Flavia Laviosa 365 GAETANA MARRONE
Flavia Laviosa 365 GAETANA MARRONE THE GAZE AND THE LABYRINTH: THE CINEMA OF LILIANA CAVANI Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. 308 pp. he Gaze and the Labyrinth is a long-needed book on Liliana Cavani and her cinema. Cavani, one of the few famous women in the Italian film industry, whose work, in both documentary and fiction, represents a significant contribution to cinematic art, is also one of the most controversial and thought-provoking filmmakers who has not received the credit that she deserves, and who has been a long-neglected figure in the international discussion. Cavani has given a large number of interviews and her films have been widely reviewed in numerous publications, as Marrone s bibliography shows at the end of her book, but, except for a limited number of theoretical and critical articles in academic journals, her works have not been adequately and thoroughly studied. Cavani s first feature to win her international reputation as a film director was Il portiere di notte in 1974. She was helped by her cast, Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, but she was also in command of an explosive storyline. The inspiration for the film came from her research into camp survivors conducted during her period making documentaries for RAI in the early Sixties, as Cavani explains in detail in her introduction to the published screenplay (Einaudi, 1974) and in the interview given to Claire Clouzot ( Entretien Ecran, June 1974, 37-42). The film was inspired by personal encounters with two women who had survived the concentration camp experience and by Nazi newsreel and propaganda material which Cavani had screened while preparing a documentary, History of the Third Reich for RAI, in 1962.
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