QUEENS COLLEGE
The City University of New York
Department of European Languages and Literatures
ITALIAN CINEMA 250w
READING ITALY THROUGH FILM
F: (9:15-1:15)/Powdermaker 302
Professor Eugenia Paulicelli/King 205A/ Tel: 718 997 5659/Email:
eugenia.paulicelli@qc.cuny.edu
Office hours: M: 1:00-2:00; 3:30-4:30 or by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will focus on the study of the contributions made by Italian
filmmakers to the art form of cinema from early experimentation in neorealism in the 1940s till
the present. At each class meeting the course will focus on a specific topic and historical period.
Students will learn the history of cinema in Italy, and will study the innovations in form,
narrative and aesthetics introduced by Italian filmmakers. In particular, students will be trained
to look at Italian cinema’s international breadth and the impact of its technological innovations
had on the history of global cinema in a global perspective.
The film 1860 will introduce Italian cinema under fascism, which is so crucial for understanding
not only the history of Italy but also of Europe and the impact the totalitarian regime had on
world history. The students will also learn of the role played by fascist cinema in the
reinterpretation of the Risorgimento and the subsequent phases of the unification of the Italian
nation, an theme that will be treated later in the course through other films produced in postwar Italy. In addition, 1860, although made in 1937, is important as a means to locate the first
seeds of the aesthetic of neo-realism that will become known to the world through Roberto
Rossellini, an author who will be studied in depth in the course. Through the analysis of
narrative style, students will learn to identity the neo-realist aesthetic and the shift that took
place in the experimental cinema of the 1950s and 1960s with directors such as Michelangelo
Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, all of whom have been very
influential not only in Italy but also in world cinema. As the course progresses, the themes of
alienation, consumerism, and the anthropological revolution that took place in Italy during the
so-called “economic miracle” will be explained and addressed through film. Lastly, the course
will turn to Italian cinema’s treatments of the insurgence of violence and terrorism of the 1970s
and 1980s.
This course will satisfy the Appreciating and Participating in the Arts (AP) and European
Traditions (ET) requirements of the PLAS. Focusing on Italian cinema from fascism, through
neorealism and onto contemporary films, the course will train students to develop a critical
vocabulary that will help them to come to terms with not only Italian cinema, but will also assist
them in their interactions with mass media in their daily lives. In addition, the course will help
them develop critical thinking skills to bring to bear on other disciplines at Queens College.
Cinema is by nature interdisciplinary and calls on fields as disparate as history, art history,
literature, media studies, psychology, sociology etc. for a deeper understanding of the
implications contained in each film. As Italian cinema is an integral part of Italian culture, we
will analyze how the traditions of Western European thought are present in twentieth-century
Italian culture, and in Italian cinema in particular. As such, the course is in line with the aims of
the ET requirement for PLAS insofar as it trains students in the “skills of observing and listening
to […] and appreciating the creative arts,” so developing “awareness of the role of these arts in
human life.”
REQUIRED TEXTS: Peter Bondanella, Italian Film. Available at the Queens College Bookstore;
Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli. Anthology of articles on film, historiography and cinematic
theory; chapters from Tim Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film; and from L. Giannetti,
Understanding Movies will be included. The material is available for purchase at Queens Copy
Center, 65-01 Kissena Boulevard and put on ereserve.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Reading
20%
Class Participation
10%
Peer Review
5%
Short Papers
20% (10% each)
Final Paper
25%
Midterm examination
15%
Reading
Since reading, writing and critical thinking skills are intertwined, reading is a vital and essential
component of this course. Besides doing all the reading assigned for each class, you are
expected to “read” actively, that is to say, to interact with the film in order to interrogate it and
engage in a conversation with it, instead of reading passively to acquire mere informational
knowledge. With that in mind, part of each class―usually 5-10 minutes―will be devoted to nongraded, exploratory writing activities that can help you generate, extend, deepen and clarify
critical thinking in relation to the reading and the viewing of the day. Moreover, reading should
foster and facilitate productive and fruitful class discussion.
Italian majors are expected to write in Italian and view extra material with no subtitles. This will
be coordinated with the Professor.
Attendance and Participation
As active learners and members of an academic community, you are all expected to attend and
participate in class activities, especially in debates with your fellow students and your instructor.
The objective of class discussion consists both in probing a subject and in acquiring awareness of
the collaborative nature of knowledge. Thus, plan to attend every class and to be punctual, and
please, whenever possible, inform me in advance about your absence.
Short Papers and Final Paper
A writing intensive course such as Italian Cinema 250W is aimed at helping students improve
their critical skills abilities(posing questions, advancing hypotheses, gathering and analyzing
data, marking arguments and producing college-level prose). There are two types of formal
writing assignments for this course: I) two short papers and; II) Midterm examination; III) a final
paper.
I)
As for the short papers or microthemes, each of them should be 4-5-page long and will
tackle the development and tentative solution of circumscribed problems related to the
reading. The question every short paper focuses on will be announced one week earlier by
the teacher.
II) As for the second type of assignment, it should be 10-page long and each student will be
able to choose her/his topic. Prior to the submission of the final product, students are
expected to submit a 1-page prospectus addressing the following questions:




What problem do you intend to address?
Why is it both interesting and significant?
What is your thesis statement?
What kind of bibliographical material and sources have you planned to use or have used
so far?
Later on, students should hand in a first draft for peer response. Along with final copies,
students will have to submit all drafts and peer responses.
In order to prepare you to for both types of writing assignments, in the course of the semester a
writing fellow will conduct workshops on paper structure/thesis support and revision. A writing
fellow will be available to work with you on specific assignments.
Format. All writing assignments should be typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, and carefully
edited and proofread. They must also be provided with a cover page including the title, your
name, and course name and number. In order to cite sources and construct your works cited list
properly, please use MLA guidelines you can find in the following web site:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
Criteria for Evaluation
Generally, when evaluating student writing, I will follow an ideal scale of concerns, giving
priority to higher-order issues such as: ideas, organization, development and clarity, over lowerorder issues such as: sentence correctness, style, mechanics and spelling. As a general principle,
you may consider that a successful paper fulfills both higher- and lower-order requirements,
whereas an unsuccessful essay fails in fulfilling all of them (of course, the higher-order concerns
in particular) or does not follow the assignment at all.
Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum
As your instructor, I am always willing and glad to help you both inside and outside of class in
one-on-one conferences during my office hours. Please, do not hesitate to meet with me
whenever you feel puzzled by course issues.
As an alternative, especially as far as writing is concerned, please consider taking advantage of
the valuable tutoring that the staff of the Writing Center (http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/qcwsw/)
and the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program (http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/Writing/)
available on our campus can offer you at any stage of the writing process.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Academic dishonesty and plagiarism―defined as “Borrowing, purchasing, or otherwise
obtaining work composed by someone else and submitting it under one’s own name” (Rebecca
Moore Howard)―are unacceptable and severely punished by the college (see the CUNY policy
statement on academic integrity.) In case of a plagiarized pa per, the worth of the assignment
will be subtracted from your final grade, while, in case of a second occurrence of plagiarism, the
minimum penalty will be an F in the course.
This said, plagiarism often represents a desperate and wrong measure to solve difficulties that
might always find a more appropriate solution through the support of your instructor and
college institutions. Moreover, sometimes plagiarism is also due to ignorance of disciplinespecific citation and attribution conventions, about which you can learn by consulting the
above-mentioned web site for a clear and detailed MLA formatting and style guide.
WEEK 1/Framing History: Representing the Risorgimento (Italy’s process of unification) in
Fascist Italy
1860 (1937) by Alessandro Blasetti. Introduction to the course.
Reading: Bondanella, pp.1-30.
WEEK 2/Towards the End of Fascism: Italian Neorealism
Rome, Open City (1945) by Roberto Rossellini.
The Manifesto of Italian Neorealism: Paisan (1946) by Roberto Rossellini
Reading: Bondanella, pp 31- 102; T. Corrigan, “How to write about film” (Xeroxed copies)
Rossellini, from My Method (Xerox material)
* First short paper questions to be announced
WEEK 3/Part II. The Post-war: The Economic Boom
The White Sheik (1952) by Federico Fellini.
Reading: Bondanella, pp.103-141; Giannetti, Understanding Movies (Xeroxed copies)
* Instruction on paper structure and thesis support
WEEK 4/Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) by Mario Monicelli Short paper I due
Reading: G. N. Smith, “Italy: Tradition, Backwardness and Modernity” (Xerox material)
Italy and Italian Cinema during the Years of the Great Transformation.
WEEK 5/L’Avventura (1960) by Michelangelo Antonioni
Reading: : Bondanella, pp.196-252; Rohdie, Antonioni (Xerox material); E. Paulicelli, “Framing
the Self, Staging Identity” (Xerox materials)
* First short paper due
WEEK 6/Part III. Re-Framing Italy’s Past. The Risorgimento Revisited.
The Leopard (1963) by Luchino Visconti. Reading, R. Dombroski’s article on film adaptation
(Xerox material); A. Gramsci, from The Risorgimento (Xerox material)
WEEK 7/Midterm examination
Viewing: Teorema (1968) by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Reading: S. Rohdie, The Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini (Xerox material)
WEEK 8/The Nature of Fascism
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1975) by Francesco Rosi.
Reading: Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli
* Second short paper due
WEEK 9/Memory of Fascism
The Conformist (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci
Reading: Bondanella
WEEK 10/The Holocaust
The Garden of the Finzi-Contini (1970) by Vittorio De Sica
Reading: Bondanella
* Third Short paper due
WEEK 11/Fascism and Antifascism Revisited: A Civil War
The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982) by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.
Reading, D. Ward, Antifascisms (Xerox material)
* Final paper prospectus due
WEEK 12/Part IV. Contemporary Italy on the Screen: From 1968 to Terrorism, via Naples
L’amore molesto (1995) by Mario Martone
Reading: N. Moe, The View from Vesuvius (Xerox material)
*Instruction on Peer review
* Preliminary draft of final paper due for peer review
WEEK 13/I cento passi (One Hundreds Steps, 2000) by Marco Tullio Giordana
Reading: J. Dickie, from Cosa Nostra. A Hstory of Sicilian Mafia (Xerox material)
*Peer responses due
WEEK 14/My Brother is an only Child (2007) by Daniele Lucchetti.
*Final paper due on the date established by the College for final exams