Analysis of the social, aesthetic, political, and rhetorical implications of cinematic representations of Rome, from silent films to the present.   

This course will evaluate and discuss ten primary films, along with excerpts from a number of others.  We will consider five main topics:  Images of Ancient Rome; Before and After World War II; “Americans” in Rome, and Rome in America; Fellini’s Rome; and Urban Angst, Roman Style.  As the semester progresses, we will consider how Rome functions as a “character” in the movies, as well as how The Eternal City comprises the mise-en-scène.  We will assess the artistic representations of Roman monuments and streetscapes on movie sets, as opposed to location shooting.  Special attention will be given to memory construction, as well as the rhetoric of “places and spaces” (how the physical/symbolic setting influences us). In this course, students will visit cinematic landmarks in Rome and present on their experiences.

The course is divided into weekly screenings and lectures/seminars.

Week 1. Epic Rome

Screening: Spartacus (1960) dir. Stanley Kubrick

Clips from: Gladiator (2000) dir. Ridley Scott; Cabiria (1914) dir. Giovane Pastrone; Ben-Hur (1925) dir. Fred Niblo; Quo Vadis (1951) dir. Mervyn LeRoy [Anthony Mann]; Ben-Hur (1959) dir. William Wyler; Cleopatra (1963) dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz; The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) dir. Anthony Mann

Readings:

1) Mora, Carl J. “The Image of Ancient Rome in the Cinema”:  http://www.publicacions.ub.es/bibliotecadigital/cinema/filmhistoria/Art.Mora.pdf

2) Murphy, Geraldine. “Ugly Americans in Togas: Imperial Anxiety in the Cold War Hollywood Epic.” Journal of Film and Video 56 (2004): 3-19.

3) Urbainczyk, Theresa. “Spartacus: A Hero Turns 50.” Film International 8 (2010): 7-13.


Week 2. Fascist Rome

Screening: Scipione l’africano (1937) dir. Carmine Gallone

Readings:

1) Ricci, Steven. Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922-1943 (University of California Press, 2008), pp. 95-104.

2) Reich, Jacqueline. "Mussolini at the Movies: Fascism, Film and Culture," in Re-Viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema, 1922-1943 (Indiana University Press, 2002), pp. 3-29.
 

Week 3. Fascism Revisited

Screening: Il conformista (The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970).

Clips from C’eravamo tanto amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much, Ettore Scola, 1974)

1) Mellen, Joan. “Fascism in the Contemporary Film.” Film Quarterly 24 (1971): 2-19.

Screening: Umberto D. (1952) dir. Vittorio De Sica

Clips from and recommended full viewing: Rome Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945); Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1946).

Readings:

1) Lawton, Ben. “Italian Neorealism: A Mirror Construction of Reality.” Film Criticism 3 (1978): 8-23.

2) Shiel, Mark. “Imagined and  Built Spaces in the Rome of Neorealism.” In Cinematic Rome, edited by Richard Wrigley, 27-42. Leicester, UK: Troubador Publishing, Ltd., 2008.  

Week 5. America in Rome

Screening: Roman Holiday (1953) dir. William Wyler

Clips from: Un Americano a Roma (Steno, 1954); Three Coins in the Fountain (Jean Negulesco, 1955); When in Rome (Mark Steven Johnson, 2010).

Readings: 

1) Shandley, Robert.  “How Rome Saved Hollywood.” In Cinematic Rome, edited by Richard Wrigley, 53-62. Leicester, UK: Troubador Publishing, Ltd., 2008.

Week 6. Fellini's Rome 1

Screening: Lo sceicco bianco (The White Sheik, 1952)

Clips from and recommended full viewing: Le notti di Cabiria (1957); La dolce vita (1960)

Clips from: Fellini Satyricon (1969)           

Readings:

1) Paul, Joanna. “Rome Ruined and Fragmented: The Cinematic City in Fellini-Satyricon and Roma.” In Cinematic Rome, edited by Richard Wrigley, 109-121. Leicester, UK:  Troubador Publishing, Ltd., 2008.

2) Bondanella, Peter. The Cinema of Federico Fellini (Princeton University Press, 1992), extracts.
                   

Week 8. The Roman Borgata   

Screening: Accattone (1961) dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Readings:

1) Orr, Christopher. “Pasolini’s ‘Accattone,’ or Naturalism and Its Discontents.” Film Criticism 19 (1995): 54-66.

2) Rhodes, John David. Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini's Rome (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), extracts.

Week 9. Modernist Rome

Screening: L’Eclisse (1962) dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

Readings:

1) Benci, Jacopo. “Michelangelo’s Rome: Towards an Iconology of L’Eclisse.” In Cinematic Rome, edited by Richard Wrigley, 63-85. Leicester, UK: Troubador Publishing, Ltd., 2008.

2) Esposito, Joan. “Antonioni and Benjamin: Dialectical Imagery in ‘Eclipse’.” Film Criticism 9 (1984): 25-38.

Week 10. Futuristic Rome

Screening: La decima vittima (The 10th Victim, Elio Petri, 1965)

Readings: 

TBD.


Week 11. Contemporary Rome 1

Screening: The Belly of an Architect (Peter Greenaway, 1987)

Readings:

1) Baumgarter, Michael. “’A Walk through R’: Peter Greenaway’s Mapping of Rome in The Belly of an Architect.” In Cinematic Rome, edited by Richard Wrigley, 143-172. Leicester, UK: Troubador Publishing, Ltd., 2008. 

2) Keesey, Douglas. "Death by Design in The Belly of an Architect," in The Films of Peter Greenaway: Sex, Death and Provocation (McFarland, 2006), pp. 42-61.

3) "Belly of An Architect: Peter Greenaway Interviewed," in Peter Greenaway: Interviews, ed. Vernon Gras and Marguerite Gras (University Press of Mississippi, 2000), pp. 42-49.


Week 12.  Contemporary Rome 2

Screening: L'ora di religione (Marco Bellocchio, 2002)        

Readings: 

TBD

FINAL PAPERS DUE


Week 13. Contemporary Rome 3

Screening: Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope, Nanni Moretti, 2011)

Clips from Caro diario (Dear Diary, Nanni Morretti, 1993)

Readings: 

TBD