When Italy Meets America Instructor: Margherita Ghetti ​ Winter 2020 Monday 1-3pm

At the turn of the 20th century Italian people came in waves to the North-American shores, carrying along their families, goods and language. Cinema lent itself to the representation and questioning of this encounter. As Italian bodies and gestures landed on screen, they became part of American cinema’s common, sometimes stereotypical, imagery. In this course, we will explore thoroughly the origins of the “American dream” and those of the Italian-American nature and construct beyond its overused definitions. Throughout this exploration, we will first delve into the cinematic portrait of migration and cultural exchanges across the Atlantic Ocean, which remains a privileged site to understand cultural and geo-political dynamics still informing our historical time. We will start with Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917) and move up to the more ​ ​ recent Nuovomondo (2006), by Emanuele Crialese. In the second part of our course we will study ​ ​ how the phenomenon of “Americanization” historically intersects with questions of cultural influence –as witnessed in the fascist and post-WWII filmic production, as in Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan (1946). After the war, at the time of the Italian “economic miracle,” starting in ​ ​ the 1950s, Americanization was viewed less as a dream than as the culmination of“imperialism.” This critical stance compelled many directors toward the production of genre films, as is the case of the sci-fi dystopian fantasy of Elio Petri’s The Tenth Victim (1965). In the third part of the ​ ​ course, with the mafia serial The Sopranos by David Chase and Mario Puzo's Godfather filmic ​ ​ ​ ​ transposition by F. F. Coppola (1972), we will deepen our study of visual representation, narrative devices, cinematography and style, up to the Italian “instant classic” The Traitor (2019). We ​ ​ will then delve into questions of ethnicity and race with Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989). ​ ​ Finally, we’ll address the power of the mainstream, evermore global, film industry, and the ties between Italian contemporary auteurs and Hollywood, as in the Oscar winning The Great ​ Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013), and the more recent Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, ​ ​ ​ 2017).

Students will be required to complete assigned readings and screenings before the class meets. Links and files will be provided electronically by the instructor.

Week 1: Monday 1/28 ​ Italian Migrants and the “American Dream”: Nuovomondo (2006) + clips from Charlie Chaplin, The ​ ​ ​ Immigrant (1917), Reginal Barker, The Italian (1915) ​ ​ ​ Readings: Fred Gardaphe, “Inventing Italian America,” in Leaving Little Italy (pp. 13-35); Emanuele ​ ​ ​ Crialese, Nuovomondo (2006). August 30th – Read: Margherita Heyer-Caput, “For a Cinema of Inbetweenness. Emanuele Crialese’s Nuovomondo,” Italica, Vol. 90, No. 2 (Summer 2013), pp. 272-285.

Week 2: Monday 2/3 ​ Italian Fascism, WWII and the Resistance: Roberto Rossellini, Paisan (1946) + clips from Mario ​ ​ Camerini’s Department Stores (1939) ​ ​ Readings: Barbara Spackman, “Shopping for Autarchy,” in Re-viewing Fascism, (pp. 276-292); ​ André Bazin, “Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation,” in Bert Cardullo, André Bazin and Italian Neorealism, 2011, (pp. 29-49); P. Adam Sitney, Vital Crises in Italian Cinema, “Rossellini’s Resistance,” pp. 27-28; “Paisà,” (pp. 40-53).

Week 3: Monday 2/10 ​ The Italian “Economic Miracle”: Elio Petri, The Tenth Victim (1965) + clips from Sergio Leone, Once ​ ​ ​ Upon a Time in the West (1968) ​ Readings: Eliot Chayt, “Revisiting Italian Post-neorealist Sci-fi Cinema.” ​

Week 4: Monday 2/24 ​ Italy and her “Other”: Spike Lee, Do The Right Thing (1989) ​ ​ Readings: Audrey McCluskey, “Telling Truth and Taking Names. An Interview with Spike Lee” ​ (2004), pp. 1-2; 9-11; Janice Mosier Richolson, “He’s Gotta Have It. An Interview with Spike Lee” (1991), (pp. 12-15).

Week 5: Monday 3/2 ​ The Italian American Mafia: Marco Bellocchio, The Traitor (2019); clips from FF Coppola, The ​ ​ ​ Godfather I (1972) + clips from The Sopranos ​ ​ Readings: Fred Gardaphe, “Origins of an Archetype,” in From Wiseguys to Wise Men. The ​ Gangster and Italian American Masculinities (2006), (pp. 3-20); excerpts from Peter Bondanella, Hollywood Italians. Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos (2004), (pp. 172-176; 198-204; 222-224; 236-245)

Week 6: Monday 3/9 ​ The “Great Beauty”: Paolo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty (2013); clips from Luca Guadagnino, Call Me ​ ​ ​ by Your Name (2017) ​ Readings: Monica Facchini, “A Journey From Death to Life: Spectacular Realism and the ​ "Unamendability" of Reality in Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty,” in Encounters with the Real in Contemporary Italian literature and cinema, edited by Loredana Di Martino and Pasquale Verdicchio (2017)