| Unit name | Visual Cultures of Italian Cinema: Neo-Realism to Post-Modern |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HART22216 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Mr. Liversidge |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
none |
| Co-requisites |
none |
| School/department | Department of History of Art (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit examines the social, political and economic evolution of contemporary Italy as well as the aesthetic (iconographic and stylistic) development of Italian cinema beginning with the Neo-realist classics and their predecessor (Ossessione) and later variants (Miracolo a Milano and La Strada) ('magic realism'); the modernism of the 1960s (L'avventura, La Dolce Vita, Rocco e I Suoi Fratelli); the re-examination of the Fascist past and other historical periods in the urban and rural contexts (Salo', 1900, Una giomata particolare, L'Albero degli Zoccoli, La Notte di San Lorenzo); nostalgia and the reinventing of the cinematic past (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso); the personal / political video diaries of Moretti (Caro Diario); the trauma of emigration and the new realities of Italian life in the 1990s (L'America); Benigni's post-modern holocaust comedy (La Vita e' Bella); and the emerging new realist 'transitional' cinema of the 1990s (Pane e Tulipi), reflecting the last 60 years of Italianita. Films are studied from dubbed or subtitled versions.
