Italian Cinema and the Sacred

Catalog description

Italian culture has been widely influenced by the sacred and many intellectuals have used the Bible as source of inspiration. In this course, we will analyze how Italian filmmakers have approached the dimension of the sacred and how they have depicted it in their movies. We will explore a range of directors from 1940's Neorealism to the present in order to understand how the relationship with the sacred has evolved over time. Throughout our analyses, we will engage in dialogue with selected Italian writers in order to see how they have approached the sacred. The course also considers the role of Jesuits in Italian society through the study of a film set in a Jesuit monastery in contemporary Venice.