ITST 141 A-Z - (AA) Italian Film HighlightsSemester Hours: 3
Periodically
A rotating series of courses investigating various aspects of Italian cinema. Topics include mafia cinema, race, gender, gothic and horror cinema, cinema and fascism, historical representations, migration in contemporary Italian cinema, and America as seen by Italian directors taught in English. All movies are in English or Italian with English subtitles.
Current Special Topics
ITST 141C - Comedy, Italian Style
We will explore how Italian directors representing 50 years of cinema have used the genre of comedy to serious effect, that is, to comment on the political and social realities of contemporary Italy. Directors and topics may include satire and the Commedia all Italiana of Pietro Germi (1960s), the feminist comedies of Lina Wertmuller (1970s), Franco Brusati’s exploration of Italian guest workers in Switzerland (1973), Marco Ferreri’s attack on consumerism (1973), Gabriele Salvatores’s questioning of Italy’s post-war economic miracle (1991), Roberto Benigni’s Holocaust comedy (1997), and Luca Miniero’s road-trip film that explores separatist prejudice between north and south (2010).
ITST 141D - True Crime Cinema in Italy
Spanning more than a century, this course analyzes movies inspired by some of the most infamous crimes in Italian history. The films studied focus on a wide array of topics, ranging from the Sicilian mafia to the notorious criminal gangs in the north; from wide-ranging political plots and assassinations to cronaca nera/true crime news. By exploring films from important auteurs like Rosi, Petri, and Antonioni, as well as examining popular modern films, students will have the opportunity to discover contemporary Italian history while getting acquainted with the main stages of development of Italian cinema. All reading texts in English; all films presented with English subtitles.
No knowledge of Italian is necessary for this distribution course.
ITST 141B: Children in Italian Films
This course is an examination of children as protagonists of Italian films from mid-20th to early 21st century. We focus on films that represent a variety of genres (neorealism, comedy, and melodrama). The selected films offer the opportunity to investigate how the child’s cinematic gaze and subjectivity uniquely comment on social, economic, and historical realities of modern Italy.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Specific titles and course descriptions for special topics courses are available in the online class schedule.
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