Landscape and Memory in Post-Fascist Italian Film: Cinema Year Zero (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)

This study argues that neorealism?s visual genius is inseparable from its almost invisible relation to the Fascist past: a connection inscribed in cinematic landscapes. While largely a silent narrative, neorealism?s complex visual processing of two decades of Fascism remains the greatest cultural production in the service of memorialization and comprehension for a nation that had neither a Nuremberg nor a formal process of reconciliation. Through her readings of canonical neorealist films, Minghelli unearths the memorial strata of the neorealist image and investigates the complex historical charge that invests this cinema. This book is both a formal analysis of the new conception of the cinematic image born from a crisis of memory, and a reflection on the relation between cinema and memory. Films discussed include Ossessione (1943) Pais̉ (1946), Ladri di biciclette (1948), and Cronaca di un amore (1950).;Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of Copyrighted Images; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1 1943 Visconti: The Haunted Frames of Ossessione; 2 1946 Rossellini: Landscape as Burial Ground; Paisà: Beginning as End; Viaggio in Italia: Nothing Here That Brings Back Old Memories? -- End as Beginning: Landscape as Monument; 3 1948 De Sica and Zavattini: Memory in Shadow and Stone; On Site in 1947-1948; Missing Wheels of Time; The Eyes of Rome; Le Lacrime di Pasolini/Pasolini's Tears; 4 1950 Antonioni: Cronaca di un Amore's Landscapes of Remorse. This study argues that neorealism's visual genius is inseparable from its almost invisible relation to the Fascist past: a connection inscribed in cinematic landscapes. While largely a silent narrative, neorealism's complex visual processing of two decades of Fascism remains the greatest cultural production in the service of memorialization and comprehension for a nation that had neither a Nuremberg nor a formal process of reconciliation. Through her readings of canonical neorealist films, Minghelli unearths the memorial strata of the neorealist image and investigates the complex historical charge that invests this cinema. This book is both a formal analysis of the new conception of the cinematic image born from a crisis of memory, and a reflection on the relation between cinema and memory. Films discussed include Ossessione (1943) Paisà (1946), Ladri di biciclette (1948), and Cronaca di un amore (1950). Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Copyrighted Images Acknowledgments Introduction 1 1943 Visconti: The Haunted Frames of Ossessione 2 1946 Rossellini: Landscape as Burial Ground Paisà: Beginning as End Viaggio in Italia: Nothing Here That Brings Back Old Memories? -- End as Beginning: Landscape as Monument 3 1948 De Sica and Zavattini: Memory in Shadow and Stone On Site in 1947-1948 Missing Wheels of Time The Eyes of Rome Le Lacrime di Pasolini/Pasolini's Tears 4 1950 Antonioni: Cronaca di un Amore's Landscapes of Remorse. The Fog of FerraraChronicles at the Margins of the Earth Chronicles at the Margins of Memory Memory Archived 5 Epilogue as Prologue-Zavattini/Celati: Documentaristic Visions from Un paese to Mondonuovo At the Beginning Was Lumière . . . From Italia mia to Un paese A Mondonuovo for Neorealism Notes Bibliography Index. Introduction -- 1943 Visconti: The Haunted Frames Of Ossessione -- 1946 Rossellini: Landscape As Burial Ground Pais: Beginning As End -- 1948 De Sica And Zavattini: Memory In Shadow And Stone -- 1950 Antonioni: Cronaca Di Un Amore's Landscapes Of Remorse -- Epilogue As Prologue: Zavattini/celati: Documentaristic Visions From Un Paese To Mondonuovo. By Giuliana Minghelli. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.