Re-Viewing Fascism

Italian Cinema, 1922-1943

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Edited by Jacqueline Reich and Piero Garofalo

Type: Studies
Subject: Countries > Italy
Keywords: Italy, 1920s, 1930s
Publishing date: 2002
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 384 pages
5 ¾ x 9 inches (14.5 x 23 cm)

ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0-253-21518-8
978-0-253-21518-5

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Book Presentation:
When Benito Mussolini proclaimed that "Cinema is the strongest weapon," he was telling only half the story. In reality, very few feature films during the Fascist period can be labeled as propaganda. Re-viewing Fascism considers the many films that failed as "weapons" in creating cultural consensus and instead came to reflect the complexities and contradictions of Fascist culture. The volume also examines the connection between cinema of the Fascist period and neorealism—ties that many scholars previously had denied in an attempt to view Fascism as an unfortunate deviation in Italian history. The postwar directors Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio de Sica all had important roots in the Fascist era, as did the Venice Film Festival. While government censorship loomed over Italian filmmaking, it did not prevent frank depictions of sexuality and representations of men and women that challenged official gender policies. Re-viewing Fascism brings together scholars from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds as it offers an engaging and innovative look into Italian cinema, Fascist culture, and society.

About the authors:
Jacqueline Reich is Assistant Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Piero Garofalo is Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of New Hampshire.

Press Reviews:
"Reich (SUNY, Stony Brook) and Garofalo (Univ. of New Hampshire) have edited a collection of 12 essays treating Italian cinema during the ventennio, the period of fascist rule. Part 1 addresses the cinema's construction of subjectivity (particularly female), linguistic diversity (which challenged the transition from silent to sound cinema), neorealism, and the role of telecommunications and cinema in the formation of nation. The focus shifts in part 2: David Forgacs suggests new ways of identifying the transgressive aspects of regulated and conservative representation of sex in the cinema; others offer a recuperative homosexual reading of Ossessione and an analysis of the colonial discourse of Sotto la croce del sud. Among the essays in part 3 is an examination of the Soviet influence on Italian films of the 1930s; a redefinition of escapist films and their link to contemporary social realities; a reading of Grandi magazzini and the female subject in the context of urban consumerism; a discussion of the 1942 Venice Biennale International Film Festival prize winners and the signs they contain of the deep contradictions and weakness of the fascist regime. Each essay makes a point of correcting misconceptions about the cinema during the ventennio, which makes this book a significant contribution to the literature. Upper—division undergraduates and above."
-S. Vander Closter, Rhode Island School of Design , 2002dec CHOICE

"Each essay makes a point of correcting misconceptions about the cinema during the ventennio [the period of fascist rule], which makes this book a significant contribution to the literature. December 2002"
-S. Vander Closter, Rhode Island School of Design

See the publisher website: Indiana University Press

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