Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
This study considers Italian filmmaking during the Fascist era and offers an original and revealing approach to the interwar years. Steven Ricci directly confronts a long-standing dilemma faced by cultural historians: while made during a period of totalitarian government, these films are neither propagandistic nor openly "Fascist." Instead, the Italian Fascist regime attempted to build ideological consensus by erasing markers of class and regional difference and by circulating terms for an imaginary national identity. Cinema and Fascism investigates the complex relationship between the totalitarian regime and Italian cinema. It looks at the films themselves, the industry, and the role of cinema in daily life, and offers new insights into this important but neglected period in cinema history.
Price: $34.95
Pages: 248
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
01 February 2008
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520253568
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
“Illuminating. . . . Ricci’s book offers a significant contribution to a more nuanced and historically specific view of cinema under fascism.”
Steven Ricci is the Director of the Moving Image Archive Studies program at University of California, Los Angeles, where he also teaches in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media and the Department of Information Studies.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1. Amnesia and Historical Memory
"Soulless Shadows": The Cinema under Fascism Didn't Exist
Cinema and Industrialization
Cinema and National Identity
2. The Political Economy of Italian Cinema, 1922-1943
Fascism Makes Cinematic History
The Impact of the Regime's Regulation(s)
3. Leisure Time, Historiography, and Spectatorship
Fascist Sports: Historical Narration and the National Body
Travel, Pleasure, and Class Difference
4. Italy and America: Fascination and (Re)Negotiation
Authorial States: Mussolini and MGM March on Rome
Partnership and Competition with Hollywood
5. The Fascist Codex
Fascist Heuristics: Major Codes of Readership
Dissolution of Fascist Order, Antifascism, and/or Neorealism
Epilogue. Resistance and the Return of the Local
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Preface
Introduction
1. Amnesia and Historical Memory
"Soulless Shadows": The Cinema under Fascism Didn't Exist
Cinema and Industrialization
Cinema and National Identity
2. The Political Economy of Italian Cinema, 1922-1943
Fascism Makes Cinematic History
The Impact of the Regime's Regulation(s)
3. Leisure Time, Historiography, and Spectatorship
Fascist Sports: Historical Narration and the National Body
Travel, Pleasure, and Class Difference
4. Italy and America: Fascination and (Re)Negotiation
Authorial States: Mussolini and MGM March on Rome
Partnership and Competition with Hollywood
5. The Fascist Codex
Fascist Heuristics: Major Codes of Readership
Dissolution of Fascist Order, Antifascism, and/or Neorealism
Epilogue. Resistance and the Return of the Local
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index