Italian Vernacular
Cinema
Fellini is taken
seriously as an auteur
-Comments the superficiality of middle classes -Films are associated with style and sophistication
-Seen as worthy of
critical appraisal
There is a lot more
to Italian cinema …
-Audiences -Historical and social context
-Economics
“A forkful of
westerns: industry, audiences and the Italian western,” Christopher Wagstaff
-Prima visione and
seconda visione – cinemas
that attracted a middle class sophisticated audience usually in major cities, audience selected a
film to watch-Terza visione – less populated areas, cheaper tickets, audience went to cinema based on habit rather than selecting a film. Films were more formulaic and popular films
Italian working
classes 1970s
-Go
to Cinema every night – Italian film industry needs a lot of films-Conventions of watching film are different
-People may talk, drink and eat during the film
-People enter the cinema at beginning, half way through, near the end
-Cinema is a very social space
Wagstaff notes that the terza visione audience was more
like a television audience, going to the cinema after dinner, without any
particular film in mind, arriving without respect to start time, and often
using the outing as a social event, to talk during the screening, meet with
friends, etc. in
some churches mass was conducted in a similar way.
Spaghetti Westerns
Mondo/Cannibal film
Poliziottesco, police films
The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly 1966 directed by Sergio Leone
-Use
of sound
-Use
of Music
-Lack
of dialogue
-Use
of eye line and cutting
-Differences
in scale
-Use
of camera to tell a story
-Fragmentation
of body
-Catholic
references
Mario Bava, Dario Argento, and Lucio Fulci
-These
films may be stylish and expressionistic, but at their worst they challenge our
senses and the standards of ‘good taste’-Exploitation movies
-Gross out movies
-Similar to American Grindhouse/Drive-in movies
-Wonderful titles used to sell the concept
Amateur detective
as tourist
-The
protagonists are usually American or British, visiting Italy
-They
usually work in the creative industries (artist, writer, musician, fashion,
photography)
-They
seem to evoke a cosmopolitan ‘jet set’ life style
Giallo Killers
-Black
Gloves
-Black
Hat
-Black
over coat
-Disguises
gender
-Priests
often used as part of gender confusion
-Many
giallo demand to be read from psychoanalytical point
of view
-Based
on false memory
-Childhood
trauma
-Fetish (eyes, gloves, cut-throat raiser)
-Solution
of mystery lies in art
-Works
of art in gialli are often subverted
and associated with the madness of the psychopath and regularly provide a
conduit into the past and into the mind of the antagonist.
Is vernacular film
dead?
-Multiplexes
aimed at people with cars
-Going
to cinema is a special event
-Cinema
tickets are expensive
-DVD
and digital formats mean audiences watch in own home or on the move
-Social
aspects of film-watching done on line rather than at the cinema
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