- 320 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
With its monsters, vampires and cowboys, Italian popular culture in the postwar period has generally been dismissed as a form of evasion or escapism. Here, four international scholars re-examine and reinterpret the era to show that popular Italian cinema was not only in tune with contemporary political and social trends, it also presaged the turmoil and rebellion of the 1960s and 1970s. Their analysis of peplum (or 'sword and sandal') films, horror films, spaghetti westerns and comedy Italian-style shows how genre cinema reflected the changes wrought by modernization, urbanization, consumerist culture and the sexual revolution. With striking insights into the links between popular culture and politics, this book will be indispensable for specialists in film and media studies, Italian and cultural studies, as well as social history.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- CONTENTS
- List of Photographs
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction -- Flavia Brizio-Skov
- 1. The Italian Sword-and-Sandal Film From Fabiola (1949) to Hercules and The Captive Women (1961): Texts and Contexts -- Frank Burke
- 2. Horror Cinema: The Emancipation of Women and Urban Anxiety -- Andrea Bini
- 3. Dollars, Bullets and Success: The Spaghetti Western Phenomenon -- Flavia Brizio-Skov
- 4. The Birth of Comedy Italian Style -- Andrea Bini
- 5. Tarantula Myths and Music: Popular Culture and Ancient Rituals in Italian Cinema -- Flavia Laviosa
- 6. Popular Cinema and Violence: The Western Genre -- Flavia Brizio-Skov
- 7. Women’s Drama, Men’s Business: Sexual Violence Against Women in Italian Cinema and Media -- Flavia Laviosa
- Bibliography
- Index