Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader - Softcover

9780861966707: Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861966708 ISBN 13: 9780861966707

Publisher: John Libbey Publishing, 2013

Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader explores the largely forgotten world of Italian silent cinema, including its historical epics, comedies, serials, and romance melodramas. Thirty essays by leading scholars examine topics such as pre-cinema, international distribution, stardom, acting styles, literary adaptation, futurism, nonfiction filmmaking, and local exhibition. This groundbreaking and richly illustrated volume introduces scholars and students alike to a wealth of films, archival documents, and critical research. WINNER OF THE SOUTHWEST POPULAR AND AMERICAN CULTURE ASSOCIATION'S 2015 PETER C. ROLLINS BOOK AWARD IN THE CATEGORY OF FILM AND TELEVISION.

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Review:

This wide-ranging and original volume succeeds in its aim of silencing, once and for all, the familiar story that reduces Italy’s cinematic legacy to a few historical epics like Cabiria and Quo Vadis while awaiting Italian cinema’s ultimate deliverance in post WWII neo-realism. The extraordinary thing is that it does so by maintaining a balance between rigorously detailed archival materials, historical specificity, and theoretically acute interpretive analyses. The result is a fascinating reconsideration of the conceptual models that have been foundational for histories of film and visual culture in English-language studies, and an essential reminder that our ability to assess cinema’s past depends on a commitment to international collaboration and translation. Italian Silent Cinema: A Reader represents the very best in film historical scholarship today. Author: Jennifer Bean Source: Director of Cinema and Media Studies and Associate Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature

From the Author:

Giorgio Bertellini is Associate Professor of Italian and Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan.

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