Università Roma Tre

The course examines the metamorphoses of directing in the different eras of film history, ranging from Hollywood filmmaking to independent cinema, from Italian silent film to contemporary queer cinema. Directing will be considered both as a series of concrete practices and in connection to the most relevant critical and theoretical reflections on the topic. Through the analysis of films and sequences, we will investigate direction in relation to the developments of film language and technology, and we will outline the different models of interaction between directors and (often invasive or censorial) producers. Reflecting on the vast array of creative and existential postures the director can approach the set through (from the attempt of total control to the openness to improvisation), we will emphasize the complex tension between the individual dimension of authorship and the practices of collective collaboration essential to the creation of a film. Also crucial will be the comparison between film and other art and media forms (literature, theatre, painting), and, last but not least, the gender perspective.

The syllabus with the final course program will be made available around the start of the course itself.

Provisional filmography: Assunta Spina (G. Serena, F. Bertini 1915); It Happened One Night (F. Capra 1934); Rope (A. Hitchcock 1948); Shadows (J. Cassavetes 1959); Bianca (N. Moretti 1984); Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, C. Sciamma 2019); The Fabelmans (S. Spielberg 2022).

Collection of essays selected by the professor.

The mise en scene of the Italian cinema from the silent to the new millennium

The course intends to cross Italian cinema from the great Italian silent cinema to the "rebirth" of contemporary cinema. From Cabiria to The Great Beauty there is the whole history of Italian cinema, seen through its exemplary films: from silent films to cinema during Fascism, from neorealism to the "Italian comedy", from the cinema of great authors to the Crisis, from "young Italian cinema" in the cinema of the new millennium, the course analyzes the stylistic code of films, their direction and staging.

V. Zagarrio, Storia del cinema italiano. Regie autori e linguaggi dal muto a oggi, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2023.

V. Zagarrio. Nouvelle vague italiana. Il cinema del nuovo millennio, Venezia, Marsilio, 2022.