PLEASE NOTE THAT THE INSTRUCTOR CAN MAKE CHANGES TO THE SYLLABUS.
WEEK 1
Introduction: Cinema, History, National Culture.
Screening: Roma città aperta (Rome Open City, Rossellini,
1945)
READINGS: Millicent. Marcus Roma Città Aperta, "Introduction" to
Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism, UP Princeton, 1986 pp. 3-29;
Rossellini's Open City: The founding, pp. 33-53 .
P. Bondanella, A History of Italian Cinema: "Neorealism: a revolutionary and problematic new film aesthetic "
WEEK 2
Class discussion: Neo-Realism I: A
Historical Approach. Lecture and class discussion
Screening: Ladri di
Biciclette (Bicycle Thief, De Sica, 1948).
READINGS: Millicent Marcus. "De Sica's Bycicle Thief:
Casting shadows on the visionary city" in Italian film.
P. Bondanella, A history...., Neorealism's many faces: widening the range of the camera's eye.
WEEK 3
Class Discussion:From Neorealism to Commedia all'Italiana.
Screening: I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street,
1958, Mario Monicelli)
READINGS: P. Bondanella, History of Italian Cinema "Commedia all'italiana: social criticism for laughter's sake"
P. Ginsborg, "The Economic Miracle: Rural
Exodus and Social Transformation. 1958-1963" in History of Contemporary
Italy. Penguin Books, 1990, pp. 210-253; 499-508.
WEEK 4
Test 1.
Class Discussion: Italian Cinema and the Economic Miracle.
Screening: Le notti di Cabiria (F. Fellini, 1957)
READINGS: P. Bondanella, A History...,"The Italian art film: auteurism in Visconti, Antonioni, Fellini, and De Sica "
Home screening: La dolce vita (F. Fellini, 1960).
WEEK 5
Class Discussion:The other side of 'La dolce vita'.
Screening: Mamma
Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962).
READINGS: D. J. Rhodes, Stupendous, Miserable City.
Pasolini's Rome, Minnesota University Press, 2007. Chapter 5
WEEK 6
Class Discussion on Pier Paolo Pasolini's cinema
Screening: L'eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
READINGS:
Home screening: Blow-up (M. Antonioni, 1966).
WEEK 7
Test 2
Class Discussion. Review for Midterm
Midterm
WEEK 8
Screening: Il conformista (B. Bertolucci, 1970)
READINGS: M. Marcus, Chapter on Il conformista in Italian Film.
P. Bondanella, A History... -The Golden Age of Italian Cinema:Neorealism's Legacy to a New Generation and the Political Film" .
Class Discussion: Italian Cinema in the Seventies
WEEK 9.
Screening: Indagine di un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (E. Petri, 1970)
Class Discussion: Politics, Society, and Cinema in the Seventies. part 2
READINGS: M. Marcus, Chapter on Investigation
P, Bondanella, A History... "Mystery, gore, and mayhem: the Italian Giallo -- The poliziesco: Italian crime films from the 1970s to the present"
WEEK 10
Test 3
Screening: C'eravamo tanto amati (E. Scola, 1976)
READINGS:M. Marcus, Chapter on We All Love Each Other So Much.
WEEK 11
Screening: Caro
Diario (Nanni Moretti, 1994)
Class Discussion; Towards a Postmodern Cinema.
READINGS: M. Marcus, "Caro Diario and the Cinematic Body
of Nanni Moretti" in After Fellini, John Hopkins University, 2002, pp.
285-299.
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
WEEK 12
The Return of Politics in Italian Cinema.
Screening:
Buongiorno notte (M. Bellocchio, 2004)
READINGS: Carlo Testa, "Film, Literature, and Terrorism:
Mapping Italy's Political Landscape by Cinematic Means", Italica, Vol 84,
n. 4, Winter 2007, pp. 781-798.
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
WEEK 13
Test 4
Local, Global and Glocal in Contemporary Italian Cinema.
Screening: Cosmonauta (S. Nicchiarelli, 2009)
READINGS: Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Nicchiarelli’s Cosmonauta: The Space Race, or When Communist Girls Dreamed of the Moon
P. Bondanella, A history... " Weaving present and past: the contemporary Italian drama."
Home Screening: Non essere cattivo (C. Caligari, 2015)
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
WEEK 14
Rethinking Italian Cinema
Screening: Freaks Out (G. Mainetti, 2021)
Review for Final
DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR THE COURSE ARE AVAILABLE IN:
https://jculibrary.on.worldcat.org/courseReserves/course/id/10050388
Additional Readings will be provided week by week