Postwar Italy and The Cinema Of Hope and Resilience

About this course:

Fellini’s screenwriter Ennio Flaiano wittily captured the essence of post-war Italy by stating that “in Italy, the situation is desperate but not serious.” In fact, despite the devastations of World War 2 and the collapse of infrastructures and unemployment, the sense of hope, optimism and freedom were crucial to the success of the reconstruction program that turned into the economic miracle of the 1960s. Cinema reflected both the challenges and the optimism of the population into a series of successful comedies, dramas and musicals that launched the career of actors such as Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni and Sofia Loren; and brought directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica to international acclaim. In this course, we watch and analyze films made during this transformative era: Bicycle Thieves (1948), Bellissima (1952) and Divorce Italian Style (1961). We also explore the interpretations provided a few decades later by a new generation of filmmakers and their movies: Facing Windows, (2003), I’m Not Scared (2003) and There’s Still Tomorrow (2023)—the last cinematic sensation (yet to be released in the US) that stunned European critics and audiences alike.