The Cinema of Italy

The Cinema of Italy, a new addition to the 24 Frames series, looks at the recurring historical, thematic and stylistic features of twenty-four of the most important Italian sound films. Viewing Italian cinema at the intersection of history, politics, art and popular culture, the 24 concise essays of this anthology contextualize each film within both Italian and Western film culture. Alongside the crucial lessons of neorealist masterpieces such as Rossellini’s Paisan and De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief, this collection looks at how Italian cinema has confronted both the nation’s history (1860, Senso, The Conformist, Lamerica), the so-called Southern question (Salvatore Giuliano, Padre Padrone), as well as modern configurations of labor and gender relationships through the films of Camerini, De Santis, Olmi, Pasolini, Antonioni, Wertmuller, and the Taviani Brothers. The Cinema of Italy also considers the very personal works of Fellini, Ferreri and Moretti and gives special attention to those film-makers (Argento and Leone) whose cinema directly addresses such international film genres as horror and the western.