Customer Reviews:
scholarly classic in its field is stimulating and very readable.......2001-01-14
ITALIAN FILM IN THE LIGHT OF NEOREALISM contains essays on seventeen Italian films, released 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 of theory, literary criticism, history, and readability. The book is an informative and stimulating 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 (d. Rossellini) ; Bicycle Thief (d. De Sica); Bitter Rice (d. De Santis); Umberto D. (d. De Sica) / Part II: Transitions Bread, Love, and Fantasy (d. Comencini); La Strada (d. Fellini); Senso (d. Visconti); Red Desert (d. Antonioni) / Part III: Return to Social Commentary: Il Posto (d. Olmi); Seduced and Abandoned (d. Germi); Teorema (d. Pasolini); Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (d. Petri) / Part IV: Fascism and War Reconsidered The Conformist (d. Bertolucci); Love and Anarchy (d. Wertmuller); Christ Stopped at Eboli (d. Rosi); Night of the Shooting Stars (d. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani); We All Loved Each Other So Much (d. Scola).
[back cover: Millicent Marcus is Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Texas, Austin] Marcus was until recently at the University of Pennsylvania, and is now at Yale. The latest DVD editions of CINEMA PARADISO (released 2006) sport her excellent feature length commentary, accompanied here and there by director Giuseppe Tornatore. She makes a brief appearance on a supplement on the MALENA DVD (d. Giuseppe Tornatore), and more recently gives a brief historical background to Visconti's THE LEOPARD (Criterion Collection DVD, supplement). "NEOREALISM" is my favorite book by Marcus, and if you find you enjoy this title, check out her other work as well; the most recent is AFTER FELLINI.
P.S. Most of the films listed above are available on Region 1 DVD (U.S. & Canada coding). Some of them are out of circulation, and some are on Region 2 release. Region 2 DVDs are great for students of Italian who may not get catch the too-fast dialogue through listening comprehension, but can read the Italian-language subtitles usually available on Region 2 (Europe) DVDs of Italian films. [...]
Book Description
Italian Cinema is the only complete and up-to-date book on the subject available anywhere, in any language. New coverage from 1989 to the present includes the Italian horror-film genre, Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful et al.), Bernardo Bertolucci (Stealing Beauty), Franco Zeffirelli (Tea with Mussolini), Michael Radford (The Postman [Il postino]), Gabriele Salvatores (Mediterraneo), Maurizio Nichetti (The Bicycle Thief et al.), Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, The Starmaker), and much more. The book has been extensively revised and updated, including all-new notes, bibliography, plus videocassette and DVD information.
Customer Reviews:
With a select bibliography on the Italian Cinema.......2001-07-04
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.
An Extraordinary Panoramic Postcard of Italian Cinema.......2001-06-12
Bondanella offers a superb overview of the Italian national cinema, and explains the central contribution of Italian auters and artists to this quintessentially 20th Century artform. With encyclopedic sweep, the reader is served bite-sized portions of every major Italian film in a series of full-length chapters. The narrative is crisp and well-paced. The morsels may be bite-sized, but in the end, the reader is treated to an enormous feast of gourmet cinema.
Organized in a roughly chronological framework, Bondanella takes us from the humble beginnings of cinema in the Italian peninsula through to the present day. The discussion of the Neorealist moment, for example, traces the artistic and social roots of the movement, and touches upon it's profound (and continuing) influence within Italy and around the world. The 3rd Edition revises some of the text, and updates the final chapters on the most recent developments in Italian filmmaking.
The discussion is organized most often as a series of capsules addressing nearly every major Italian film. The result is a combination between historical exposition and film encyclopedia. I haved repeatedly turned to Bondanella's book to gain a quick insight or two into a film I may be lucky enough to be able to rent, see in one of New York's innumerable film venues, or catch on cable. Professor Bondanella could have possibly done more at times to explain the context in which these films were made. The political and social backdrop of the Italian peninsula has been an important determinant of the artistic output of it's people. It is not that these details are ignored --- in fact they are very well represented at many points in the narrative, and much more detail in a volume as compact as this one would likely have undermined the project as a whole --- but the reader may need to consult other sources at times to gain a more contextualized understanding or to clear up a confusing point here and there.
But this criticism should be made with a caveat. Bondanella sets out to provide the reader with a coherent narrative of the breathtaking accomplishments in film art in Italy. He succeeds in that task brilliantly. The panorama of 20th Century Italian film presented is as awe-inspiring as the most idyllic Tuscan villa or the Alpine vistas of the Alto-Adige. Reader's wishing to gain an appreciation of the central importance of Italian cinema will not be disappointed.
Customer Reviews:
Very informative.......2006-04-26
I am only a sophomore in High School but I did read this book for a biography project I had to do and it was very informative for a biography paper. It had its moments of boredom but overall i dont consider it a "Bad" book like some have in the past. There are not that many things written on Sophia that can be compared. So overall I think it was a pretty good book and packed full of in formation. Its a biography what more do you want and wild crazy fantasy romance story?
A tragedy!.......2003-11-21
This bio is a tragedy. Poor written, no history, just jive, gossips. An insult to Sophia Loren and to all her fans as well.
This horrible book, maybe the worst biography ever written, is a bad collage of information, a lack of journalistic bearing.
Mr. Harris' personality takes center stage even if the book is about Sophia. Barbed comments abound which instead of shedding light on the book's subject matter, seem to be included to ridicule its subject. Urgh...!!!
The essentials.......2002-10-30
There aren't many Sophia Loren biographies out there, and so fans often can't afford to be picky. So Warren G. Harris's "Sophia Loren" is an interesting read, if a somewhat plain vanilla one. Good photos, some amusing anecdotes and a basic summary of Sophia's life are what readers will find.
It traces her life from a scrawny illegitimate baby (whom a wet nurse described as looking like a rat, and who was later nicknamed "Toothpick"), whose mother was abandoned by her father, leaving her alone with two children. But Sophia Scicolone (later Sophia Lazzaro, and then Sophia Loren) rapidly bloomed into a beautiful woman, becoming a beauty contest champ and then an actress. Despite a string of flops and a controversial relationship with a divorced man, Sophia became one of the most beautiful and women in the world, and the first Oscar winner of a performance in a foreign-language film.
The best description of this book is "adequate." It's not amazingly written, researched or presented. Rather it presents the basics of Sophia's life up the 1990s, which seems to have been a fairly straightforward, open one. There isn't really much that is new in this, but what is there is usually presented in an entertaining manner. Between the "battle of the bosoms" and Frank Sinatra teaching Sophia some obscene questions in English, we hear some funny events as well as a few bittersweet ones. And unlike many biographies, this one gives detailed summaries of her various movies.
Sophia herself is presented as a warm and sweet person, who cabled flowers to Clark Gable's widow and befriended nearly every costar (entrancing a few as well). The pictures are not well-chosen, as there aren't as many as there could have been, and quite a few seem to focus on Sophia in various stages of undress (ranging from her see-through prostitute gown to her merry widow to her topless dance number in "It's Him -- Yes Yes!"). Carlos Ponti, her husband, is a nebulous figure -- we don't learn much about him. Sophia's family and friends are better defined, such as her never-say-die mother Romilda, her commitmentphobe father, and the extremely emotional Cary Grant.
It's not outstanding, but it's a big plus for fans of the amazing Sophia Loren. For the basics on her life, this is a good place to start.
fleshy with filmography.......1999-05-15
If you are looking for an in depth expose of a magnificent film legend - you've come to the wrong place. This book is really spare with the good jive but incredibly detailed in the film jive.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful break down of the giallo film.......2007-09-09
While portions of this excellent treatise on the ultra violent Italian filone known as the giallo are dry and, imo -best left for academia than print- what makes Koven's book special are the chapters on what elements constitute a giallo film.
From the amateur detectives to the killer(s), inventive set-pieces and everything in between, this portion of Koven's book makes my gialli viewing experiences all the more fun.
The First English Language Study of the Giallo.......2007-05-18
Mikel J. Koven's academic study of the Italian genre known as giallo is destined to become an important part of the discourse surrounding this much maligned culturally specific form. This book is the first of its kind, an English language study which takes a broad approach to the genre, and doesn't just centre in on a few exceptional directors and films. The first few chapters are the most interesting and add to the debate around popular European cinema and the possible reasons for its dismissal and marginalisation. Koven proposes the term 'vernacular cinema' rather than popular, and argues that giallo films were constructed formally and thematically for a working class rural audience. Therefore the language of these films is one that is formed by and recognisable too a certain type of audience in Italy. An audience which would have both a fascination and ambivalence toward the chic cosmopolitan modernity represented by these films. Koven further argues this was a distracted and unfocused audience, hence the giallo's reliance on punctuating dull narrative exposition with graphic and violent set pieces. I would suggest that it is in Koven's discussion of the reception and consumption of giallo that holds the greatest interest. The remainder of the book is a broad, but extremely well written exploration of the formal and thematic conventions of giallo, for die hard fans of these films this will seem familiar, but its very nice having it written down in academic terms for future reference. Koven's discussion of the set piece is also noteworthy, in that he suggests the set piece, which seems to continue long after its narrative justification, is very close to Pasolin's concept of poetic cinema. It is hard to argue for these films in the terms of art cinema, but Koven pulls it off. This is certainly not the last word on giallo within academic terms of reference, but it is an excellent starting point and will become a crucial book for students of popular European cinematic forms.
Book Description
Focusing on contemporary Italian films, this book offers Italian-language teachers an exciting opportunity to incorporate authentic language in their classrooms. The book is adaptable for any level of language instruction and devotes one chapter to each of ten entertaining movies-among them Cinema Paradiso, La vita e bella, Mediterraneo, and Il postino. Pre-viewing, viewing, and post-viewing activities appropriate to the various films are included in each chapter. The exercises range in difficulty from elementary to highly sophisticated and are designed to enhance students' vocabulary and cultural awareness as well as oral and written skills. Because the film chapters are arranged chronologically and not in order of increasing difficulty, teachers may place particular films in their syllabi at any stage of language instruction. Drawing on a fine selection of relevant Italian films, this inviting book effectively fosters a deeper understanding of both Italian language and culture.
Book Description
When Benito Mussolini proclaimed that ãCinema is the strongest weapon,ä he was only telling half the story. The first English-language anthology devoted to this subject, Re-viewing Fascism examines just how many films failed as ãweaponsä in creating cultural consensus and instead came to reflect the complexities and contradictions of Fascist culture.
Book Description
From the silent era and The Black Hand (1906) to The Sopranos, Hollywood has had a love-hate affair with Italian Americans. This book is a celebration of nearly one hundred years of images of Italians in American motion pictures. It covers all the stars as well as directors: Danny Aiello, Frank Capra, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Brian De Palma, Leonardo Di Caprio, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Dean Martin, Vincente Minnelli, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Martin Scorsese, Frank Sinatra, Marisa Tomei, John Travolta, Rudolph Valentino, and scores of others. Dozens of films are discussed, including, very often, their literary and European-cinematic roots. Hollywood Italians is capped by a definitive examination of Coppola's Godfather films as well as the international-television phenomenon The Sopranos.
Customer Reviews:
very good but I've read better.......2006-06-29
Very good but another recent book by Fred Gardaphe -- "From Wiseguys to Wise Men" tackles a lot of this topic and does it better!
Book Description
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Widely acclaimed as America's greatest living film director, Martin Scorsese is also, some argue, the pre-eminent Italian American artist. Although he has treated various subjects in over three decades, his most sustained filmmaking and the core of his achievement consists of five films on Italian American subjects - Who's That Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, and Casino - as well as the documentary Italianamerican. In Gangster Priest Robert Casillo examines these films in the context of the society, religion, culture, and history of Southern Italy, from which the majority of Italian Americans, including Scorsese, derive.
Casillo argues that these films cannot be fully appreciated either thematically or formally without understanding the various facets of Italian American ethnicity, as well as the nature of Italian American cinema and the difficulties facing assimilating third-generation artists. Forming a unified whole, Scorsese's Italian American films offer what Casillo views as a prolonged meditation on the immigrant experience, the relationship between Italian America and Southern Italy, the conflicts between the ethnic generations, and the formation and development of Italian American ethnicity (and thus identity) on American soil through the generations. Raised as a Catholic and deeply imbued with Catholic values, Scorsese also deals with certain forms of Southern Italian vernacular religion, which have left their imprint not only on Scorsese himself but also on the spiritually tormented characters of his Italian American films. Casillo also shows how Scorsese interrogates the Southern Italian code of masculine honour in his exploration of the Italian American underworld or Mafia, and through his implicitly Catholic optic, discloses its thoroughgoing and longstanding opposition to Christianity.
Bringing a wealth of scholarship and insight into Scorsese's work, Casillo's study will captivate readers interested in the director's magisterial artistry, the rich social history of Southern Italy, Italian American ethnicity, and the sociology and history of the Mafia in both Sicily and the United States.
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Book Description
In terms of migration, Italy is often thought of as a source country - a place from which people came rather than one to which people go. However, in the past few decades, Italy has indeed become a destination for many people from poor or war-torn countries seeking a better life in a stable environment. Graziella Parati's Migration Italy examines immigration to Italy in the past twenty years, and explores the processes of cultural hybridization that have occurred.
Working from a cultural studies viewpoint, Parati constructs a theoretical framework for discussing Italy as a country of immigration. She gives special attention to immigrant literature, positing that it functions as an act of resistance, a means to talk back to the laws that regulate the lives of migrants. Parati also examines Italian cinema, demonstrating how native and non-native filmmakers alike create parallels between old and new migrations, complicating the definitions of sameness and difference.
These definitions and the complexities inherent in the different cultural, legal, and political positions of Italy's people are at the heart of Migration Italy, a unique work of immense importance for understanding society in both modern-day Italy and, indeed, the entire European continent.
Book Description
No one represents the Italian American journey from undesirable outsiders to embraced citizens better than Frank Sinatra. From impoverished beginnings in an immigrant, single-parent household to world renown as "Chairman of the Board," he beat the odds to become one of the most influential and best-loved artists of the twentieth century. Sinatra's symbolic role to the millions of Italian American immigrants who looked up to him as proof of the American dream was far-reaching. From teenage crooner to civil rights activist to Reagan Republican, his shifting identity resonated deeply in Italian American culture. Now, a gathering of distinguished historians, journalists and critics explore Sinatra's impact on American culture, from questions of politics and civil rights to Italian mothering, morality, and ethnic stereotyping. These insights place Sinatra at the fulcrum of many controversial and timely issues that lend his influence a new depth and power, not only musically but in a broad historical context.
Customer Reviews:
A New Look at Old Blue Eyes.......2007-04-10
Stan Pugliese's book is outstanding. It outlines the way Italian American culture was shaped and influenced by Frank Sinatra by putting together a series of scholarly articles dealing with the history, politics, identity, and representation of Sinatra's life. It is an entirely new perspective on an old story. The book was written in order to cast a scholarly light on some hazy issues that have been overlooked in the past. All of the articles are written by collegiate historians (all of whom have impressive working bibliographies).
This is an excellent source for anyone interested in researching Sinatra because it is written with a modern perspective (c. 1994). This is not intended to be a biography, and reading it with a background knowledge of Sinatra is helpful. This book is only really meant to be geared toward historians or scholars that are familiar with Sinatra's life.
The book is extremely well-written and well-researched, and I would recommend it to anyone who is familiar with Sinatra and his life (which also means being familiar with the context of his life). For researching purposes, the book was extremely helpful.
The best of both worlds: Frank Sinatra & Italy.......2007-01-09
This book wasn't actually for me, it was for my father-in-law, who is 100% Italian, and probablly Frank Sinatra's biggest fan! So for Christmas I was on a mission to bring his 2 favorite things together... Although I didn't read the book, he was very excited about the book, and has told us that he enjoyed it very much :o)
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General
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| Books
Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present
After Fellini: National Cinema in the Postmodern Age
Filmmaking by the Book: Italian Cinema and Literary Adaptation
The Cinema of Federico Fellini
Italian Cultural Studies: An Introduction
