88911 - Visualizing The Italian Society

Learning outcomes

Obiettivi formativi dell’insegnamento: This course is based on the sociological analysis of some films produced in Italy from the end of World War II to the ‘80 with the aim of to use Italian movies as telescopes on the past and to reflect on the present of Italian culture, from both the historical and social point of view. At the end of the course, students will have a knowledge about: • Italian cinema from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1980s • political and social transformations from the early 1900s to the 1980s • elements of Italian history from 1900 to post-war period • notions on sociological and anthropological models, necessary to interpret social transformations in Italy in the analyzed period

Course contents

This course is based on the vision and the analysis of films made in Italy from the end of World War II to the ‘80. We will see some of the most important movies of the Italian film history (i.e. "900" “Rome open city”, " La dolce vita" “Bread and chocolate” etc..). The aim of the course is to use these films as telescopes on the past and to reflect on the present of Italian culture, from both the historical and social point of view. In other words, this is a sociology course on Italian culture, where movies are used as data as well as a stimulus for the debate. In addition, another level of analysis will concern the styles, the schools and the directors of the shown films, and the technical and social contexts that influence the different styles. In this step, we will consider the mass communication linguistic techniques (figures of speech, metaphors, analogies), to identify both clear and hidden messages in movies.

Readings/Bibliography

A history of Italian cinema / Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni, Bloomsbury Publishing. Wydawca pbl, 2017

Teaching methods

frontal  lessons and viewing of selected films

Assessment methods

Written report ( at least 10,000 characters including spaces) attending students (70% attendance required), oral test for not attending

For attending students (attendance of at least 7 lessons of 10 ) it is sufficient to pass the final exam to use the material made available on the web (access with password), the notes taken in class, and the reading of the material related to the films analyzed during the course that will be provided by the teacher.

For non-attending students, the exam will be carried out on the basis of the following chapters of the following book:

Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni , A History of Italian Cinema, 2nd edition, Bloomsbury Academic - 2017

Chapters:

2. Industry and Ideology: The Talkies during the Fascist Era

3. Neorealism: A Revolutionary and Problematic?New Film Aesthetic

4. Neorealism's Many Faces: Widening the Range of the Camera's Eye

5. The Cinema of the Reconstruction and the Return of Melodrama

7. Commedia all'italiana : Social Criticism for Laughter's Sake

8. The Italian Art Film: Auteurism in Visconti, Antonioni, Fellini, and De Sica

9. Neorealism's Legacy to a New Generation, and the Italian Political film

10. Myth, Marx, and Freud in Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci

14. The Poliziesco: Italian Crime Films from the 1970s to the Present

N.B .: Access to the material on the web is only for attending students, as it is useful material only if integrated with the lectures, and it is necessary to pass the written exam that will take place on a single date after the end of the course. The written exam is reserved only for attending students

Teaching tools

Using audiovisual during class

Office hours

See the website of Giuseppe Losacco