Italian Cinema Audiences: Histories and Memories of Cinema-going in Post-war Italy (Topics and Issues in National Cinema Book 8)

We know a lot about the directors and stars of Italian cinema's heyday, from Roberto Rossellini to Sophia Loren. But what do we know about the Italian audiences that went to see their films? Based on the AHRC-funded project 'Italian Cinema Audiences 1945-60', Italian Cinema Audiences: Histories and Memories of Cinema-going in Post-war Italy draws upon the rich data collected by the project team (160 video interviews and 1000+ written questionnaires gathered from Italians aged 65 and over; archival material related to cinema distribution, exhibition and programming, box-office figures, and critical discussions of cinema from film journals and popular magazines of the period). For the first time, cinema's role in everyday Italian life, and its affective meaning when remembered by older people, are enriched with industrial analyses of the booming Italian film sector of the period, as well as contextual data from popular and specialized magazines. Cover Half title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Authors Foreword Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Part 1 The activity of cinemagoing 2 Cinemas, exhibition practices and topographical memories 3 Only entertainment?: Memories inside and outside the cinema Part 2 Films: Genre, taste and popular memory 4 Audiences and film genre 5 ‘Back then I believed in the nation – I don’t anymore’: Revisiting the national film canon through audience memories of neorealism Part 3 Gender and cinemagoing 6 A girl’s-eye view of post-war Italian cinema 7 Beyond ‘bellee brave’: Female stars and Italian cinema audiences 8 Narrative imaginings of masculinity through cinema Conclusions Appendix 1 Questionnaire Appendix 2 Video interview questions Appendix 3 List of thematic areas Bibliography Index In 1988 Giuseppe Tornatore’s film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso, Italy) achieved global success with a story that placed Italian cinema audiences at the centre of its narrative. In it, spectators are portrayed attending cinemas, bonding with the stories they saw on the screen and interacting loudly with films such as Visconti’s neorealist classic La terra trema (The Earth Trembles, Italy, 1948), Raffaello Matarazzo’s enormously popular melodrama Catene (Chains, Italy, 1949) and Mario Mattoli’s comedy I pompieri di Viggiù (The Firemen of Viggiù, Italy, 1949). This representation of post-war film culture demonstrates vividly both the affective charge of Italian cinema, at its peak of popularity, and its role in the social fabric of daily life. "Investigates the importance of cinema-going to social life in post-war Italy, and unpacks the complex relations between film texts and their consumption, individual and collective memory, and national, regional, and gendered identities"-- Provided by publisher