Re-viewing Fascism
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Re-viewing Fascism

Italian Cinema, 1922-1943
Edited by Jacqueline Reich and Piero Garofalo
Distribution: Global
Publication date: 05/07/2002
Format: Paperback 25 b&w photos, 1 index
ISBN: 978-0-253-21518-5
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Description

When Benito Mussolini proclaimed that "Cinema is the strongest weapon," he was telling only half the story. In reality, very few feature films during the Fascist period can be labeled as propaganda. Re-viewing Fascism considers the many films that failed as "weapons" in creating cultural consensus and instead came to reflect the complexities and contradictions of Fascist culture. The volume also examines the connection between cinema of the Fascist period and neorealism—ties that many scholars previously had denied in an attempt to view Fascism as an unfortunate deviation in Italian history. The postwar directors Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio de Sica all had important roots in the Fascist era, as did the Venice Film Festival. While government censorship loomed over Italian filmmaking, it did not prevent frank depictions of sexuality and representations of men and women that challenged official gender policies. Re-viewing Fascism brings together scholars from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds as it offers an engaging and innovative look into Italian cinema, Fascist culture, and society.

Author Bio

Jacqueline Reich is Assistant Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Piero Garofalo is Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of New Hampshire.

Reviews

“When Benito Mussolini proclaimed that “Cinema is the strongest weapon,” he was only telling half the story. The first English-language anthology devoted to this subject, Re-viewing Fascism examines just how many films failed as “weapons” in creating cultural consensus and instead came to reflect the complexities and contradictions of Fascist culture. ”

“Each essay makes a point of correcting misconceptions about the cinema during the ventennio [the period of fascist rule], which makes this book a significant contribution to the literature. December 2002”
 — S. Vander Closter, Rhode Island School of Design

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Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Piero Garofalo and Jacqueline Reich

Part 1: Framing Fascism and Cinema

1. Mussolini at the Movies: Fascism, Film, and Culture
Jacqueline Reich

2. Dubbing L'Arte Muta: Poetic Layerings Around Italian Cinema's Transition to Sound
Giorgio Bertellini

3. Intimations of Neorealism in the Fascist Ventennio
Ennio Di Nolfo

4. Placing Cinema, Fascism, and the Nation in a Diagram of Italian Modernity
James Hay

Part 2: Fascism, Cinema, and Sexuality

5. Sex in the Cinema: Regulation and Transgression in Italian Films, 1930<N>1943
David Forgacs

6. Luchino Visconti's (Homosexual) Ossessione
William Van Watson

7. Ways of Looking in Black and White: Female Spectatorship and the Miscege-national Body in Sotto la croce del sud
Robin Pickering-Iazzi

Part 3: Fascism and Film in (Con)texts

8. Seeing Red: The Soviet Influence on Italian Cinema in the Thirties
Piero Garofalo

9. Theatricality and Impersonation: The Politics of Style in the Cinema of the Italian Fascist Era
Marcia Landy

10. Shopping for Autarchy: Fascism and Reproductive Fantasy in Mario Camerini's Grandi magazzini
Barbara Spackman

11. The Last Film Festival: The Venice Biennale Goes to War
Marla Stone

12. Film Stars and Society in Fascist Italy
Stephen Gundle

Selected Bibliography
Index

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