Italian Cinema since 1945

(3-6 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

A survey of films, directors and film styles in Italy from the 1940s to the present. The films are examined as aesthetic objects in their own right and in relation to the wider social and cultural environment of post-war Italy. The role of cinema as a tool of historiographic inquiry is also investigated. Realist, modernist and post-modernist aesthestics are discussed in relation to Italian cinema in particular and Italian society in general. Directors treated include Amelio, Argento, Bava, Bertolucci, De Santis, De Sica, Fellini, Leone, Monicelli, Moretti, Nichetti, Pasolini, Petri, Risi, Rosi, Rossellini, and the Taviani brothers. Films are shown on video, in the original Italian version with English subtitles.