CINE 401: Italian National Cinema

Spring 2004

Monday 9:10 ó 11: 55 Room: FA 101

Instructor: Aaron Kerner

Office: FA435

Telephone: 405 3972

Email: amkerner@sfsu.edu

Office Hours: Monday 4:00-5:00

Course Description: Italian cinema has been extremely influential in the developments of cinema. From the devastation of the Second World War emerged Neo-realism. Many of the films in the wake of the Second World War are politically charged, as Italy struggled to rejoin the European community. A devastated industrial infrastructure, an equally poor economy and high unemployment lead to highly charged films. Even as the economy recovered politics remained an important feature of Italian cinema, directors like Pasolini, Visconti, and Canvani have all tried to come to terms with history, and especially Italyís own fascist history and collaboration with the Nazi regime.

This course surveys some of the defining elements of contemporary Italian cinematic practices. There is a large body of Italian films and as a consequence we will limit our study to Post War cinema. We will roughly follow a chronology working towards contemporary Italian cinema.

Course Requirements:

    1. Attend all class meetings
    2. Readings must be completed by the assigned dates
    3. All written work must be submitted on time
Course Assessment: Students will be required to write two papers (4 ó 5 pages). Prompts for these two assignments will be handed out later in the course. You must incorporate one source from your reading material, in addition to one outside scholarly resource. There will also be two quizzes.
    1. First Paper 30%
    2. Quiz One 15%
    3. Quiz Two 15%
    4. Final Paper 30%
    5. Attendance 10%
Course Reading Material: All the reading material is available online either through electronic reserves, or an online database; you should assume that a reading is accessible through electronic reserves unless stated otherwise. So, for example, the first assigned reading, "An Aesthetics of Reality" is available through electronic reserves, whereas the last reading, "Life is Beautiful: Reception, Allegory, and Holocaust Laughter," is accessible through the Project Muse database. All the reading is required unless otherwise stated.

In addition, if you are accessing a database like Project Muse or JSTOR through an online service provider other than the SFSU server, you will need a code to access this material. Any computer on campus should have no problem accessing these databases.

NB: This syllabus is subject to change.

Turn off your cell phone and other electronic devices.
 
 

Citation Method ó Chicago Manual of Style:

Footnotes/Endnotes (for direct quotations and for paraphrasing other peopleís work):

BOOK: FIRST NAME LAST NAME, TITLE OF BOOK, (CITY: PUBLISHER, DATE), PAGE NUMBER. JOURNAL ARTICLE: AUTHORíS NAME, "ARTICLE TITLE," JOURNAL TITLE, VOL #, NO. # (DATE), PAGE NUMBER. CINEMA: FILM TITLE, DIRECTORíS NAME, (DATE).
 
  Bibliography (a bibliography should include all the work that you looked at in preparation for writing your paper): BOOK: LAST NAME, FIRST NAME. TITLE OF BOOK. CITY: PUBLISHER, DATE. JOURNAL ARTICLE: LAST NAME, FIRST NAME. "ARTICLE TITLE." JOURNAL TITLE VOL, NO. (DATE): PAGES. CINEMA: FILM TITLE, DIRECTED BY JOHN DOE, LENGTH OF FILM (E.G., 90 MINS.), DATE, FORMAT (E.G., DVD, VIDEOCASETTE, FILM).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Session 1: Screening: The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio De Sica, 1948
 
  Session 2: Screening: Paisan, Roberto Rossellini, 1946 Reading:
    1. André Bazin, "An Aesthetic of Reality: Neorealism (Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation)," What Is Cinema? Volume II, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971): 16 ó 40.
Session 3: Screening: La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini, 1959 Reading:
    1. Peter Bondanella, "La Dolce Vita: The Art Film Spectacular," The Films of Federico Fellini, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 65 ó 92.
Session 4 Screening: Accattone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961 Reading:
    1. Oswald Stack ed., "Accattone," Pasolini on Pasolini, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), 36 ó 48.
    2. Oswald Stack ed., "Introduction," and "Background," Pasolini on Pasolini, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), 7 ó 35. Book on reserve.
Session 5: Screening: 81/2, Federico Fellini, 1962 Reading:
    1. John Caldwell Stubs, "Felliniís Portrait of the Artist as Creative Problem Solver," Cinema Journal vol. 41, no. 4 (Summer 2002): 116 ó 131. Available through Project Muse Database.
    2. Peter Bondanella, "8 1/2: The Celebration of Artistic Creativity," The Films of Federico Fellini, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 93 ó 115. Book on reserve.
Session 6: Screening: Red Desert, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964 Reading:
    1. William Arrowsmith, "Red Desert," Antonioni: The Poet of Images, Ted Perry ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 85 ó 105.
Session 7: Screening: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Sergio Leone, 1966 Reading:
    1. Peter Bondanella, "A Fistful of Pasta: Sergio Leone and the Spaghetti Western," Italian Cinema: From Neo-Realism to the Present, (New York: Continuum, 1990), 253 ó 274.
Session 8: Screening: Oedipus Rex, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967 Reading:
    1. Oswald Stack ed., "Oedipus Rex and Amore e Rabbia," Pasolini on Pasolini, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), 119 ó 131. Book on reserve.
    2. Giuliana Bruno, "Heresies: The Body of Pasoliniís Seomiotics," Cinema Journal vol. 30, no. 3 (Spring 1991): 29 ó 41.
Session 9: Screening: The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970 Reading:
    1. Claretta Micheletti Tonetti, "The Conformist," Bernardo Bertolucci: The Cinema of Ambiguity, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995), 97 ó 121.
    2. Peter Bondanella, "Myth and Marx: Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci," Italian Cinema: From Neo-Realism to the Present, (New York: Continuum, 1990), 275 ó 317.
Session 10: Screening: Last Tango in Paris, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972 Reading:
    1. Claretta Micheletti Tonetti, "Last Tango in Paris," Bernardo Bertolucci: The Cinema of Ambiguity, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995), 122 ó 141.
    2. Bernardo Bertolucci in Laurent Tirard, Moviemakersí Master Class: Private Lessons form the Worldís Foremost Directors, (New York: Faber and Faber, 2002), 47 ó 55.

 
 

Session 11:

Screening: The Damned, Luchino Visconti, 1969 Reading:
    1. Claretta Micheletti Tonetti, "The German Trilogy Launched: The Damned," Luchino Visconti, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997), 127 ó 138.
    2. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, "Lo Straniero, The Damned, Death in Venice," Luchino Visconti, (New York: The Viking Press, 1973), 179 ó 204.
Session 12: Screening: The Night Porter, Liliana Cavani, 1974 Reading:
    1. Marguerite Waller, "Signifying the Holocaust: Liliana Cavaniís Portiere di Notte," Italian Women Writers from the Renaissance to the Present: Revisiting the Canon, Maria Ornella Marotti, ed. (University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 259 ó 269.
Session 13: Screening: Salò: The 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975 Reading:
    1. Naomi Greene, "The Many Faces of Eros," Pier Paolo Pasolini: Cinema as Heresy, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 173 ó 217.
    2. OPTIONAL Marquis de Sade, "The First Day," from The 120 Days of Sodom, (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1987), 263 ó 282.
Session 14: Screening: The Monster, Roberto Benigni, 1994 Reading:
    1. TBA
Session 15: Screening: Life is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni, 1997 Reading:
    1. Maurizio Viano, "Life is Beautiful: Reception, Allegory, and Holocaust Laughter," Jewish Social Studies, vol. 5, no. 3 (1999): 47 - 66. Available through the Project Muse database.
    2. OPTIONAL Ruth Ben-Ghiat, "The Secret Histories of Roberto Benigniís Life Is Beautiful," The Yale Journal of Criticism, vol. 14, no. 1 (2001): 253 ó 266. Available through the Project Muse database.
Session 16: Submit final paper