267–8
Io, qui. Lo sguardo delle donne, 267–8
overview, 263–4
Radner, Hilary, 2, 8, 218, 225n3
Randi, Paola
impact on filmmaking, 7, 121
interview with, 253–61; on
documentaries, 255; on early
career, 254–5; on female gaze,
260; on Into Paradise, 255–7; on
Maude, 258–60; on Milan, 257–8;
on representation, 256
Into Paradise, 253, 255–6
Rohrwacher and, 248
study of women’s films, 251
Reggio Calabria, 121, 247–9, 252
Reggio, Godfrey, 178
Rhys, Jean, 149
Ricci, Chiara, 2, 15–29, 277
Rich, Adrienne, 151, 164, 199–202,
207n4–5
Rich, B. Ruby, 216
Riches, Pierre, 84
Righelli, Gennaro, 19
Ring-Independent Filmmakers of the
New Generation, 173
Rohrwacher, Alice, 7, 121, 247–52, 261
interview: on church, 249–50; on
Corpo Celeste, 248–50; on early
career, 248; on gaze, 249, 252;
on Reggio Calabria, 249, 252; on
women directors, 251
overview, 247–8
Roma, 36
Romito, Patrizia, 90, 93–4, 97
Rossellini, Roberto, 74
Rothko, Mark, 131
ruralism, 56
Russell, Diana, 90, 93
Russell, Ken, 73
Scarparo, Susanna, 136, 178, 265
Scosse (Borelli), 209–10
Se non ora quando (SNOQ), 103,
115n2
Sex and the City, 215–17
Simmel, Georg, 16
Sorrentino, Paolo, 173, 259
Space, Place, and Gender (Massey), 141
Spada, Marina
Come l’ombra, 127–44
death in films of, 124
Deserto Rosso, 122
entrapment and, 136
Forza Cani, 123–6
gaze and, 138–9
Il mio domani, 127–44
interview, 237–45; on Basilico,
240–1; on Come l’ombra, 240–2,
244; on early career, 238; on
Forza cani, 238–9; on gaze, 245;
on Il mio domani, 241, 244–5; on
influences, 241–3; on landscapes,
242–3; on Pozzi, 239–40
“La mia città,” 122, 144
landscape in works of, 131–6
L’Avventura, 122
L’eclisse, 122
Milan and, 124–5, 138–9
mothers in work, 141–2
overview, 121–2
Poesia che mi guardi, 126–30
poetry and, 123
prostitution in works, 136–7
treatment of place, 122
violence and, 137–8
walking and, 143
Sphinx in the City, The (Wilson), 142
Stampa, Gaspara, 1
Summerfield, Giovanna, 263–72, 278
Sundance Film Festival, 247
Swept Away, 33
Tasker, Yvonne, 2, 214
Terragni, Laura, 89, 91
Tola, Vittoria, 97
Torino Film Festival, 154
Tornatore, Giuseppe, 137
“transparence-absence,” 5
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INDEX
Un ragazzo di Calabria, 115
Valentini, Chiara, 5, 212, 224
Vanzina, Carlo, 3
Venice Film Festival, 115, 130, 237,
240, 253, 263–4
Vesna va veloce, 137
Vesuvio Film, 18–19
Virga, Anita, 195–206, 278
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema” (Mulvey), 3, 47n7
Wertmüller, Lina
Love and Anarchy: brothel in,
37–43; cinematography,
35–6; family and, 42; female
characters, 38–40, 43–4;
fetishism and, 38–9; grotesque
in, 40–1, 44; masculinity and,
35–7; plot, 33–4; reflections and,
45–6; themes, 34–5; voyeurism
and, 37–8
Pasqualino Settebelleze: fascism
and, 56–7; gender and, 63–6;
grotesque in, 67; gun in, 55,
60–3; linguistic signs in, 65;
masculinity and, 54–67; plot, 54;
themes, 53–4; women and, 56–7
scholarship on, 1–2, 4, 6
When We Dead Awaken (RIch), 164
Wilson, Elizabeth, 142
Wolff, Janet, 136
Woolf, Virginia, 251
Young, Mallory, 216
Zagarrio, Vito, 173–6, 188n3
Zajczyk, Francesca, 212
Zamboni, Chiara, 178
Zeffirelli, Franco, 74
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