Italian Cinema: The Masterpieces

Catalog description

This course is ambitious in its aim and scope. It has two main objectives. One, to analyze and discuss Italian cinema and its history; two, to develop your skills in cinematic formal analysis and in film theory. We will start with the cinema in the Fascist years (1922-1945), we will then focus on the revolutionary and heavily politicized practice by the Neorealists (Zavattini, Rossellini, De Sica), in the aftermath of WWII (1945-1949). We will turn to the great Italian auteurs such as Federico Fellini; Michelangelo Antonioni, and Bernardo Bertolucci. Further, we will analyze the so called "comedy Italian style," the "spaghetti westerns" as well as the politically committed films of the 1980s and 90s. Finally, we will explore the "new Italian cinema," with its many and sometimes contradictory forms. Studying and enjoying Italian cinema will help us to uncover the socio-political, economic and cultural developments in Italian life during the 20th and 21st century (the family, otherness, gender roles, politics, etc.).