This course looks at the way Italy has expressed its cultural, political, and social individuality in major cinematic works from the 1980s to the present. Directors such as Bertolucci, Moretti, Tornatore, Ozpetek, and Benigni offer a panorama of a generation of filmmakers that has contributed to the renewal of Italian cinema. Topics will be drawn from current issues, and will include the Holocaust and questions of memory, terrorism, political violence, migration, gender ideologies, the Mafia. Emphasis on film style and techniques.
Sample reading list:
F. Ozpetek, His Secret Life
G. Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso
G. Salvatores, Mediterraneo
R. Benigni, Life is Beautiful
R. Saviano, Gomorrah
See instructor for complete list
Reading/Writing assignments:
50 pages of selected readings per week. Attendance at one film screening per week.
