From Conan the Barbarian to Gunan il guerriero: Re-contextualizing spaghetti sword and sorcery

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfio Leotta
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Sword And Sorcery ◽  
Italian Film ◽  
The Aesthetic

The release of Conan the Barbarian (1982) played a crucial role in the emergence of the sword and sorcery film, a subgenre of fantasy cinema featuring muscular heroes in violent conflict with wizards and other supernatural creatures. Italian genre filmmakers attempted to capitalize on the international popularity of sword and sorcery by quickly producing a number of low-budget films, which emulated the stylistic and narrative features of Conan. Over a period of six years, between 1982 and 1987, the Italian film industry produced almost two dozen sword and sorcery films, which achieved mixed results at the box office. Although recently an increasing number of international film scholars have focused on the critical examination of Italian genre cinema, to date, little attention has been devoted to the study of Italian sword and sorcery. By examining the aesthetic features of four Italian sword and sorcery films (Gunan il guerriero [1982], Ator l’invincibile [1982], Hercules [1983] and The Barbarians [1987]), as well as their modes of production and distribution, this article proposes the first comprehensive critical examination of this filone.

Eleonora Duse: An Actress-Manager for the Italian Film Industry in the 1910s

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
Maria Pia Pagani
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
White Hair ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Artistic Creation ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Original Case ◽  
Italian Film

From a historiographical point of view, the Italian diva Eleonora Duse (1858–1924) as an actress-manager offers an original case study in relation to her only film performance in Cenere ( Ashes, 1916). This is a film adapted from the eponymous novel by Grazia Deledda (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926). In the 1910s, when Duse decided to work in the Italian film industry, she was a celebrity and her name was a guarantee of success for the Ambrosio Company in Turin. The film producers wanted to use her celebrity in order to ensure success at the box office. As an actress-manager with a long and acclaimed international career in the theatre, Duse knew this mechanism very well, but her position was contrary to their expectations. In fact, she aimed to present herself as an anti-diva, with her wrinkle-furrowed face and white hair, proposing a fascinating artistic creation based on the ‘mother roles’ that she had created for the theatre. This paper explores new elements concerning the position of Duse as an actress-manager for the Italian film industry in the 1910s. It is focused on her strategy of reiterating her stage success in playing a mother. On film, she did not want to be an instrument used for commercial purposes, and she did not want to create a common popular diva film. With Cenere, Duse's capability as an actress-manager can be seen in her creation of this non-conventional, poetic role for the silent film industry in wartime Italy.

The Italian Film Industry (1945–1985)

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Michael Guarneri
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Ground Zero ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Production History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Italian Film ◽  
Post War ◽  
Film Market ◽  
First Time

The chapter provides an overview of the history of the post-war Italian film industry from crisis to crisis, that is to say from the ground zero of 1945 (when the whole Italian film business had to be politically and economically reorganised, together with the rest of the war-torn country) to the ground zero of 1985 (the year in which, for the first time in almost three decades, Italian film production fell below the rate of 100 films made per year, as the culmination of a crisis that started in the mid-1970s). The chapter opens with an in-depth production history of I vampiri / Lust of the Vampire (Riccardo Freda, 1957), followed by an account of the 1958-1964 boom in the production of pepla, the historical-mythological adventures of the sword-and-sandal kind. Both cases (an isolated commercial failure the former; a short-lived box-office goldmine, or filone, the latter) are emblematic of the functioning of the Italian film industry between the early 1950s and the mid-1980s – a state-subsidised system mostly based on a constellation of medium, small and minuscule business ventures piggy-backing on popular genres/trends in the local and/or global film market.

scholarly journals Tourism worldmaking and market post-truth: Borat’s new spirit of capitalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879762110199
Author(s):  
Rodanthi Tzanelli
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
International Tourist ◽  
Media Markets ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Phased Development ◽  
Host Nation

The article develops a theoretical framework for the critical examination of cinematic tourist design. Considering ‘film-induced tourism’ as part of a bigger system involving the design of mobilities, it interrogates the connection between the aesthetic and ethical principles that end up informing the engineering of national hospitality in media platforms. The design, which is managed by a ‘worldmaking authority’ or network encompassing the host nation state and international tourist and media markets, conforms to the rationalised rules of what Boltanski and Chiapello termed the ‘new spirit of capitalism’, which mobilises romantic ideals of individual freedom to sell landscapes and exotic cultural characters. The phased development of such mobilities conforms to contingency and is indifferent to the welfare of particular social groups. The model is exemplified through the phased design of mobilities out of two films with virulent sexist and antisemitic content centred on the journeys of the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat to the United States.

"TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE": POETRY OF FADING SOUND

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-107
Author(s):  
Yu. A. Finkelshtein ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Viola Da Gamba ◽  
Emotional Perception ◽  
Baroque Music ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
True Values

The object of the article is Alain Corneau's feature film "All the Mornings of the World" ("Tous les matins du monde", 1991). The movie is considered as a work of art with strong postmodern tendencies. The director uses music written in the XVIIth century to create an image of the era. The image of the gambist de Sainte-Colombe is formed on the basis of the aesthetic and emotional perception of his works by the creators of the movie. The timbre of viola da gamba, one of the key features of which is rapid fading, defines the main philosophical idea of the film. The "disadvantage" of the instrument, which contributed to its short life in art, is perceived by the filmmakers as its original value. The rapidly fading sound becomes a metaphorical symbol of dying and rebirth, death and immortality being one. In addition, Baroque music performs the function of temporary "immersion". Using the music of ancient styles, the film industry gains a foothold in true values and an element of authenticity. In turn, by participating in cinema, it appropriates the features of mass culture: lightness, illusiveness, and easy accessibility. Such ambivalence is also characteristic of the plot, in which events that evoke completely modern feelings take place against a historical background far removed from the present moment.

Saving the Family

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Alilunas
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
The Family ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Sexually Explicit ◽  
Major Shift ◽  
Community Protests ◽  
Feminist Movements ◽  
Regulatory Actions

The final chapter examines traditional forms of regulation, focusing on the community protests, anti-pornography feminist movements, national efforts by conservative groups, and other attempts to contain the efforts by the adult video industry to find widespread public acceptance and economic success. I argue that a panic, traceable to the move of sexually explicit films from public to private spaces, resulted in a major shift in the cultural understanding of sexuality, pleasure, and pornography. Part of this panic is visible in the Meese Commission’s investigation in 1986, which aligns with the period in which the adult film industry completed the transition from celluloid to magnetic tape-based production and distribution. I conclude the book with an analysis of the mainstream video rental’s decision to stop carrying adult video in the wake of the Meese Commission and gesture toward the further regulatory actions of the 1990s.

Female Entrepreneurship in the Nollywood Film Industry

2018 ◽  
pp. 126-144
Author(s):  
Floribert Patrick C. Endong
Keyword(s):  
Women Entrepreneurs ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Female Entrepreneurship ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Women Entrepreneurship ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Nigerian Film

The Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) has predominantly been presented as a masculine world. This is not unconnected to the fact that most of the players and central figures in the history and growth of the industry are masculine. However, female entrepreneurship has marked the industry right from the early stages of its existence. Like their male counterparts, female entrepreneurs have, through exceptional entrepreneurial techniques, provided actionable solutions to some of the production and distribution crises which the industry has witnessed. Using empirical understandings, this chapter critically explores female entrepreneurship in the sector. It provides a micro-level perspective of socio-economic challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the Nollywood film industry and their future prospects. The chapter begins by exploring entrepreneurship in Nigeria's economy before delving into the prospects and challenges of women entrepreneurship in the Nollywood industry.

Bava Goes Fashion

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Roberto Curti ◽  
Roberto Curti
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Foreign Markets ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
The World ◽  
Italian Film

This chapter recounts Mario Bava's seventh official solo feature film as a director, a present-day thriller set in the world of high fashion titled The Atelier of Death (L'atelier della morte). It also mentions Bava's two other Gothic horror movies released in Italy in the summer of 1963 that were destined primarily for foreign markets, especially in America. It discusses I tre volti della paura starring Boris Karloff and Mark Damon, and La frusta e il corpo with Christopher Lee and Daliah Lavi. The chapter describes Bava's debut film La maschera del demonio in 1960, which distributed overseas by American International Pictures under the title Black Sunday. It points out how the Italian film industry had increasingly been involved in bilateral and multinational co-productions since the first agreement signed with France in 1949.

Roads Not Taken in Hollywood’s Comic Book Movie Industry

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Hassler-Forest
Keyword(s):  
Comic Books ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Dynamic Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Process ◽  
Movie Industry ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Archaeological Approach ◽  
Formal Features

Chapter 23 approaches the phenomenon of the comic book movie as a complex and dynamic adaptation process. While superhero movies and other comics-inspired franchises now dominate the global box office, it is rare that they adapt comic books’ formal features in a meaningful way. By foregrounding three comic book movies that have largely been considered failures, the essay discusses innovative ways of adapting comics to film through a media-archaeological approach to the genre. The films Popeye (1980), Dick Tracy (1990), and Hulk (2002) can be read, each in its own way, as provocative “roads not taken” by the Hollywood film industry.

China's media market will boom, despite censorship

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Regulation ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
The Media ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
Government Data ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
Intellectual Property Theft

Subject The media and entertainment sector in China. Significance Box-office revenue in China grew 36% last year to reach 4.6 billion renminbi (747 million dollars), the latest government data show. The country is now the world's second-largest market and could surpass the United States by the end of this decade. Digital technology has created other new and promising growth areas in China's media and entertainment industries. However, politics often intervene with how these develop, and the country is a mercurial market for foreign media and entertainment businesses. Impacts Tension building between governing bodies for traditional and online media may spill into business regulation. Intellectual property theft is a serious problem. No significant policy shifts should be expected that will alleviate the market challenges for foreign media and entertainment businesses. Domestic media and entertainment companies will look to expand production and distribution internationally.

scholarly journals The Success of Motion Pictures

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Keil ◽  
Tobias Mosig
Keyword(s):  
Potential Risk ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Motion Pictures ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
Commercial Success ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Film Stars ◽  
The One

THE SUCCESS OF MOTION PICTURES – AN ECONOMIC GAMBLE: SELECTED MOVIE EXPLOITATION PHENOMENA More than 5,000 marketable movies are produced worldwide every year - a risky economic gamble running into billions. Despite the potential risk of commercial failure, film producers still try to achieve outstanding box-office results. There are also special movies that are able to preserve or even increase their intrinsic value due to the longevity of their commercial success. This article focuses on distinctive movie exploitation phenomena, which can be observed worldwide. These phenomena show the unpredictability of film success due to the fact that the cycles, the duration, and the progress of film exploitation are unforeseeable. MythSuccess is the big myth of the international film industry: on the one hand enormous profits, glamour, film stars, red carpet shows at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice - the big film festivals. And as climax - the Oscars in...

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