February 2 2016 Italian Cinema: Italy Through the Lens

From Neorealism to the Third Millennium

February 2 2016: Italy Through the Lens Dr. Franco Gallippi

ITALY: WHERE ROMANCE MEETS REALITYBLOOR HOT DOCS ITALIAN LECTURE 2

February 2: Italy Through the LensItaly has always had one of the world's most exciting film cultures. Franco will take us on a journey through six decades of Italian cinema, focusing on the legendary directors of Italian Neorealism, the great comedic voices of the 1960s and a new generation of 21st century directors that is leaving its mark on Italy's cinematic landscape.

Chapter 28: L’Italia democratica

(From 1948 to “gli anni di piombo”)

Camera, Augusto. Umanità e sviluppo 3. Milano: Principato, 1993.

Paul Ginsborg. A History of Contemporary Italy. New York: Penguin, 1990.

Peter Bondanella. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. Third Ed. New York, London: Continuum, 2008.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1010375.A_History_of_Contemporary_Italy

Paul Ginsborg. Salviamo l’Italia. Torino: Einaudi, 2010.

THE FILMS

• Neorealism’s contribution to the evolution of cinema must in large measure be ultimately judged by the achievements of seven major works (B. 37):

• Rome, Open City (Roma, città aperta, 1945)• Paisan (Paisà, 1946)• Germany Year Zero (Germania anno zero, 1947)• Shoeshine (Sciuscià, 1946)• The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di biciclette, 1948)• Umberto D. (1951)• The Earth Trembles (La terra trema, 1948)

Roberto Rossellini Vittorio De Sica

1945 1948

CLIPS 1 AND 2

Roma città aperta (Open City, 1945) by Roberto Rossellini: scene 9 “Last rites misread” and scene 10 “Pina is shot” (min 52:45 – 56:55). Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948) By Vittorio De Sica: scene 13 “Desperate measures” (1:24:00 – 1:27:00).

My comments:

Quotation from “Roberto Rossellini, A Socratic Lesson in Cinema” by Gian Piero Brunetta:

“No, it wasn’t as if, that one day, while sitting at a table of a café on Via Veneto, Rossellini, Visconti, myself and all the others said: now, let’s start neorealism. In fact we barely knew one another. One day someone told me that Rossellini had started working again. ‘A film about a priest’ I was told, and that was all. On another day I saw him sitting with Amidei on the steps of a palace in Via Bissolati. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. They shrugged their shoulders: ‘We are looking for money. We have none, we can’t go on with our film…’ What film? ‘the story of a priest. Don Morosini, you know, the one that was shot by the Germans’” (87).

CLIPS 1 AND 2

Roma città aperta (Open City, 1945) by Roberto Rossellini: scene 9 “Last rites misread” and scene 10 “Pina is shot” (min 52:45 – 56:55). Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948) By Vittorio De Sica: scene 13 “Desperate measures” (1:24:00 – 1:27:00).My comments continued:

From My Voyage to Italy (2001) Martin Scorsese:In part two, speaking of De Sica’s less “engaged” work, Scorsese states what he values about Italian cinema in general: “the way it seems to move effortlessly between comedy and tragedy. It is as if laughing and crying are two sides of the same coin that you could flip at any moment. It’s a quality that’s been very influential for me in my own work and something I’ve really aspired to”.

Rome Open City: Shifting perspective from comic to tragic tone: most famous sequence – the search of Pina’s apartment building which results in her death.

Roma, città aperta (1945)







Ironically, to underline the paradoxes in the world of history, in the next sequence Francesco’s truck is ambushed by Partisans and he is rescued. Pina’s death, like so many others in wartime, was pointless (B. 40).

Rossellini’s last shots accentuate the religious tone of the entire film: Romoletto, Marcello, and the other children walk away from Don Pietro’s execution and are followed by the panning camera which sets them, Italy’s future,

against the backdrop of the dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral […] a vision of hope (B. 42).

NORD E SUD (NORTH AND SOUTH): The Resistance

Italy divided in two: the South was quickly liberated by the Allies, while the North fought long and daily battles that led to an organized and “recognized” Resistance. The South did not have the same experience.

It is for this reason that after the liberation and the surrender of the Germans in the North, the partisans and the masses fight for radical change and a new political reality. Many hope for a revolution. In the South, instead, there are conservative tendencies that favor the Anglo-Americans and the Holy See, who for different reasons aim to calm the waters and protect Italy from Communism (362)

LA RESISTENZA: The Resistance

• Rome, 24 July 1943: Meeting of the Fascist Grand Council, supreme body of the Fascist party. Nine hours of discussion: 19 votes against il Duce to 7 in favor.

• 25 July: Mussolini’s meeting with Victor Emanuel. Resignation of il Duce, replaced with Marshal Pietro Badoglio. Mussolini’s arrest: after 21 years Fascism ends. Mussolini falls to the same king who summoned him to power: A COUP FROM ABOVE.

• 25 July – 8 September 1943: the Forty-five Days. The king and Badoglio play for time when non existed. Secret negotiations with Allies (Anglo-American), while Germans were promised Italy would not desert them.

• Hesitation by King and Badoglio: the Germans pour troops into Italy – chance of saving central Italy from occupation was lost.

• 3/8 September 1943: signing of secret armistice between Italy and Allies. SEVERE TERMS: Italy was not made an ally but granted the strange status of “co-belligerent” (Ginsborg, 10-13).

LA RESISTENZA

• Middle of September 1943: ITALY IS CUT IN TWO:

• South of Naples: Allies and the Italian King – war declared on Germany, 30 October.

• North of Naples: the Germans. Mussolini is rescued by the Germans from his prison on the Gran Sasso and

taken to Germany. Returned to Italy at the head of the Republic of Salò on western shore of Lake Garda. A

puppet republic controlling northern Italy.

• MUSSOLINI = a useful figurehead – the Germans gave the orders – 1st: rounding up and deportation to

extermination camps of as many of the Italian Jews as they could find (G. 14).

• THE RESISTENCE BEGINS (Guido Quazza: three anti-Fascist strands):

• 1. Traditional anti-Fascism: always opposed Muss. – belonged to p. parties declared illegal – suffered trial,

prison, exile. Dominated by the Communists (Antonio Gramsci).

• 2. Spontaneous reaction of young Italians brought up under Fascism who felt that it was not a new life that was

beginning but life itself.

• 3. Anti-Fascism of the Fascists: supporters of the regime who now abandon the sinking ship (Ginsborg 14-15).

CLIPS 1 AND 2Roma città aperta (Open City, 1945) by Roberto Rossellini: scene 9 “Last rites misread” and scene 10 “Pina is shot” (min 52:45 – 56:55). Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948) By Vittorio De Sica: scene 13 “Desperate measures” (1:24:00 – 1:27:00).My comments continued:While the Germans entered other European countries as invaders, in Italy they were allies (remember the military alliance “The Pact of Steel” between Mussolini and Hitler); and this complicates the situation enormously. It is as if these two countries, Italy and Germany, were married and now going through a very messy divorce. Hence, the claiming of territory and getting your hands on everything that you feel is rightfully yours after investing years in a unity that has now ended in separation. After Mussolini’s arrest (July 25, 1943), General Pietro Badoglio and the king of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III took Mussolini’s place at the head of the government. They took forty-five days to decide what to do from this point on. While they promised they would not abandon the Germans, it became obvious that a part of Italy would side with the Anglo-Americans (Canadians included). During these forty-five days of indecision, the Germans had ample time to occupy as much of Italy as they could. Thanks to German occupation, Mussolini escapes from his prison in the Apennine Mountains (September 12, 1943), and Italy is divided in two main “armies”: the Nazis and Mussolini’s Fascists on one side and the Anglo-American forces aided by the Italian partisans on the other. The tragic result was a painful civil war that called many Italians to reclaim their country and ultimately their identity. The film ends on a positive note: the children walk back to the city (the main character in the film) as if to reclaim what their fathers had lost. (Source for historical comments: Paul Ginsborg).

Ricci the “bicycle thief”

Ladri di biciclette (1948) – American culture in postwar Italy

First day on the job – poster: Rita Hayworth (Gilda 1946)

Father and Son – Ponte Duca D’Aosta

In his book Bicycle Thieves, Robert S.C. Gordon makes the point that the the Mussolini-era bridge (which is close to the 1930s Olympic stadium) is part of the film’s use of oppressive Fascist architecture as political commentary.

http://bicyclethieflocations.wordpress.com/

Father and Son – Duca D’Aosta Bridge

The 220-metre bridge links the quartiere Flaminio to the Foro Italico. It was designed by Italian architect Vincenzo Fasolo and was built between 1939 and 1942.

http://bicyclethieflocations.wordpress.com/

Started in 1936, the bridge was inaugurated March 4, 1939. It was dedicated to Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, who was commander of the Third Army in the First World War. On the facades of the four pillars are carved in bas-relief a few scenes of war that took place by the rivers Isonzo, Tagliamento, Piave and Sile.

CLIPS 1 AND 2


Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief 1948)One could look to the political reality of Italy at the time in which the film was made. I don’t think it would be inappropriate to say that the left wing in Italy in 1948 got its bicycle stolen right when so many thought that the pains of the Resistance would pay off with the communist party having a say in Italy’s destiny. Antonio enjoyed his bicycle for such a short time as the left wing was convinced that it would have a prominent role in government after the elections of April 18 1948. And the clumsiness and the fruitless journey, I think, all make sense if considered on this level of interpretation. As long as Antonio has a bicycle he can participate in society, he can make a contribution. Once the bicycle is gone there is a moment of trauma, of desperation, of a struggle to remain focused and not lose one’s sense of reality.

CLIPS 1 AND 2


Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief 1948)Focus arrives with Bruno (Enzo Staiola): Here I remember something I read in an essay written by André Bazin not long after the film was made. He looks to the father son relationship and underlines the fact that what comes into focus by the end of the film is a relationship between father and son that has moved on to another level. What he means is that the father that Bruno loves and admires falls from a ‘state of grace’ to a human level where father and son reconnect. In other words, Bruno discovers that his father is a human being with his imperfections and when pushed far enough is capable of falling to the level of a thief. That is, De Sica’s film shows us a threshold that is inevitable not only in the relationship between parent and child, but in the way we view reality. If one wants to connect this to the political significance mentioned above, you could say that the left needed to get over its ideology and see the reality that it had before its eyes.

CLIPS 1 AND 2


Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief 1948)

In the Italian election of 1948, the Communists had threatened to take over the country through the ballot box, and the US intervened covertly to support democratic parties. In total, the Truman Administration spent between ten and twenty million dollars on anti-communist propaganda and other "improvised covert operations" [in current money, at least ten times that amount.] This was in addition to the millions of dollars received by the Italian Government under the Marshall Plan. Operations in Italy to weaken the Communists were a success. http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/ops/italy-48.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/ops/italy-48.htm

L’Italia democratica (Democratic Italy)

• Conservation rather than innovation prevails. Although the political structure of Italy changes with a new Constitution, the economic and social reality shows signs of continuity.

• The greatest effort to fight against the conservative position comes from the PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano: The Italian Communist Party). Under the leadership of Palmiro Togliatti, the party presents itself as a “new party”, meaning that it will not limit itself to criticism and propaganda but aims to participate in positive and constructive action. Meaning also that the working class must assume ruling class status alongside the other democratic forces (362-363).

• Solidarity between anti-fascist forces led to the Ferruccio Parri government, which keeps the country united in the aftermath of the liberation of Northern Italy.

• A solidarity of internal conflicts between the left-wing forces (The Communist Party PCI and the Socialist Party PSI) and the center forces (The Christian Democrats DC, the Italian Liberal Party PLI, and the Italian Republican Party PRI).

• The center parties, although divided on many issues, are united against the left-wing forces, and agree on a pro-American foreign policy, which left-wingers and especially the Communists do not share at all (363).


http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrazia_Cristiana

CENTRO

SINISTRA

LEFT-WING

CENTER FORCES

• MAY 1947: By now the Ferruccio Parri government had fallen, and the anti-fascist coalition was taken over by Alcide De Gaspari, who will go on to be Italy’s Prime Minister until 1953.

• Being dependent on the United States, De Gasperi excludes communists and socialists from the new government and forms a coalition with liberals, republicans, and social-democrats, the latter were led by Giuseppe Saragat, and were an offshoot of the PSI, whom they abandon because they disagreed with the party’s close collaboration with the PCI (363).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ferruccio_Parri.jpg

• The Republic is declared: the king Umberto II, heir to Vittorio Emanuele III, goes into exile and remains in Portugal the rest of his life.

• In the elections for the Constituent Assembly success goes to the parties of the masses. They obtain 426 seats of the 556 that make up the entire Assembly: 207 go to the DC, 115 to the PSI, 104 to the PCI.

• These three parties, DC (Christian Democrats) PSI (Italian Socialist Party) PCI (Italian Communist Party), will determine the structure of democratic Italy. The Liberals, who had always governed in pre-fascist Italy, are losing ground and obtain only 41 seats (364).


• Republic and Constitution: On June 2nd 1946, while the anti-fascist coalition was still intact, including the participation of the communists and the socialists, an urgent question was put to a referendum: Monarchy or Republic? Later, after the victory of the Republic, a Constituent Assembly was elected to draw up the new constitution in place of the out dated 1848 Albertine Statute (364).


Charles Albert of Sardiniasigns the Statute on 4 March1848. It later became the Constitution of unified Italyuntil 1948.

• Women vote for the first time: another novelty introduced by the June 2nd elections was the presence of women at the ballot box. From male universal suffrage Italy moves on to actual universal suffrage (364).

• The Constituent Assembly completes its work in December 1947; the Constitution is put into effect on 1 January 1948

L’Italia democratica (Democratic Italy): “il voto alle donne”

LA COSTITUZIONE ITALIANA• 1 gennaio 1948: the Constitution widened

the sphere of freedom compared to the previous Albertine Statute. Not only did it establish freedom for all citizens but it also obliged the Republic to make it a concrete reality by removing all economic and social obstacles that would impede the full development of a human being (article 3 of the Constitution) (364).

• While the Albertine Statute was granted by the king’s grace, the Constitution was conquered by the people through the fight against Nazi-fascism, and therefore affirmed its own right to have sovereign power over itself and its destiny.

• Progress: it must be admitted that

compared to the Fascist totalitarian state and the constitutional monarchy during pre-fascist liberalism, the new Italian Republic represents a more advanced and civil political organization (364).

Photo: De Gasperi signing.

THE 1948 ELECTIONS

• THE SHIFT TO THE RIGHT: the May 1947 decision to exclude left-wing forces from having a role in the new government was confirmed by the elections on 18 April 1948. The DC (Christian Democrats) wins with a majority government in the Republic’s first Parliament (formed by a Chamber of Deputies [630 seats] and a Senate [315 seats + 5 lifetime] (365).

Chamber of Deputies:Palazzo Montecitorio(Piazza di Monte Citorio).

The Senate:Palazzo Madama(Piazza Madama).

Italy’s Parliament: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate

• Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati): consisting of 630 deputies elected by the people (article 56).

• The Senate (Senato della Repubblica): consisting of 315 senators elected by the people (articles 57 and 58). Counting also ex Presidents of the Republic, who are “senatori di diritto”, and those appointed by the President of the Republic according to one’s merits; no more than five.

• Both Chamber and Senate have a 5 year term in office (article 60). Senators by right and appointed senators are life senators.

• The difference between deputies and senators: all citizens over 18 years of age elect deputies, while senators are elected by citizens over 25 years of age. Elected deputies must be over 25, and elected senators must be over 40.

• What is the point of two Chambers (due Camere)? A bill is passed only when it is separately approved by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This prevents bills from being past with too much haste or under the influence of strong emotions. A strategy for avoiding wrong decisions (417).

• Voting for the DC meant voting for the Marshall Plan (ERP = The European Recovery Plan), which would aid Italy in economic growth. The Marshall Plan’s political view was anti-Communist, and found its most substantial support in the DC (365).

• De Gasperi was able to obtain a Peace Treaty that left most of Italy’s territory intact (exception: Trieste; free territory ‘territorio libero’ at first, but then given back to Italy in 1954). The Peace Treaty signed by De Gasperi in Paris on 10 February 1947 was the best a defeated nation could hope for (365).

THE 1948 ELECTIONS: DC Victory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan President Truman signing Secretary of State George Marshall

The De Gasperi Legislature (1948-1953)

• Shortly after the elections of 18 April 1948, a series of events consolidated the anti-Communist tendencies of the governing coalition. In July 1948 there is an attempt on Palmiro Togliatti’s life. The proletarian masses, already exasperated by the anti-Communist climate, respond with a general strike and give in to violent acts. This did not help the Communists, who were branded as seekers of revolution in order to establish a communist dictatorship (318-19).

L’Unità: “Workers all over Italy stop working”P. Togliatti

• Trade-union unity is compromised: between 1948 and 1949 many non-Communist workers abandoned the Camera Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL), and created in 1950 the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL), mostly social-democratic and republican, and the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL), prevalently Catholic.

• This situation does not help the workers since it weakens them at a time when they should be united: high unemployment (367).

The De Gasperi Legislature (1948-1953): Trade Unions

CGIL membership card

UIL membership card

• The fight against left-wing forces was conducted also through a series of reforms that were directed towards increasing the DC’s electorate. One such reform was the riforma agraria (the Agrarian Reform), which was passed in 1950. It involved the distribution of approximately 700,000 hectares of large landed estates to more than 100,000 peasant families. This would take place over the next decade.

• In 1950 the Cassa del Mezzogiorno (Fund for

the South) was established. The aim was to improve the economic conditions of Southern Italy by stimulating private initiatives and investments. This was done through low interest rates on loans used for opening businesses or factories useful for developing the South (367).

The De Gasperi Legislature (1948-58): The Agrarian Reform and the Cassa del Mezzogiorno

SPECIAL AGENCIES

• The situation forced the DC to widen its horizons and its circle of possible alliances, even if it meant including left-wing parties. And since hostilities with the PCI (Italian Communist Party) continued, the other left-wing alternative was the PSI (Italian Socialist Party). This was preferable to the other scenario: approaching the extreme right neo-fascist and monarchist parties, which would inevitably provoke anti-fascist protests.

• Note: the extreme right was made up of neo-fascists and monarchists who belonged to the MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano), and of those who aspire to restoring the monarchy. The MSI was founded by ex Fascists who were part of Mussolini’s Republic of Salò (368).

7 June 1953: Elections – Looking for left-wing alliances

NO! YES NO!!

• The PSI (Socialist Party) prepares to leave the opposition and join forces with the DC on the condition that a politics of social reforms would be implemented. Moreover, the progress that begins to be visible in the Italian economy seems to favor improvements in the lives of the popular classes (368).

• Although conditions were favorable, the shift from a center to a center-left government, characterized by the support or the participation of the socialists, engaged the whole five years of the third legislature (1958-63), and was completed only after the Christian Democrats sanctioned it at the 1962 DC congress in Naples (368).

• In March 1962 Amintore Fanfani passed a Christian Democrat majority government supported by social-democrats, republicans, and now also by the socialists (who participated in the drafting of the political program) (368).

The Socialists Support the DC Government

Amintore Fanfani: Prime Minister

ENEL:National Energy.

School for all Italians.No classdivisions.

1958-1968: The Golden Age of Italian Cinema.Conjunction between artistic and commercial success.

• Major cause: economic crisis in the American film industry (old studio system in shambles and out of touch

with the times), Italy’s major competitor in its own national market (142).

• Italian production reaches new levels: well above 200 films a year: 280 in 1972; sudden drops from 1976.

In 1972 Italian products gained 62.5% of the box-office receipts and compared to the mere 15.1% earned

by Hollywood films (143).

• 1977-78: new crisis struck the Italian Industry – renewed American upsurge (143).

• 1958-68: Domestic films in a number of specific genres (part. Comedy and Western) began to conquer

large segments of the internal market and a very respectable portion of the international audience (143).

La “commedia all’italiana”:Some of the greatest films, actors, directors, scriptwriters.

• The rise of a new generation of young and talented directors, whose first films grew out of Italian cinema’s postwar film culture (144).

• Popular appeal of film comedy depended on a star system; exceptional comic actors and, to a lesser extent, actresses (144).

Vittorio Gassman Marcello Mastroianni Nino Manfredi Alberto Sordi

The mere presence of one or more of these stars was sufficient for the film to turn a profit (144).

Sofia Loren - Monica Vitti - Claudia Cardinale

Uniting laughter with a sense of desperation:A cynical sense of humour which reflects a need to survive

in the face of overwhelming obstacles (144-45).

Talented scriptwriters: Agenore Incrocci; Furio Scarpelli; Ettore Scola.

(1958) (1959) (1963)

Important directors: Luigi Comencini, Pietro Germi, Dino Risi Alberto Lattuada, Lina Wertmüller

Character type: Innocenzi (Sordi) saves his skin and shows himself to be a master of the art of getting by, “l’arte di arrangiarsi” (150).

L. Comencini, Everybody Home! (1960).

P. GermiDivorce, Italian Style (1961).

Pietro Germi: vignettes of Sicilian social customs

Dissecting the senseless and unwritten codes of behaviour governing relationships between the sexes in that male-dominated, insular culture. They are not simple commercial comedies of regional manners. Germi’s narrative employs a complex structure to develop storyline (150-151).

Germi’s Small Sicilian Village

A chilling vision of how traditional social values can destroy an individual, especially a woman with a mind of her own; tempered by comic relief (154).

Seduced and Abandoned(Sedotta e abbandonata)

1964

Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli) dares to break the moral code of “omertà” when she charges Peppino with seducing her; she brings upon her family the disapproval of the entire neighbourhood (153).

DINO RISIThe problematic nature of normality and conformity in society, gained at great expense, is the subject of a

number of major comic films.

Disaster lurks beneath the surface of the newly found Italian prosperity represented by the automobile (155).

Juxtaposition of two character types.The Easy Life (1962), Dino Risi.

Italian types: the rabid soccer fan, the corrupt deputy in Parliament, the cuckolded husband glued to the

television set while his wife betrays him in their own bedroom, and many others (155).

A gallery of moral monsters in Italian society, driven by cynicism and self-interest and guided by no other consideration than immediate gratification of infantile desires. Here, the “norm” has been overturned, abnormality – in the shape of Risi’s grotesque caricatures – becomes the rule” (155).

The Monsters (1963)

DINO RISI

CLIP 3 – MAFIOSO (1962)

Mafioso (1962) by Alberto Lattuada: Scene 3 “Schedule” (min 10:00 – 13:00) and Scene 4 “Home coming”-Scene 5 “Culture” (min 17:32 – 20:50).

My comments:Mario Monicelli in Montreal to serve as Jury Member at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival. Interviewed by Donato Totaro for Offscreen. Monicelli is considered the father of “Commedia all’italiana” and became famous for his film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), 1958.

Offscreen: What does "Italian Comedy" mean to you?M.M.: Italian comedy is a type of comedy quite specific to Italy. The Italian comedy revolves around arguments and themes that are very dramatic, and sometimes tragic. So the theme is tragic, but the point of view is comical and humoristic. This is a type of comedy that grows precisely out of the fact that Italians see reality and life in this manner. But this goes way back, it surely isn't something we invented. It comes from antique literature, from Boccaccio, from Commedia dell'Arte. The themes that make one laugh always stem from poverty, hunger, misery, old age, sickness, and death. These are the themes that make Italians laugh anyway. And the best one's have always used these.

Director: ALBERTO LATTUADA

Sicilian emigration in the context of rapid social change (155).The clash between modern customs and a more ancient code of conduct that resists and survives in an era of

transition (156).

(1962)

La dolce vita (1959), Federico Fellini – ANCIENT VS. MODERN

Signs of a traditional society in the midst of modern society. The movie star rides through the sheep.

La dolce vita (1959), Federico Fellini

Frankie arrives among the Roman ruins: the statue of Constantine.


Le Terme di Caracalla: the ancient Roman baths of Caracalla in the background and modern music in the foreground. Rock and Roll among Roman ruins.


Italia Ricostruita (Italy Reconstructed):the Postwar Economic and Social developments of Italy

• INTERNAL: Italy’s economy was in a position of advantage for two reasons: (1) The country was quite advanced in the small manufacturing sector (cars, electrical appliances, furniture, clothing, textiles, etc.); (2) Italy was viewed as a backward country in that it had at its disposal a large supply of labor to move from rural to urban areas (country to city), from the underdeveloped South to the Industrialized North (371).

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2011-11-11/storia-italia-attraverso-oggetti

Italia Ricostruita (Italy Reconstructed):the Postwar Economic and Social developments of Italy

• The height of productive development occurs between 1955 and 1963. These are the years of what is often called the “miracolo economico” (The Economic Miracle).

• For the first time in history Italy achieves full employment for its working population. This positive result, however, leads to the waning of that essential prerequisite, on which development had been based: the squeezing of salaries (372).

• Now, since the fear of unemployment no longer paralyzes the working masses, the trade unions become stronger and feistier, and between 1959 and 1962 they obtain a considerable increase in salary (373).

Strike: CISL – CGIL – UIL

Il triangolo industriale / The Industrial Triangle

1. Production, national income, and consumer potential, reach record levels.

2. All sectors of industry participate in the wave of economic growth.

IL BOOM ECONOMICO / La Vespa

• Date of birth: 1946, in the factories owned by Enrico Piaggio.

• Not just a scooter, but a new way of life: symbol of a new beginning. It was slow, economical, efficient, practical.

• Named “Vespa” (wasp) because of its form, similar to the insect.

• Ideal for getting around in the city and going on Sunday excursions.

• By the end of the 50’s it had conquered the European market: Germany, England, France.

IL FESTIVAL DI SAN REMO

• «Nel blu dipinto di blu»: • Domenico Modugno,

1958.

Enrico Mattei: ENI

In 1953 a law created the ENI, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, into which Agip (state petrol company) was merged. Mattei was initially its president, then also the administrator and the general director.

ENI negotiated important oil concessions in the Middle East as well as a trade agreement with the Soviet Union: helped break the oligopoly of the 'Seven Sisters’ that dominated the mid 20th century oil industry.

Le mani sulla città (1963), Il caso Mattei (1972)

Francesco Rosi: “you cannot invent, in my opinion, but you can interpret. This is the important thing for me, the interpretation of the facts” (168).

Not a “documentary way” of making films but a “documented way” (167).

IL BOOM:

IL VAJONT 9 OCTOBER

1963

The profit motive and capitalism have been blamed for cutting corners in the building of the dam, particularly in the acceleration of its construction and impoundment to outpace imminent nationalization of hydroelectric plants in Italy.

1917 perished under a wave caused by the mountainside of the Monte Toc falling into the artificial lake created by the dam. Evident lack of warning to the people (human error?).

Longarone was destroyed (1450 dead), the rest of the victims were from Castellavazzo, Erto, and Casso. Damage reported also at Codissago, Pirago, Faè, and Rivalta.

Newspaper headline:“THE WAVE OF DEATH”

Florence Flood: 4 November, 1966

On Friday, November 4, 1966, after a month of heavy rain, the Arno River overflowed its banks, flooding the city of Florence and causing incalculable damage to life, property, and cultural patrimony (human error?).

Now known as “l’Alluvione,” the Florence Flood revolutionized the field of art restoration as no

other single event.

CHAPTER 7“The ‘Economic Miracle,’ Rural Exodus and Social Transformation, 1958-63”

CULTURE AND SOCIETY: TELEVISION

• By 1965 49% of Italian families owned a television set. Television was a state monopoly; in Italy this meant that it was controlled by the Christian Democrats and heavily influenced by the church (240).

• Regular religious-education programmes; news and current affairs had a heavily anti-Communist bias. Light music, variety, quiz shows and sports events made up the majority of RAI’s broadcasting time (240).

• Picture: quiz show “Lascia o Raddoppia?” – Italian equivalent of “The 64,000 Dollar Question” (240).

www.nonsolomusica.it/files/news/lascia%20o%20...

CHAPTER 7“The ‘Economic Miracle,’ Rural Exodus and Social Transformation, 1958-63”

CULTURE AND SOCIETY: TELEVISION

• Advertisements were grouped together into a half-hour programme called “Carosello”, which was transmitted at peak viewing time, just before the nine o’clock news.

• 110 second spots: the product was mentioned only at the beginning or the end – rest of time filled with stories, cartoons or fairy-tales.

• Great appeal for children, who were introduced in this familial, homely and seemingly innocuous way to the delights of consumerism (240-41).

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH • Civic committees: strong network of Catholic

cooperatives – CCI (Confederazione delle Cooperative Italiane).

• After 1945 the Catholics decided not to work with the left in a single national organization.

• By 1962 the CCI had over two million members: Lombardy, the Veneto, Sicily, Sardinia, and Emilia Romagna. Agricultural and building cooperatives were the most common (Ginsborg, 170).

• Education and welfare activities: compulsory religious education gave the church all-important access to children in state schools.

• Network of hospitals, nursing homes and old people’s homes, staffed by religious orders. In absence of state provision many turned to Catholic institutions (G., 170).

Pius XII demanded, and obtained, strict control by the church hierarchy overthis world of Catholic Associationism (G., 170).

• The Mission of the Church: to adapt its religious mission to the social, political, and cultural needs of the contemporary world (338).

• Pope John XXIII called the historic Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The aim of the Council was to truly comprehend the needs of the modern world and to accommodate them when valid and in accordance with the principles of Catholicism (339).

La Chiesa: The Church

Pope Pius XII (1939-58) John XXIII (1958-63) Paul VI (1963-78)

• The encyclical Mater et Magister (Mother and Teacher): the topic was “Christianity and Social Progress”. Promulgated in May 1961. The Pope addresses issues such as scientific and technological advances, the economic balance between agriculture and industry, the breakdown of colonialism, independence for states in Asia and Africa, the breakdown of class barriers, greater awareness of public affairs by the average person, etc. (338).

• With renewed faith in its fundamental doctrines, the Church leaves its past of condemnation and excommunication behind to concretely establish a dialogue with other religions and even atheism (339).

La Chiesa: The Church

Pope John XXIII (1958-63)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mater_et_Magistra

• The DC loses votes and the PSI’s position weakens: it was a sign that the more moderate DC voters and the more extreme PSI voters did not approve of the Catholic-Socialist joint effort, and were therefore against a center-left mode of politics (368).

• This did not stop Aldo Moro and Amintore

Fanfani: they continue with the center-left experiment and form the first center-left government with direct participation of the socialists.

• This government lasts until the end of the fourth legislature (1963-1968). However, the deteriorating economic situation and resistances on both sides to the continuation of the center-left experiment cause the innovative mission of this politics to fade (369).

• Moro was able to implement the regional organization for Italy, which was placed on the table in 1948 by the Constitution and left on paper (369).

The end of the third legislature:

28 April 1963 Elections

• The first four legislatures last the whole five years set by the Constitution. In 1968 politics becomes quite unstable in Italy.

• In the four years of the fifth legislature (1968-72), during which the center-left was in ruin, Italy is shaken by movements and unrest that often don’t find answers in political institutions.

• 1968 is the beginning of youth and student uprisings that compromise the university and high school year’s work, leaving educators without an effective remedy (369).

• The “autunno caldo” (The Hot Autumn) of 1969 was characterized by a series of protests by workers who in the end obtained the “Statuto dei lavoratori” (The Workers Statute). A law passed on 20 May 1970, which gave the workers the right to protest, voice their opinions, and hold assemblies while in the work place. The aim was to defend the freedom and dignity of the worker (369).

L’Italia in crisi – Crisis in Italy – 1968 – “autunno caldo”

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autunno_caldo

Paul Ginsborg. A History of Contemporary Italy. London: Penguin, 1990.Chapter 9: “The Era of Collective Action 1968-73.”

• RESPONSES TO THE STUDENT MOVEMENT:

• For the major force on the Italian left, the Italian Communists, the student movement presented notable problems. The students were clearly anti-capitalist, but they were quite ferociously anti-Communist as well.

• In June 1968 Giorgio Amendola gave vent to a widespread feeling within the Communist party when he attacked the movement for being irrational and infantile. He called for a “battle on two fronts,” against both capitalist power and student extremism.

• Luigi Longo, secretary of the Communist party, admitted that the student movement posed ‘a series of problems or tactics and strategy’, but asserted that ‘it has shaken up the political situation and has been largely positive …in undermining the Italian social system’ (G. 307).

• Pier Paolo Pasolini, however, did not spare the students his contempt (next slide).

Pasolini and the “battle of Valle Giulia.”

• March 22, 1968: University of Rome, the Faculty of Architecture. At Valle Giulia the student movement proceeds to a new level. Up until that moment the movement had been relatively pacific. From then on police and students loathed each other, and many of the students adopted the habit of crash-helmets to demonstrations (G. 304).

• On June 16, 1968 Pasolini published a famous anti-student poem in L’Espresso. Surprisingly, Pasolini takes the side of the police and not the students (Pasolini’s poem, next slide).

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Pasolini’s poem against the student revolt at Valle Giulia.

Now the journalists of all the world (including / those of the television) / are licking your arses (as one still says in student / slang). Not me, my dears. / You have the faces of spoilt rich brats … / You are cowardly, uncertain, and desperate / … When, the other day, at Villa Giulia you fought / the police, / I can tell you I was on their side. / Because the police are the sons of the poor. / They come from subtopias, in the cities and countryside / … (Ginsborg 307).

Photo #3, translation: “Occupied Faculty (College); out with the red, white, black or pock dot barons.”

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• The “Statuto dei lavoratori” (The Workers Statute) does not appease the tension between the workers and the management. This causes considerable damage to the development of production (369).

• On 2 December 1969 in the Banca dell’Agricoltura di Milano (Piazza Fontana) a bomb explodes killing 16 and wounding about a hundred people (370).

L’Italia in crisi – Crisis in Italy – Terrorismo Nero (Black Terrorism)

• Black terrorism is followed by the “rosso e proletario” (red and proletarian) terrorism. It develops in university and petit-bourgeois environments . It essentially has the same objectives as the black terrorism: cause the necessary chaos to speed up a change in the political organization of Italy (370).

• These are difficult times for the center-left government. At the beginning of 1972 the Socialists leave the government making it impossible for a new governing majority to be established (370).

• The President Giovanni Leone is forced to anticipate the dissolution of Parliament, and calls a general election for 7 May 1972. The elections don’t change the balance of power among the political forces. For this reason, the sixth legislature (1972-76) finds it difficult to form a stable majority government. On 20 June 1976, yet again, early elections are called (370).

L’Italia in crisi – Crisis in Italy – Terrorismo “rosso e proletario”

G. Leone

Italian Women Directors

• In the Seventies, for the first time in the history of the Italian cinema, women – Liliana Cavani and Lina Wertmüller – have gained prominence as directors (347).

• Unlike Liliana Cavani’s films, those of Lina Wertmüller were enthusiastically greeted by American critics and scholars (354).

• In Italy Wertmüller is rarely taken seriously – may be due to the difference between film criticism in Italy and in the United States: in Italy, critics tend to punish a director for commercial success, admitting only American films to the category of popular entertainment that may also embody great art (354).

• Italians are the least provincial of all peoples in their openness to foreign cultures and their cinemas, but this cultural openness has its price – everything from abroad is considered better than the domestic product! (354).

Lina Wertmüller

• Indebted to the exuberant imagery of Fellini – her work combines a concern with current political issues and the conventions of traditional Italian grotesque comedy, with its vulgarity, its stock characters, and its frontal attack upon accepted values and mores.

• Much of the critical confusion over the intentions of her films stems from an ignorance of her work’s cultural background.

• Within the genre of the Italian comic film, her works emerge as the most complex and visually rich of the last decade (354-55).

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CLIP 4 – SWEPT AWAY (1974)

Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto, 1974) by Lina Wertmüller: Scene 2 “Paradise” (min 02:12 – 07:18).

My comments:I would place this film in the context of the early seventies in Italy and the politics of that time. These years have been included in the era labeled Gli anni di piombo (The Years of Lead), which are the years of the Red Brigades and the years in which Enrico Berlinguer, secretary of the Communist party, launched the idea of an alliance between the PCI (Italian Communist Party), the (Christian Democrats) DC, and the PSI (Italian Socialist Party): The Historic Compromise (Il Compromesso Storico). I would not limit the dynamics of what occurs between Gennarino and Raffaella to Italy’s tug of war between right and left wing parties in the seventies. I think the film brings the audience beyond these distinctions. The device of placing this Southern Italian Communist sexist man (Gennarino) and this rich snobbish Northern Italian Christian Democrat woman (Raffaella) on a desert island, aims at putting their social bonds and their determining influences to the test.

CLIP 4 – SWEPT AWAY (1974)Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto, 1974) by Lina Wertmüller: Scene 2 “Paradise” (min 02:12 – 07:18).

My comments continued:On the island: the characters are in a survival of the fittest predicament that makes Raffaella dependent on Gennarino. In the “original” state of nature, Wertmüller suggests, power and command become the domain of man. Gennarino seems to enjoy himself with this “exchange of roles,” and has Raffaella pay for all the injustices of her class and party. But, is a switching of roles really a solution to all the problems and issues that Gennarino brings up about Italy? Evidently not, and this becomes evident when Gennarino, although he could, does not take advantage of Raffaella but makes it a point that she must first fall in love with him. In other words, the point is that Raffaella must first see that the low life sexist Communist she sees before her, also has a human dimension, much more human than the hypocritical values that Raffaella defends. This, I think, is the point of transformation, not only for Raffaella but also for Gennarino, who also eventually falls in love. Wertmüller’s implication might be that if we are to solve the problems of Italian society, we must go to the beginning and never forget where the firm ground of our human identity lies. Our social masks sometimes get the better of us, but the director suggests that we should always remember the basics. The strength of society’s barriers is powerful and Wertmüller will not give in to any romantic notion of Gennarino and Raffaella living happily ever after. The director does, however, suggest or explore a way for people to look beyond social norms and roles and maybe learn how to connect on a more human level.

CLIP 4 Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto, 1974)

• Employs the traditional pastoral myth of the state of nature embodied in classics of political theory, as well as in tales about modern men trapped on a desert island far from civilization (359).

• The fascination with life outside the bonds of society: what will occur when a man, formed by his environment, class, or culture, is suddenly cut away from these determining influences and is free to lead a life in a pastoral setting far from civilization? (359)

• The rich, spoiled, racist Northern Italian woman Raffaella on a deserted island with Gennarino, a Sicilian sailor, both Communist and a sexist with the typical Southern Italian view of women as merely sexual objects (359).

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Swept Away (1974)

In the opening scenes on the yacht, Gennarino and Raffaella immediately clash (360).

Swept Away (1974)

Raffaella and Gennarino exchange looks. Raffaella expresses her fear of Gannarino’s look and concludes that he must belong to the PCI (the Communist Party).

Swept Away (1974)

Raffaella discusses political problems with the Communist guest. 30 years corresponds to a Christian Democrat government in Italy. Since 1945, starting with De Gasperi.

Swept Away (1974)

A portrait of wealthy industrialists and would-be socialists or leftists is a display of the ludicrous kind of Italian “radical chic”: pretending to a revolutionary ideology, the wealthy contentedly sail their yachts around the Mediterranean (360).

Swept Away (1974)

Raffaella’s attitude is summed up by her remark to Gennarino: “Anyhow, as we await the end, the revolution, let’s try and make the spaghetti al dente… at least once” (360).

Swept Away (1974)

Political allusions: shall we go left or right? (PCI or DC). The film was made during the time Enrico Berlinguer, secretary of the Communist party, launched the idea of an alliance between the PCI, the DC, and the PSI: The Historic Compromise [Il Compromesso Storico] (Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy, 355).

Swept Away (1974)

Survival of the fittest: Raffaella finds herself in need and Gennarino is more than capable of surviving on this desert island. The tables have turned and now it is Gennarino (“Signor Carunchio”) who will dictate the rules of the game.

Raffaella must pay for everything: all the injustices and scandals of her party

(DC: Christian Democrats).

• Slap: for the economic crisis caused by the tax evasion of her class – money brought to Swiss banks.

• Slap: for the hospital situation in the South – no beds, and even if one is lucky enough to be admitted they may die.

• Slap: for high prices of meat, cheese, bus tickets, gas, etc.

• Slap: for having created the fear of living.

• The PCI has never entered the government on a national level. The Americans have never agreed.

Swept Away (1974)

Gennarino and Raffaella have fallen in love in a way that would be impossible in the society in which they live. The question is if such a connection can survive in any place other than this desert island.

Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino…, 1974)

• The film angered many feminists – they felt the image of the woman was degrading, particularly the sequence in which Gennarino slaps and kicks Raffaella over the sand dunes, calling her every conceivable ideologically charged name, and blaming her for everything from high prices to shortage of hospital beds.

• Feminist criticism is unfounded: the director is more concerned with the social roles these characters play and the classes they reflect than their sexual identities.

• The director places a man in the role of the exploited class and a woman in the role of the exploiting class, while feminist critics would prefer to see all men of whatever class as exploiters of all women.

• Wertmüller has declared on many occasions: the sexes could easily be switched without undermining the allegory.

• Nevertheless, it is the sexual relationship between the two representatives of very different classes which ensured the film its commercial success, and the director was aware that such an unusual and risky storyline would guarantee the film large audiences (Bondanella 361).

Paul Ginsborg. A History of Contemporary Italy. London: Penguin, 1990.Chapter 10: “Crisis, Compromise and the ‘Anni di piombo’, 1973-80.”

• Divorce referendum of 12 May 1974: the divorce law triumphed by 59.1% against 40.9%. As Italy modernized and became more urban, opinions and values had changed (Ginsborg 351).

• Autumn 1973, the OPEC countries decided on a 70% increase in the price of crude oil, as well as a 10% cut in oil exports (later raised to 25%). During winter 1973-74, oil prices soared (G. 351).

• Italy’s poverty of energy sources had been translated into an over-reliance on oil; in the absence of any national energy policy, oil had come to provide 75% of Italy’s energy needs by 1973, compared to only 33.6% in 1955 (G. 352).

• THE HISTORIC COMPROMISE: Enrico Berlinguer, secretary of the Communist party (PCI), in October 1973, in a famous series of articles in Rinascita launched the concept of the “historic compromise” between the three major political parties, the PCI, the DC (Christian Democrats) and the PSI (Socialist Party) (G. 355).


• The historic compromise, while bearing witness to the ‘rare ethical tension’ in Berlinguer’s leadership, made no contribution to the distinction between corrective and structural reform (That is, between reform that does not change the fundamental structure of the system and reform that changes the system of government). This was to be one of its greatest weaknesses (358).

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• In spite of negative developments, the working-class movement in the Centre and North remained very strong. In February 1974, when the government announced sharp increases in the price of petrol, food and oil products, workers in many factories marched out in spontaneous protest. The demonstrations lasted a week (359).

• RED TERRORISM: The Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse, BR). For a small number of militants the revolutionary groups active in Italy no longer offered any answer to social problems. The Italian red terrorists, like all terrorists before them, wanted to accelerate the course of history. As the early part of the seventies passed, and the revolution came no nearer, their impatience grew (361).

• Red Brigades: the legal struggle carried out by the revolutionary groups in civil society was, in their opinion, not getting anywhere. What was needed instead was illegal and violent action, which would sharpen the contradictions in Italian capitalism and make inevitable a civic war between exploiters and exploited (361).


• Most of the first terrorists were from the working-class or lower-middle-class families (361).

• The terrorists, in contrast to the revolutionary groups who believed that any transformation of Italian society had to derive from action in civil society, by choosing to work clandestinely and to use exemplary violent action, cut themselves from reality and put in its place their own invented world (362).

• Incapable, until too late, of measuring the likely effects of their actions, the terrorists reaped a tragic harvest. Not only were they to kill in the most cold-blooded fashion, but they were also to contribute greatly to the destruction of the whole movement for change in Italian society (362).

• March 1972, Idalgo Macchiarini, manager of Sit Siemens, became the first person to be kidnapped by the BR (for twenty minutes). They tied a placard around his neck, bearing the inscription: “Macchiarini, Idalgo, Fascist manager of Sit Siemens, tried by the BR. The proletarians have taken arms, for the bosses it is the beginning of the end” (362).


• April 18, 1974: the BR kidnap the Genoese judge Mario Sossi. This kidnapping, which lasted for 35 days, enabled the BR to achieve national notoriety. Sossi was released unharmed (363).

• By early 1976 Mario Moretti was the only member of the BR’s executive committee still at large. The number of effective members of the organization had been reduced to a dozen (363).

• In 1976 and 1977 a sufficient number of sympathizers were recruited to enable the terrorist groups to intensify their activities. New phase of the BR’s action was dubbed the ‘strategy of annihilation’: lasted through 1977 and 1978. The aim was to terrorize whole sections of the ruling élites and their supporters, so that the state itself would be unable to function properly (383).

• Apart from policemen and magistrates, journalists became a principal target (384).

• The PCI gains ground (from 27.2% to 34.4% of the electorate). The DC maintains a strong 38.7%.

• Possible line of action: the urgent situation could be effectively accommodated if the two main parties (DC and PCI: representing together ¾ of the Italian electorate) establish a climate of reciprocal understanding and collaboration (370).

• It is from this perspective of national solidarity that the Christian Democrat Giulio Andreotti is able to form a government. Moreover, if the DC cannot count on the PCI’s support, their hope is for the latter’s abstention (which would permit Andreotti’s government to obtain a majority in Parliament. An against vote from the PCI would not make this possible) (370).

Elections: 20 June 1976

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G. Andreotti

• The PCI’s abstention transforms into positive support in March of 1978; after the Communist Party participates in the drafting of the new political agenda (370).

• The DC’s staying power and support from the PCI represent, among other things, the fundamental pillars that will permit the democratic Republic of Italy to resist the dangerous tension created by the assassination of Aldo Moro and his police escort (370-71).

PCI support: 1978

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A. Moro

MARCH 16, 1978: THE KIDNAPPING OF ALDO MORO

(Aldo Moro, 1916 – 1978) two-time Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. One of the most important leaders of Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy, DC).

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Aldo Moro 1978

• Films and TV programs. An event that generated much debate, and several films that attempt to tell the story of what happened or what could or should have happened (BR kidnappers: Mario Moretti, Valerio Morucci, Adriana Faranda, Franco Bonisoli).

2008TV

2003

1986


• MARCH 16, 1978: THE KIDNAPPING OF ALDO MORO – On this day Giulio Andreotti was due to present his new government to the Chamber of Deputies, with the Communists in the “area of government” for the first time (384).

• That morning Moro’s car was ambushed in Via Mario Fani on their way to Parliament. All the policemen and his chauffeur were killed. Moro was bundled into a waiting car, which disappeared into the Roman traffic (384).

• Years after the event, there are still mysteries surrounding Moro’s kidnapping. For 55 days the BR held Moro prisoner in a secret hiding-place. The principal question which tormented the politicians and the whole country was the following: should the state stand firm and refuse any pact with the BR or should it negotiate to save Moro’s life? (384-85).

• The PSI (Socialists) wanted to compromise; the PCI (Communists) did not want to compromise; the DC (Christian Democrats) did not want to compromise because the PCI was standing firm. NO COMPROMISE WON THE DAY. Moro was killed on May 9, 1978. Crisis of Italian terrorism: no compromise with the BR brought to this result (385).


• FEMINISM IN ITALY (Ginsborg 366-70).

• Feminism in Italy came after the agitations of 1968, and went beyond them (366).

• In the 60s, politics was almost exclusively the domain of men (366).

• The student movement and 1968 had seen more young women taking part in politics than at any time since 1945-48 […] Even so, the male-dominated trade unions were very slow to champion women’s rights or change their own practices […] in the Workers’ Charter of 1973 the article banning unfair discrimination at work did not mention discrimination based on sex (367).

• From the end of 1975 onwards the women’s movement assumed national proportions, reaching its peak in the following year (367).

IL FEMMINISMO IN ITALIA / FEMINISM IN ITALY

Translation of signs: “le donne ci sono!” (women count!); “d’ora in poi decido io” (from now on I’ll decide).

Bottom photo: Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006), journalist and writer. Author of several novels. Lettera a un bambino mai nato (1975), is a short novel that confronts the issue of abortion.

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• THE BATTLE TO REFORM THE LAWS ON ABORTION:• Although there were rivalries and tensions between the feminist groups, they were all

rendered secondary in the battle to reform the laws on abortion. This issue united the very diverse social and theoretical strands of the Italian women’s movement (369).

• Abortion was illegal in Italy in 1970, and was punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. Tens of thousands of illegal abortions were carried out each year. Those women able to do so flew to clinics abroad; others had to put their health at stake by having recourse to back-street practitioners. AN ENORMOUS GAP BETWEEN THE OFFICIAL MORALITY OF CHURCH AND STATE AND SOCIAL REALITY (369-70).

• 1975: The MLD group and the small Radical Party obtain the necessary signatures for a referendum on the abortion question. Only calling a general election, in June 1976 prevented the referendum from going ahead (370).

• ABORTION BECAME LEGAL IN ITALY JUNE 6, 1978.


• THE GROUPS IN THE ITALIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENT AND THEIR DEMANDS

• 1.RIVOLTA FEMMINILE: denounced marriage and the family as the site of male domination.

• 2.LOTTA FEMMINISTA: raised the slogan of “wages for housework.”

• 3.UDI (Unione Donne Italiane): The traditional movement of Communist women, put more emphasis on the intervention of the state to relieve women’s oppression (Above points, G. 369).

MLD

• 4.MLD (Movimento della Liberazione delle Donne Italiane): One of the most influential groups. An organization closely connected with the small Radical Party, which was to become the principal pressure group for civil-rights reform in the mid-1970s.

• The MLD combined demands for equality (the elimination of gender discrimination in the schools, of sexual discrimination at work, etc.), with those which would increase women’s autonomy (i.e. the right to control their own bodies through free contraception and the liberalization of abortion). (Ginsborg 369).

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• Beginning of 1979: the Communists are no longer satisfied with simply supporting a DC government. They want an active role. Their motto is: “o al governo o all’opposizione” (part of the government or part of the opposition).

• Since the Christian Democrats refuse the direct participation of the PCI in the government, it becomes again impossible to form a majority government.

• The President of the Republic, Sandro Pertini, is forced to call early elections (3 June 1979). The seventh legislature lasted only three years (1976-1979) (371).

Sandro Pertini – early election – 3 June 1979

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S. Pertini

• An early election does not solve the problem. All parties, with the exception of a slight loss by the PCI, remain in the same position.

• The successive governments, presided over by the Christian Democrats Francesco Cossiga and Arnaldo Forlani demonstrate their weak and precarious condition before an internal and international situation that in the meantime has presented new challenges (371).

Sandro Pertini – early election – 3 June 1979

F. Cossiga A. Forlani

GLI ANNI OTTANTA/NOVANTA – THE EIGHTIES/NINETIES

• The Italian cinema of the 1980s lacks a unified series of pressing social concerns (384).

• No vigorous renewal of the industry, such as that which produced the exciting developments of the early 1960s beyond neorealism, has occurred.

• The Italian cinema has yet to produce a newly inspired third generation of filmmakers in the contemporary period.

• The critical profile of Italian cinema during the past decade is characterized more by continuity than by radical change. A continuity that may conceal stagnation and decline.

• The most powerful Italian films of the last decade have mainly been the work of the older directors who came of age during the neorealist period, such as Fellini, and the second, postneorealist generation in the 1960s, now mature artists in midcareer, such as Bertolucci, Scola, Leone, and the Taviani brothers (384).

GLI ANNI OTTANTA/NOVANTA – THE EIGHTIES/NINETIES

• Only two figures – Nanni Moretti and Pupi Avati, undeservedly little known outside of Italy, may be said to have earned the right to be considered as first-rank directors with a body of work that stands in comparison to that of their older and better-established colleagues (385).

• Although directors have demonstrated talent and promise in first films, they have often found financing impossible to obtain and distributors unwilling to give their products proper promotion.

• Italian reviewers constantly assert that the Italian cinema is moribund (if not already dead).

• More accurate to say: after three decades of great innovation and vigour (1945-70), the creative development of Italian film may for the moment have reached a plateau while its economic substructure continues to stagnate or even to decline.

• Federico Fellini remains the standard-bearer of Italian cinema abroad: perhaps the most famous of all living directors (385).

CLIP 5 – Dear Diary (Caro diario 1993)

Caro Diario (Dear Diary, 1993) by Nanni Moretti: Scene 4 “Jennifer Beals” (min 14:55 – 16:42) and Scene 12 “Beautiful” (min 50:07 – 53:29).

My comments:As a filmmaker, Moretti is concerned with the fact that the cinemas are not as full as they used to be in Italy, and even when they are American films are dominating over the Italian product. This is eloquently expressed when he meets Jennifer Beals from the film Flashdance (1983). He first says the film changed his life, and then adds that since he saw it he has wanted nothing more than to learn how to dance like Jennifer Beals. As many may know, the actress did not do the dancing in the film. Moretti was probably aware of this and in a very comical way expresses the effect of American cinema in Italy. That is, what is fiction in American cinema has in many ways become a model for reality in Italy. Flashdance is one version of the American dream: a young girl with no formal training in dancing, gets a chance to study dance at one of the most prestigious dance schools in America. This film, Moretti seems to imply, is one of many that has dominated the imagination of Italians. In the scene where he actually meets the real Jennifer Beals, it is not by chance that Moretti chooses to be portrayed as being “off centre.” It is as if he were commenting on the extent to which the Italian masses have given themselves to an idea of American culture filtered through cinema and TV.

CLIP 5 – Dear Diary (Caro diario 1993)

Caro Diario (Dear Diary, 1993) by Nanni Moretti: Scene 4 “Jennifer Beals” (min 14:55 – 16:42) and Scene 12 “Beautiful” (min 50:07 – 53:29).

My comments continued:This extreme is developed further in the second episode “Islands” when his friend becomes addicted to American soap operas. It makes for a very humorous situation, especially when the friend notices a group of American tourists on the Stromboli volcano, and he feels compelled to send Moretti to inquire about what is happening on The Bold and the Beautiful, since in the States they are always several episodes ahead. Moretti is fiercely attacking what he feels are the harmful effects of TV viewing. He also makes a connection between Homer’s Odyssey (via James Joyce’s Ulysses) and an Italian TV show called Chi l’ha visto? And makes a statement about TV replacing our classical literature. The question one might ask is if Moretti thinks that cinema is more effective than television in communicating sustaining myths or models. Since Moretti is a film director, it is clear that he is a defender of his art. His cinema successfully combines high and low culture with a strong element of humour in an attempt to preserve the poetic dimension of cinema, which is something that television and blockbuster films often fall short of.

NANNI MORETTI – ROME 2012

Picture taken at Villa Mirafiori (Via Nomentana 118): Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.

The Italian Cinema Enters the Third Millennium

• Italian cinema’s artistic and industrial base entered into a state of perpetual crisis. The commercial and artistic hegemony of Hollywood continued to reaffirm itself all over the globe, including within the lucrative Italian market itself: in 1998, 2,600 film theatres were available for screening motion pictures.

• More capital was infused into the Italian circuit, creating the multiplex facilities familiar to American audiences that can accommodate several films at the same time.

• Most theatres were brought up to a higher standard of technological capability in order to handle new developments in the industry, usually inspired by Hollywood.

• During the 1990s, ticket sales in Italy gradually increased from a low point of 91 million sold in 1995 to 104 million in 1997 and 125 million in 1998. However, the number of film theatres in Italy in 1998 (2,600) is actually low when compared to either France (4,365) or Germany (3,814) during the same year (425).

The Italian Cinema Enters the Third Millennium

• Total tickets sold represent revenues generated not only form Italian films but for all films screened, and Hollywood products have consistently garnered the greatest share of the profits in the last several decades (426).

• The Italian cinema earned a smaller and smaller slice of a rapidly shrinking pie in a market dominated almost completely by America.

• Some sense of the impending doom of Italian cinema was embodied in Fellini’s The Voice of the Moon (La voce della luna, 1990), released several years before Fellini received a lifetime achievement Oscar award and shortly before his death in 1993.

• Fellini’s vision of popular culture in Italy had always been clearer than most political commentators on the Italian scene, obsessed as they are with ideological views on Italian life that only permit a partial and biased vision (426).

COMMERCIAL AND ARTISTIC CRISIS

• Italian cinema of the past decade (1990-99) may be discussed through the point of view of several general categories that summarize different responses to the commercial and artistic crisis of Italian cinema – a crisis Fellini believed was linked to the profound crisis of Italian culture itself (429-30).

• GROUP #1: The “international” directors – opted for the kind of cinema that is identified more with Hollywood than with Cinecittà. Works may be shot in English rather than Italian as their “original” language, and non-Italian scriptwriters may produce the scripts. Examples: Bernardo Bertolucci, Michael Radford, Franco Zeffirelli (430).

• GROUP #2: The largest and most traditional category is the “new directions in film comedy – parody and autobiography.” Works recognized by major film festival awards at Cannes or Hollywood, and successful also at the box office. Must be distinguished from the traditional directors of commedia all’italiana. The directors of the commedia considered themselves “commercial” directors, while these directors consider themselves auteurs and, although commercially successful, they portray themselves as outsiders to the industry: Nanni Moretti, Gabriele Salvatores, Maurizio Nichetti, and Roberto Benigni (430-31).

COMMERCIAL AND ARTISTIC CRISIS

• GROUP #3: Less popular category of directors are the “neo-neorealist directors.” They often look back to Italy’s rich cinematic heritage of the 1940s and 1950s: Gianni Amelio, Open Doors (Porte aperte, 1990), Stolen Children (Il ladro di bambini, 1991), America (Lamerica, 1994), and They Laughed like That (Così ridevano, 1998). Other titles: The Escort (La scorta, 1992) by Ricky Tognazzi and The Flight of the Innocent (La corsa dell’innocente, 1992) by Carlo Carlei (431).

• GROUP #4: The cinema of nostalgia. Reserved for Giuseppe Tornatore. Points the spectator back to another era when Italian films were characterized by their ability to reflect the personal, artistic visions of individual directors, such as Federico Fellini, elements of whose works Tornatore often echoes: Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, 1988); Everybody’s Fine (Stiamo tutti bene, 1990); The Starmaker (L’uomo delle stelle, 1995); and The Story of Novecento (La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano, 1999) (431).

CLIP 6 – La febbre (2005)

La febbre (2005) by Alessandro D’Alatri: Scene 13 “Strane coincidenze” (1:32:00 – 1:39:37). Note: Italian DVD distributed in Italy. For English subtitles choose “sottotitoli” and then “in inglese” option.

My comments:The story essentially shows how Mario comes of age in a context that, although made of good friends and strong family ties, seems to be programming his life in such a way that relieves Mario of his own desires. At some point, Mario rebels, especially after he meets Linda. However, although he does rebel, it is important to note that Mario himself says that he does not necessarily hate the job he was given at Cremona’s City Hall, he just objects to the fact that one must set aside fundamental human emotions in order to do it. In essence, Mario is against reducing people to numbers. For him, each person he deals with at work has an identity. It is for this reason that he becomes so popular. However, as Mario points out, there is always someone who does not want his job to be done well, suggesting that there is a good dose of envy and unfortunate corruption that create obstacles for those who optimistically and honestly believe in a job well done.

CLIP 6 – La febbre (2005)

La febbre (2005) by Alessandro D’Alatri: Scene 13 “Strane coincidenze” (1:32:00 – 1:39:37). Note: Italian DVD distributed in Italy. For English subtitles choose “sottotitoli” and then “in inglese” option.

My comments:The theme of death, so present in the film is central to Mario’s journey. That is, Mario has to “die” in order to be reborn as a mature adult. In the process he finds out that “it’s only by sorting out the dead that we can sort out the living.” Which, I think, reflects a recurring theme in recent Italian cinema: revisiting the past in search of answers for understanding the present conditions of Italian politics and culture. Proverbs in the film: “Worms have good taste. When they are hungry they always choose the best fruit”.“Excellent pupils can come from bad teachers”.“I liked this job. But there’s always someone like you who doesn’t want it done well. That’s who you ruin this country. By impeding its growth”.

Documents

February 2 2016 Italian Cinema: Italy Through the Lens