85101 - International Reception of Italian Cinema (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will have acquired the fundamentals in the field of international reception of Italian cinema, with regard to the main phases, trends, movements and celebrities, having grasped the basic elements of an updated methodology for analysing the theory of reception. Students will be able to reflect critically on the relationship between local, national, supranational and global, through practical examples of inter-textual and transcultural relations.

Course contents

The course will focus on particular phases of Italian film history, following movements, themes, trends and genres that have characterized the transnational paths of Italian films, from the silent era to contemporary cinema.

Through the analysis of Italian films that have been internationally distributed, the course will detect the elements that may have contributed to their international success or failure.

We will focus on the following films, which are part of the exam material and will be screened throughout the course:
Germania anno zero (Germany Year Zero, Roberto Rossellini, 1948)
Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1950)
La ciociara (Two Women, Vittorio De Sica, 1960)
Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore (The Seduction of Mimì, Lina Wertmüller, 1972)
Nico, 1988 (Susanna Nicchiarelli, 2017)

The course will use methods from reception theory, production and distribution studies, textual analysis.

We will take into account the evolving characteristics of the film distribution system, the differences and nuances between distribution and circulation, and between local, national, transnational scale. We will investigate the evolution of film scholarship on Italian popular cinema, as well as Italian films' most exportable traits and what have defined them throughout the history of Italian cinema.

Readings/Bibliography

Bayman, L., Rigoletto, S. (eds.), Popular Italian Cinema. London, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013. Attending students are required to prepare the following chapters of the book: 1. Bayman L., Rigoletto S., The Fair and the Museum: Framing the Popular; 2. Wagstaff C., Italian Cinema, Popular?; 5. Bayman L., Melodrama as Seriousness; 7. Rigoletto S., Laughter and the Popular in Lina Wertmüller’s The Seduction of Mimì; 10. Buckley R., Dressing the Part: ‘Made in Italy’ Goes to the Movies with Lucia Bosé in Chronicle of a Love Affair; 11. O’Brien D., Hercules versus Hercules: Variation and Continuation in Two Generations of Heroic Masculinity.
Non-attending students are required to prepare the entire book.

For both attending and non-attending students:

Holdaway, D., Scaglioni, M., “From Distribution to Circulation Studies: Mapping Italian Films Abroad”, in Comunicazioni sociali, n. 3, 2018, pp. 341-355.

Fadda, M., Garofalo, D., “The Distribution of Contemporary Italian Cinema in the United States: The Films of Luca Guadagnino and Paolo Sorrentino”, in Comunicazioni sociali, n. 3, 2018, pp. 369-383.

Coladonato, V., “The reception of Rome, Open City in France (1946–68): Realism for the elites, revolution for the people”, in Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, v. 6, n. 3, 2018, pp. 315-330.

Bertellini, G., “Silent Italian Cinema. An International Story”, in Bondanella, P. (ed.), The Italian Cinema Book, Bloomsbury, 2013, pp. 9-16.

Gordon, R.S.C., “Hollywood and Italy. Industries and Fantasies”, in Bondanella, P. (ed.), The Italian Cinema Book, Bloomsbury, 2013, pp. 123-129.

All the readings will be made available online on Virtuale.

Teaching methods

The course will be structured in lectures led by the teacher, supported by slides and audiovisual materials. Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions and film analysis.

Assessment methods

The course will be examined through an oral examination, which will cover the lectures, the readings and the film screenings.

Attending students are required to study and prepare the lectures, slides, personal notes, and the following texts: the selected chapters from Bayman, L., Rigoletto, S., Popular Italian Cinema (1. Bayman L., Rigoletto S., The Fair and the Museum: Framing the Popular; 2. Wagstaff C., Italian Cinema, Popular?; 5. Bayman L., Melodrama as Seriousness; 7. Rigoletto S., Laughter and the Popular in Lina Wertmüller’s The Seduction of Mimì; 10. Buckley R., Dressing the Part: ‘Made in Italy’ Goes to the Movies with Lucia Bosé in Chronicle of a Love Affair; 11. O’Brien D., Hercules versus Hercules: Variation and Continuation in Two Generations of Heroic Masculinity) and all the readings listed in the bibliography section.

Non-attending students are required to study and prepare the slides and readings available online, the book Popular Italian Cinema in its entirety and all the readings listed in the bibliography section.

Students are required to watch the films on the list provided above (see Contenuti/Course contents).

A deep understanding of the texts, the capacity to critically discuss the readings and the issues addressed in the class, as well as the ability to use historical, analytical, methodological tools and to connect them to the films, will receive high grades. An acceptable knowledge of the texts with a rougher analytical capacity will receive lower grades. A vague understanding of the texts, with inappropriate use of terminology and a lack of analytical skills will be evaluated at the limits of a pass. A clear lack of understanding of the programme’s contents and a significantly inaccurate exposition will be assessed as insufficient and will lead to a fail.

Teaching tools

Slides, readings, film screenings. The slides, readings and other course materials will be available online for both attending and non-attending students.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Checcaglini