Fame amid the Ruins: Italian Film Stardom in the Age of Neorealism, Stephen Gundle (2020)

Review of: Fame amid the Ruins: Italian Film Stardom in the Age of Neorealism, Stephen Gundle (2020) New York: Berghahn, 370 pp., ISBN 978-1-78920-001-0, h/bk, £110.00

Framing early cinema : the Davide Turconi nitrate frame collection at George Eastman House

This thesis examines the history, use, and value of the Davide Turconi Nitrate Frame Collection of film fragments, housed at George Eastman House. An Italian film historian, Turconi (1911-2005) compiled the collection in the 1960s. Over the past decade, GEH and its partner institutions digitized the collection's 23,5000 fragments, which mostly date from the 1900s and 1910s. The thesis's case study analyzes two films represented by fragments in the collection: Les Tulipes (Pathé, 1907) and Maid of Niagara (American Kenema-Pathé, 1910). This case study employs a small section of the collection to speak to its importance as a whole and is particularly focused on the collection's early applied colour effects. It compares the fragments to multiple preserved versions of the films, arguing that the Turconi Collection, as well as other frame collections housed at various institutions, are primary documents, unlike most modern restorations of early silent films.

Framing early cinema : the Davide Turconi nitrate frame collection at George Eastman House

This thesis examines the history, use, and value of the Davide Turconi Nitrate Frame Collection of film fragments, housed at George Eastman House. An Italian film historian, Turconi (1911-2005) compiled the collection in the 1960s. Over the past decade, GEH and its partner institutions digitized the collection's 23,5000 fragments, which mostly date from the 1900s and 1910s. The thesis's case study analyzes two films represented by fragments in the collection: Les Tulipes (Pathé, 1907) and Maid of Niagara (American Kenema-Pathé, 1910). This case study employs a small section of the collection to speak to its importance as a whole and is particularly focused on the collection's early applied colour effects. It compares the fragments to multiple preserved versions of the films, arguing that the Turconi Collection, as well as other frame collections housed at various institutions, are primary documents, unlike most modern restorations of early silent films.

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

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.

Roteiro coletivo: a ideia do cinema neorrealista

Fascism had brought hunger and destruction to Italy. Italian film makers gathered to reconstruct cinema pursuing another ideal. Neorealist films had as their main aspect the fact of being social, not only in the theme but also in their way of production. The movement, according to André Bazin, followed formal and aesthetic criteria, features that had been accomplished by film makers since the creation of Cinecittà by Mussolini. However, even during this regime, some artists already resisted the fascist view, a fact that can be observed in films like Ossessione, by Luchino Visconti; I bambini ci guardano, by Vittorio De Sica and Quattro passi tra le nuvole, by Alessandro Blasetti. Inspired by the studies in Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, by Umberto Barbaro’s translation of Pudovkin, by foreign literature, besides the collaboration of the French Poetic Realism film directors, a creative dynamic was produced centered in the collective writing of scripts which played an important role in the resistance to fascism in Italian cinema. This study, in particular, analyzes Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione.

EXPRESS: Investments in nascent project-based enterprises: The interplay between role-congruent reputations and institutional endorsement

We study nascent project-based enterprises (PBEs) through the lens of upper echelons and institutional theory. We analyse the interplay between the different role-congruent reputations of their project entrepreneurs and the institutional endorsement of their project idea, theorizing how these affect PBEs’ ability to attract private investments. In the context of the Italian film industry, we find that the commercial reputation of the project entrepreneur in the producer role is crucial for attracting investors, while the artistic reputation of the project entrepreneur in the creative director role is crucial for attaining institutional endorsement of the project idea. Finally, we find that the effect of the commercial reputation of the project entrepreneur in the producer role on attracting investments is mediated by the institutional endorsement. We contribute to the literature on PBEs by demonstrating how specific combinations of project entrepreneurs’ roles and (role-congruent) reputations can directly and indirectly attract investments.

The Peculiarities of Showing the Image of the Main Character in German and Italian Film Adaptations of the Literary Works of F.M. Dostoevsky of the End of the 19th — the First Third of the 20th Centuries

The peculiarities and variants of showing the image of the main character of the lliterary works of F.M. Dostoevsky in European cinema (on the example of German and Italian cinema) are investigated in the article. The specificity of the possibility of conveying the psychologism of the literary works and the peculiarities of the characters of the heroes in the era of silent cinema without dialogues are characterized. The main film adaptations of the literary works of F.M. Dostoevsky are compared in the article.

Double Jeopardy: The Fate of Intermarriage and Justice in the Films Redemption Road and Max and Hélène

Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews during the Third Reich occupied a dangerously ambiguous position. Although the 1935 Nuremberg Laws declared intermarriage illegal, the Jewish wife or husband was at first exempted from anti-Semitic persecution. After Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938, their situation deteriorated dramatically. However, Nazi family law was applied inconsistently, leaving both spouses in states of uncertainty with regard to their marriages and children. This essay examines the representation of intermarriage in two films: the 2015 Italian film Max and Helene, and Redemption Road, a 2016 two-part German miniseries. With hybrid cinematic styles, narrative trajectories, and characterizations, these films dramatize the traumatic consequences of Nazi racial ideology and practices for two intermarried couples and their children. Spanning the years 1938 through the late 1940s, intermarriage in these films raises challenging questions about survival, reconciliation, and loss and the definition and achievement of legal, ethical, and emotional justice in the aftermath.