Università Roma Tre

The course addresses film history from 1940 to date, considering the cultural contexts for the XXth and XXIst century, and focusing on specific moments. Each decade is considered through specific case studies, analyzed according to a formal, industrial and cultural perspective.
Main themes: Hollywood cinema in the 1940s. Italian cinema in the 1940s and Neorealism. 1950s: film genres in Europe and Hollywood. 1950s: narrative forms and styles. New Waves and art cinema in the 1960s. Experimental films: a few examples. New Hollywood in the 1970s. European cinema in 1970s and 1980s. Blockbusters and global franchises. World cinema and contemporary films.

Books:
Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction, McGraw Hill, 2010, chapters 11-20 + Appendix (pp. 173-472 + 525-548)
A collection of essays will be made available to students before the course.

Films:
Murder, My Sweet, Edward Dmytryk, 1944
Roma città aperta, Rome Open City, Roberto Rossellini, IT 1945
Rashômon, Akira Kurosawa, JP 1950
Domenica d’agosto, Sunday in August, Luciano Emmer, 1950
Singin’ in the Rain, Stanley Donen e Gene Kelly, US 1952
Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958
Hiroshima mon amour, Alain Resnais, JP-FR 1959
Persona, Ingmar Bergman, SW 1966
Blow up, Michelangelo Antonioni, UK 1966
Je, tu, il, elle, Chantal Akerman, B-FR 1974
Nashville, Robert Altman, US 1975
Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, US 1976
My Beautiful Laundrette, Stephen Frears, UK 1985
Die Hard, John McTiernan, US 1988
The Matrix, The Wachowski Brothers, US 1999
Caché, Hidden, Michael Haneke, FR 2005

The course covers a historical arc that goes from the post-war period to the present day. European and American filmmaking is primarily taken as a reference. Starting therefore from the phenomenon of Italian neorealism, we move on to the concept of modernity in cinema and the notion of author, taking as a reference cases straddling Europe and America between the 1940s and 1950s. Continuing with the 1960s, we then move on to analyzing the French Nouvelle Vague and New Hollywood in the USA. Particular attention is paid to Italian cinema of the 1960s between authorial and genre production. Finally, a short monographic section of the course focuses on the relationship between cinema and anti-fascism.

D. Bordwell, K. Thompson, Storia del cinema. Un'introduzione, McGraw-Hill, Milano 2010 (from chap. 11 to chap. 20 included).

V. Zagarrio (ed.), "Cinema a antifascismo: alla ricerca di un epos nazionale" (issue "Cinema e Storia. Rivista di studi interdisciplinari", 2015, Rubbettino Editore).

Filmography:

Roberto Rossellini, Roma città aperta (1945)
Yasujirō Ozu, Tōkiō Monogatari (Viaggio a Tokio, 1953)
Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window (La finestra sul cortile, 1954)
Jean-Luc Godard, À bout de souffle (Fino all’ultimo respiro, 1960)
Dino Risi, Il sorpasso (1962)
Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow-up (1966)
Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver (1976)
Brian De Palma, Blow Out (1981)
Jim Jarmusch, Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
James Cameron, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Terminator 2. Il giorno del giudizio, 1991)
Cristopher Nolan, Memento (2000)