By introducing students to the history of Italian cinema, the course will
focus on some of the major Neorealist films of the postwar period ,including
Rome Open City and Bicycle Thieves and on the work of some of the most famous
filmmakers including Federico Fellini and
Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Students will learn that rather than simply being a form
of popular entertainments, cinema played a crucial role in Italy’s cultural and
political life. They will examine, for example, how in the immediate post-war
period Neorealist cinema strived to reveal the social reality of
marginalization and hardships that Mussolini’s fascist propaganda and control
of the media had concealed for almost two decades. Students will learn how a number
of Italian filmmakers made of cinema an instrument of social and
ideological critique. They will also examine the endeavors of some of these
filmmakers to conceive a new cinematic language against the dominant
conventions and codes of Hollywood.
The focus of the course on the relation between cinematic representation, meaning and social reality emphasizes the importance of visual culture in the formation of both individual and collective identity and strengthens the students’ understanding of and ability to consider critically media culture in our current global society.
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