Da la presa di Roma a Il piccolo garibaldino


Book Description

The accompanying DVD contains two films considered significant in constructing the relatinonship between the cinema and the Risorgimento. "La presa di Roma" (ca. 5 min.), directed by Filoteo Alberini and released in 1905 is considered the first Italian film shown in Italy. In black and white this silent film tells the story of the breach of the Porta Pia by Bersaglieri soldiers on Sept. 20, 1870 to complete the unification of Italy. "Il piccolo garibaldino" (ca. 12 min.) produced by Filoteo Alberini and released in 1909 is a short drama about a young boy who is killed during the Spedizione dei Mille, a military campaign led by revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860 to defeat the Kingdom of theTwo Sicilies and unify Italy. Both films were restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografía--Cineteca nazionale as part of a joint project between them and the Grand Orient of Italy to mark the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Guiseppe Garibaldi.




Occult Imperium


Book Description

Christian Giudice's Occult Imperium explores Italian national forms of Occultism, chiefly analyzing Arturo Reghini (1878-1946), his copious writings, and Roman Traditionalism. Trained as a mathematician at the prestigious University of Pisa, Reghini was one of the three giants of occult and esoteric thought in Italy, alongside his colleagues Julius Evola (1898-1974) and Giulian Kremmerz (1861-1930). Using Reghini's articles, books, and letters, as a guide, Giudice explores the interaction between occultism, Traditionalism, and different facets of modernity in early-twentieth-century Italy. The book takes into consideration many factors particular to the Italian peninsula: the ties with avant-garde movements such as the Florentine Scapigliatura and Futurism, the occult vogues typical to Italy, the rise to power of Benito Mussolini and Fascism, and, lastly, the power of the Holy See over different expressions of spirituality. Occult Imperium explores the convergence of new forms of spirituality in early twentieth-century Italy.




The Maciste Films of Italian Silent Cinema


Book Description

Italian film star Bartolomeo Pagano's "Maciste" played a key role in his nation's narratives of identity during World War I and after. Jacqueline Reich traces the racial, class, and national transformations undergone by this Italian strongman from African slave in Cabiria (1914), his first film, to bourgeois gentleman, to Alpine soldier of the Great War, to colonial officer in Italy's African adventures. Reich reveals Maciste as a figure who both reflected classical ideals of masculine beauty and virility (later taken up by Mussolini and used for political purposes) and embodied the model Italian citizen. The 12 films at the center of the book, recently restored and newly accessible to a wider public, together with relevant extra-cinematic materials, provide a rich resource for understanding the spread of discourses on masculinity, and national and racial identities during a turbulent period in Italian history. The volume includes an illustrated appendix documenting the restoration and preservation of these cinematic treasures.




Italian Cinema from the Silent Screen to the Digital Image


Book Description

In this comprehensive guide, some of the world's leading scholars consider the issues, films, and filmmakers that have given Italian cinema its enduring appeal. Readers will explore the work of such directors as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Roberto Rossellini as well as a host of subjects including the Italian silent screen, the political influence of Fascism on the movies, lesser known genres such as the giallo (horror film) and Spaghetti Western, and the role of women in the Italian film industry. Italian Cinema from the Silent Screen to the Digital Image explores recent developments in cinema studies such as digital performance, the role of media and the Internet, neuroscience in film criticism, and the increased role that immigrants are playing in the nation's cinema.




Vital Subjects


Book Description

Vital Subjects: Race and Biopolitics in Italy is an interdisciplinary study of how racial and colonial discourses shaped the “making” of Italians as modern political subjects in the years between its administrative unification (1861-1870) and the end of the First World War (1919). This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.




Printed Media in Fin-de-siecle Italy


Book Description

"The Unification of Italy in 1870 heralded a period of unprecedented change. While successive Liberal governments pursued imperial ventures and took Italy into World War One on the Allied side, on the domestic front technological advance, the creation of a national transport network, the expansion of state education, internal migration to cities and the rise of political associations all contributed to the rapid expansion of the print industry and the development of new and highly diversified reading publics. Drawing on publishers'archives, letters, diaries, and printed material, this book provide the most up-to-date research into the printed media - books, magazines and journals - in Italy between 1870 and 1914. With essays on publishers and reading communities, the professionalization of the role of journalist and writer, children's literature, book illustrations, and printed media in colonial territories among others, this book is intended for those with interests in cultural production and consumption and questions of nation-formation and nationhood in and outside Italy. With the contributions: Ann Hallamore Caesar, Gabriella Romani- Introduction John Davis- Media, Markets and Modernity: The Italian Case, 1870-1915 Maria Grazia Lolla- Reader/Power: The Politics and Poetics of Reading in Post-Unification Italy Joseph Luzzi- Verga Economicus: Language, Money, and Identity in I Malavoglia and Mastro-don Gesualdo Olivia Santovetti- The Cliche of the Romantic Female Reader and the Paradox of Novelistic Illusion: Federico De Roberto's L'Illusione (1891) Francesca Billiani- Intellettuali militanti, funzionari e tecnologici, etica ed estetica in tre riviste fiorentine d'inizio secolo: Il Regno, La Voce, e Lacerba (1903-1914) Luca Somigli- Towards a Literary Modernity all'italiana: A Note on F. T. Marinetti's Poesia Silvia Valisa- Casa editrice Sonzogno. Mediazione culturale, circuiti del sapere ed innovazione tecnologica nell'Italia unificata (1861-1900) Matteo Salvadore- At the Borders of 'Dark Africa': Italian Expeditions to Ethiopia and the Bollettino della Societa Geografica Italiana, 1867-1887 Ombretta Frau- L'editore delle signore: Licinio Cappelli e la narrativa femminile fra Otto e Novecento Cristina Gragnani- Il lettore in copertina. Flirt rivista di splendore e declino (Primo tempo: 1897-1902) Fiorenza Weinapple- Abbiamo fatto l'Italia. Adesso si tratta di fare gli Italiani. Il Programma di educazione nazionale del Secolo XX Fabio Gadducci, Mirko Tavosanis- Printers, Poets, Publishers and Painters: The First Years of the Giornale per i bambini John P. Welle- The Magic Lantern, the Illustrated Book, and the Beginnings of the Culture Industry: Intermediality in Carlo Collodi's La lanterna magica di Giannettino"




Critical Editions of Film


Book Description




(Dis)unity in Italy


Book Description