The course is designed for those who have a passion and/or professional interest in Italian cinema. As in all thematic courses, this one aims not only at providing knowledge of contemporary Italian cinema, but also at improving the student’s general knowledge of the Italian language on the basis of the didactic principle that the things that interest us are much more easily assimilated.

The program can be carried out in several ways:

A) a look at the main Italian figures of post-war Italy, at cinematic trends and movements, with viewing and stylistic analyses of important scenes

B) the presentation and analysis of a specific movement or figure

C) the presentation and analysis of a particular film

Program A

Italian cinema at the end of the war

Neo-realism

Comic cinema

Comedy, Italian style

Cinema around 1968

The first generation of directors: Rossellini, Fellini, Antonioni, De Sica, Pasolini

The second generation: Comencini, Risi, Bolognini, Monicelli, the Taviani brothers, Bertolucci, Ferreri

The third generation: Nanni Moretti, Salvatores, Tornatore

Comic cinema in Tuscany: Benigni, Pieraccioni and others

The avant-garde

Programs B and C

If a student is particularly interested in a cinematic movement, in a director or in a particular work, the course can focus entirely on that topic. In such cases, we recommend that the student inform us before arriving in order to give the instructor sufficient time to prepare a specific program with selected texts

Example of Program B: Nanni Moretti

His works: Io sono un autarchico (1975), Ecce bombo (1977), Sogni d’oro (1981), Bianca (1984), La messa è finita (1985), Palombella rossa (1989), Caro diario (1993), Aprile (1998). Nanni Moretti, actor: Il portaborse (1989), La seconda volta (1994), etc. Biography. Awards and mentions. His social and political activities. Satire, irony, sarcasm. The viewing and analysis of some of the most important scenes from some of his films, etc.

Example of Program C: Mediterraneo by Gabriele Salvatores

The third film of Gabriele Salvatores, the young Italian director, won the Oscar for the best foreign film of 1991. It recounts the vicissitudes of eight Italian soldiers sent to a peaceful Greek island and forgotten there from 1941 to 1944, while all around the Second World War rages. A story about the beauty of getting away, of being beyond the world. The film begins with a phrase by Henry Laborit: “In times like these, flight is the only means of staying alive and continuing to dream” and it ends with a quote from the director: “This film is dedicated to all of those who are running away”. Characters: Raffaele Montini, the lieutenant; Eliseo Strazzabosco, the mule driver; Libero and Felice Munaron, the Alpine brothers, etc.