Cinema Categories
. . . . . .

Masters of Neorealism

Italian American Cinema

Martin Scorsese Biography

Books about Italian Cinema

Boston-Area Theaters Featuring Italian and Italian-American Films

  Books about Italian Cinema  

Book listings taken from Amazon.com
(List compiled by Ralph D'Angelo)

Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present
by Peter E. Bondanella

Book News:
"This comprehensive guide focuses on cinema as an art form, and the key role played by the director."

The Bookwatch, July 2001
"This comprehensive reference is an essential, core addition to any personal, professional, or academic film reference library."

Now in an expanded and fully updated third edition, Peter Bondanella's Italian Cinema From Neorealism to the Present continues to be the premier single volume reference to Italian films available to an English readership. From the silent movie era and the fascist period, through the various masters of neorealism, down to the present day, this comprehensive reference is an essential, core addition to any personal, professional, or academic film reference library. Of special interest are the select bibliography on the Italian Cinema, the information on locating Italian films on videocassette and DVD, and a comprehensive index.

Great Italian Films
by Jerry Vermilye

Italy's great films are as rich and surprising as life, full of humor, tragedy, tenderness, passion, cruelty, and love. Great Italian Films is a superior introduction to the Italian cinema, acquainting the reader with major directors such as De Sica, Rossellini, Monicelli, Fellini, Antonioni, and Visconti. The volume's scores of gorgeous photographs and stills make very clear why Silvana Mangano, Marcello Mastroianni, Giulietta Masina, Anna Magnani, Alain Delon, and so many other of Italy's bigger-than-life stars became international sensations. The films discussed here include such classics as The Bicycle Thief, La Strada, L'Avventura, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and The Night of the Shooting Stars. The book also gives detailed information about a number of lesser-known but equally remarkable films.

Italian Film (National Film Traditions)
by Marcia Landy

Italian Film examines the extraordinary cinematic tradition of Italy, from the silent era to the present. Analyzing film within the framework of Italy's historical, social, political, and cultural evolution during the twentieth century, Marcia Landy traces the construction of a coherent national cinema and its changes over time. Her study traces how social institutions--school, family, the Church--as well as Italian notions of masculinity and femininity are dealt with in cinema and how they are central to the conceptions (and misconceptions) of national identity.

Italian National Cinema 1896-1996
(National Cinemas)
by Pierre Sorlin

From such films as La Dolce Vita and Bicycle Thieves to Cinema Paradiso and Dear Diary, Italian cinema has provided striking images of Italy as a nation and a people. In the first comprehensive study of Italian cinema from 1886 onward, Sorlin explores the changing relationship of Italian cinema and Italian society and asks whether the national cinema really does represent Italian interests and culture. Sorlin discusses the work of major filmmakers, considering both films which became internationally acclaimed and those which, though popular with the domestic audience, were never released outside Italy. Sorlin's examination spans Italian cinema from the earliest days of film technology, through the dark years of fascism to postwar Neorealism and lastly explores the era of big budget commercial films.

Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism
by Millicent Joy Marcus, Milicent Marcus

This book contains essays on seventeen Italian films, made between 1945 and 1982, which are either Neorealist classics, or demonstrate the influence of Neorealism on Italian films made after the movement (7 yrs. duration, according to Marcus) ended. Marcus strikes a fine balance between readability and theory. I believe that anyone with a broad interest in Italian cinema would enjoy her readings, even those, like myself, who feel ambivalent toward "film theory". The book is a most intelligent companion to several of the finest Italian films, and several classics of international cinema. The essays are on the following films: Part I: Neorealism Proper: Open City (dir. Rossellini) ; Bicycle Thief (dir. De Sica); Bitter Rice (dir. De Santis); Umberto D. (dir. De Sica) / Part II: Transitions Bread, Love, and Fantasy (dir. Comencini); La Strada (dir. Fellini); Senso (dir. Visconti); Red Desert (dir. Antonioni) / Part III: Return to Social Commentary: Il Posto (dir. Olmi); Seduced and Abandoned (dir. Germi); Teorema (dir. Pasolini); Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (dir. Petri) / Part IV: Fascism and War Reconsidered The Conformist (dir. Bertolucci); Love and Anarchy (dir. Wertmuller); Christ Stopped at Eboli (dir. Rosi); Night

Home | Culture | Art | Music | Cinema | Language | Games | Heritage | Library