Great Masters of Italian Cinema After the Neorealist Age
Cross-listed with ITAL430
Fellini INTERVISTA (1987) locandina official playbill
This course aims at familiarizing students from diverse backgrounds with master- pieces by some of the most acclaimed Italian film directors from the 1950s to our day.
The films studied are classic works which explore and critically delve into (the industry would probably say “showcase”) major historical, political, or ethical themes in the three major cultural periods of the contemporary age: (a) the conflicts, the difficulty, and the downsides intrinsic to the process of modernization; (b), the discontents of modernism proper; and (c), the imbalances most recently brought about by postmodernity and/or globalization.
All films are subtitled in English. The viewings are introduced and/or followed by presentations and discussion.
Learning Outcomes:
In successfully completing this course on great masters of Italian cinema after – and in the wake of – the Neorealist age, students come to feel at home in one of the greatest traditions of film-making in the world: a tradition that contributes to shaping the global narrative by critically delving, in a broad diversity of styles, into historical, political, ethical, or philosophical topics that are of crucial importance to understand – and attempt to improve – the world we live in.
Language of instruction: English
Prerequisite: No prerequisites
Note: Credit will be granted for only one of ITAL 430 or ITST 432 or RMST 452
- Midterm exam (30%)
- Final exam (55%)
- Participation (15%, which covers both attendance and its quality)
- Bondanella, Peter. A History of Italian Cinema. N.Y.: Bloomsbury, 2013 (© 2009), ISBN 13: 978-1-4411-6069-0.
- There is also a posthumous edition of this item: Bondanella, Peter, ed. by Federico Pacchioni (N.Y.: Bloomsbury, 2017), ISBN 10: 1501307630 and ISBN 13: 978-1501307638.