Unit information: Popular Italian Cinema in 2008/09

Unit name	Popular Italian Cinema
Unit code	ITAL30040
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. O'Rawe
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Italian
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This course analyses the processes of social change in twentieth-century Italy through the medium of cinema. By studying a range of genres including neo-realism, melodrama, silent cinema, comedy, westerns, horror and thriller, students will explore how genres operate, assess their usefulness as critical tools, and examine what genres and the films within them tell us about the societies that produced them. In studying the divas of Italy's silent cinema, the melodramas of the 1940s and 1950s, the highly exportable genres of horror and western, and concluding with contemporary middlebrow dramas and comedies, the course will bring approaches from cultural studies to help students assess the nature of Italian popular cinema, which is often under-examined and critically dismissed. As well as highlighting theoretical approaches related to genre, auteurism and gender, the course addresses the thorny issue of the cinematic spectator, which lies at the heart of questions of the popular.

Aims:

• To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to final year level. The content matter will normally include one or more of the following: literature; social, cultural or political history; linguistics; cultural studies; film, television or other media.

• To facilitate students' engagement with a body of literature, including secondary literature, texts, including in non-print media, primary sources and ideas as a basis for their own analysis and development. Normally many or most of these sources will be in a language other than English and will enhance the development of their linguistic skills.

• To develop further skills of synthesis, analysis and independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at level I.

• To equip students with the skills to undertake postgraduate study in a relevant field.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will:

• be knowledgable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;

• will have advanced skills in the selection and synthesis of relevant material;

• be able to evaluate and analyse relevant material from a significant body of source materials, usually in a foreign language, at an advanced level;

• be able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at an advanced level of complexity;

• be able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including postgraduate study.

Teaching Information

1 x 2 hr slot weekly.

Assessment Information

One of the following:

a) A written assignment of 3000 words and a two hour exam (50% each)

b) A written assignment of 3000 words (25%) and a three hour exam (75%)

c) One written assignment of 6000 words (or equivalent)

d) Two written assignments of 3000 words (50% each)

e) One oral presentation (25%) plus one written assignment of 1500 words (25%) plus one written assignment of 3000 words (50%)

Reading and References

Indicative List of Genres and Films:

• Silent Cinema: Assunta Spina (Serena, 1915)and Cabiria (Pastrone,1914)

• Melodrama in the 1940s and 1950s: La fuggitiva (Ballerini, 1941); Catene (Matarazzo, 1949); Vortice (1953)

• Comedy: Un americano a Roma, (Steno, 1954)and Toto’, Peppino e la dolce vita (Corbucci, 1961)

• Western: C’era una volta il West (Leone, 1984); Lo chiamavano Trinità (Barboni, 1970)

• Contemporary Melodrama: L’ultimo bacio (Muccino 2000); Santa Maradona (Ponti 2004).