Directory of World Cinema: Italy (Book)

Edited by Louis Bayman

Directory of World Cinema: Italy aims to offer a wide film and cultural context for Italian cinema’s key aspects, from political radicalism to opera, from the art house to popular cinema. Essays by leading academics about prominent genres, directors, and themes provide insight into the cinema of Italy and are bolstered by reviews of significant titles.

Edition

Italian cinema has proved very popular with international audiences, and yet a surprising unfamiliarity remains regarding the rich traditions from which its most fascinating moments arose. Directory of World Cinema: Italy aims to offer a wide film and cultural study in which to situate some of Italian cinema’s key aspects, from political radicalism to opera and from the arthouse to popular genres. Essays by leading academics about prominent genres, directors and themes provide insight into the cinema of Italy and are bolstered by reviews of significant titles. From silent spectacle to the giallo, the spaghetti western to the neorealist masterworks of Rossellini, this book offers a comprehensive historical sweep of Italian cinema that will appeal to film scholars and cinephiles alike.

Louis Bayman completed his doctoral thesis on post-war Italian melodrama at King’s College London. He is currently researching theoretical approaches to the characteristics of popular cinema.

Introduction by the Editor

Film of the year I 
Io sono l'amore

Film of the year II
Le quattro volte  

Industry spotlight
Valerio Jalongo interview

Cultural crossover
Opera and Cinema

Directors
Federico Fellini
Nanni Moretti

Silent cinema

Neorealism

Melodrama

Comedy

Giallo

Gothic horror

Peplum

Spaghetti western

Political cinema

Contemporary cinema

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