Italian Film-Makers in China and Changing Cultural Perceptions

JICMS 2 (1) pp. 41–58 Intellect Limited 2014

Stefano Bona Flinders University

Italian film-makers in China and changing cultural perceptions: Comparing Chung Kuo – China (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1972) and La stella che non c’è/The Missing Star (Gianni Amelio, 2006)

Abstract Keywords This article compares the representation of China in two Italian films shot in Italy country, namely Chung Kuo – China (Antonioni, 1972) and La stella che non China c’è/The Missing Star (Amelio, 2006). In the intervening 30-odd years changes cinema have occurred to the Italian perception of China. Specifically, this perception Antonioni appears to have shifted from a widespread fascination for Maoism, to a nega- Amelio tivity linked to the ongoing economic changes caused by globalization that saw translocalism a redistribution of wealth and power, and in which Italy and China appeared to Maoism globalization 41

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1. First, I would like to symbolize the two extremes on the scale of a reversed power relationship. The two express my gratitude to films are analysed on the basis of three assumptions. The first being that until the Dr Luciana d’Arcangeli for her tireless support nineteenth century the encounter between the West and China was mainly one and encouragement sided, with Italy being the first western culture to approach China. The second that over the year-long research process and to Italian directors were among the first westerners to make full length films in the Assoc. Prof. Mike Walsh People’s Republic of China. The third that film-makers are intellectuals influenced for his precious advice by the historical period in which they film. This analysis will revolve on a histori- on film analysis. cal contextualization, a discussion of meaningful film sequences, and the implica- 2. A comparison between tions emerging from a comparison of the two films. the growth of the Italian and the Chinese GDP in 2001–2010 摘要 reveals that the 本文比较了在中国拍摄的两部意大利电影‹‹中国›› (米开朗基罗·安东尼奥尼, former grew by 1.9% in a decade while the 1972) 和 ‹‹消逝的星星›› (吉安尼·阿米里奥, 2006) 对中国的描绘。在这两部影 aggregate growth of 片间隔的三十年间，意大利人对中国的看法发生了变化。确切地说，这种看 the latter in the same period was 98.4%. To 法似乎已经从对毛泽东思想的普遍着迷转变成了对全球化进程所发的经济转 make a more complete 变的消极看法。全球化进程见证了财富和权力的再分配。在这一进程中，意 comparison, the 大利和中国似乎代表着被翻转的权力关系中的两个极端。此两部电影的分析 developed economies grew by 13.8 %, the 以三个假设为依据：（一）直到 19 世纪，西方文化与中国的接触主要都是 European Union 11.9 单方向的，而意大利文化是最先接近中国的西方国家；（二）意大利导演是 % and the developing 最先在中华人民共和国拍摄长片的西方人之一；（三）电影制作人是受到拍 countries by 54.1% (United Nations 摄影片时的历史时期所影响的知识分子。本文将围绕其历史背景、电影片段 2010: 145, 147). A 的讨论以及在比较这两部影片时所得出的推断进行分析。 significant summary on the general mood on globalization, deindustrialization and China is reported Introduction in Ratto (2006: 7–24, Western cultures have long been both fascinated and puzzled by China. 57–70). Due to its cultural and geographic distance and its long-term isolation, the perception and representation of the country has often changed, repeatedly having been undermined by stereotypes and misunderstandings. This became particularly evident in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries when China transitioned from an empire to a republic, a country largely deprived of its territorial sovereignty due to the territorial concessions given to other countries to a fully independent country, a Communist regime to a socialist market system, and from one of the poorest economies to the second largest global economy.1 The comparison of two Italian films shot in China, namely Chung Kuo – China/Chung Kuo – Cina (Antonioni, 1972) and La stella che non c’è/The Missing Star (Amelio, 2006), may be used to illustrate how such complex perceptions shifted from a shared fascination for China, or better for Maoism, to a widespread negativity. This shift was linked to the ongoing economic changes caused by globalization that saw a redistribution of wealth and power, and in which Italy and China appeared to symbolize the two extremes on the scale of a reversed-power relationship.2 The analysis of these films is based upon three assumptions: that the encounter between the West and China was for a long time one sided, with Italy being the first western culture to approach China; that Italian directors were among the first westerners to make full-length films in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Michelangelo Antonioni and Gianni Amelio being just two of a larger group; and that film-makers are intellectuals influenced by the historical period in which they shoot a film. From a methodological point of view, such analysis will be founded on a historical contextualization,

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a discussion of meaningful sequences, and the implications emerging from a 3. For a detailed recount of the experiences of comparison of the two films’ content, form and style. early Chinese travellers, The present article has multiple goals. Through its analysis: it will first see Masci (1990).

illustrate the changed perception of China in a specific western culture like 4. Antonioni filmed Chung Italy. Second, it will discuss to what degree ideological reasons manipulate Kuo simultaneously cinematic intentions. Finally, it will advocate the need for other similar cine- with France-based director Joris Ivens, matic experiences – despite the possible misunderstandings that may occur – who had arrived in as they contribute to juxtaposing western and Chinese cultures, giving the China in 1971, but spent countries more opportunity to reveal themselves to each other in a truly fourteen months on location. Ivens’ twelve- reciprocal (re)discovery. hour-long documentary titled Comment Yukong déplaça les montagnes/ Premise How Yukong Moved the Mountains was As a starting point, several explanations are necessary of Italy’s role in the west- completed three years ern–Chinese encounter, of the special role of Italian film directors in filming after Antonioni’s the PRC, and of the influence of a historical moment on film-makers’ work. and screened in 1976 (Sun 2009: 46, Zhang First, the scholarship in the field has described the encounter between the 2009: 40–41). There West – broadly defined as cultures sharing a European and Christian back- was another foreign ground – and China as having been predominantly one sided for centuries as film-maker working in China in 1972: the westerners travelled there for trading, religious, colonial and – in the twen- British-American Felix tieth century – ideological reasons. The opposite movement from China to Greene, author of the documentary One the western countries is a more recent phenomenon, as it was only in the Man’s China (1972) nineteenth century that Chinese intellectuals and diplomats began travelling (Contemporary Films: systematically to Europe, and Chinese people began to emigrate overseas.3 n.a.). Ivens and Greene, who had ideological Italy was a forerunner in the encounter with China, well exemplified by the affinities with the PRC, cases of Venetian merchant Marco Polo (1254–1324), and Marche-born Jesuit were allowed to film missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who were appropriately accepted by the documentaries in China several times from the imperial courts and are still considered models of profitable relations between 1930s until the 1980s, the two cultures (Marinelli 2010: 491–504). and from the 1950s to the 1970s respectively. Second, Italian film-makers seem to have continued this tradition of trav- They remain unique elling East. After the foundation of the PRC in 1949, almost every foreigner cases among western was required to leave. Over the following decades, China opened its doors film-makers (Jenkins 1986: 7). to a limited number of western travellers, generally selected on the basis of their ideological sympathies (Pini 2011: 83; Rampini 2007: 7). Western film- 5. Marco Polo was co-produced by Rai and makers in China then, were indeed unique cases. The first director allowed Vides Cinematografica to make a documentary feature in the PRC in 1957 was the Italian Carlo (Italy), NBC and Procter Lizzani, who shot a documentary entitled La muraglia cinese/Behind the Great & Gamble (USA), Tokyo Broadcasting System Wall. Only in 1972, in the late period of the Cultural Revolution and after (Japan) and CCAA a decade of China’s almost complete isolation from the rest of the world, (China) (IMDb n.d.). Antonioni was chosen to represent China to the western world with one of 6. The Last Emperor was the earliest completed documentary features after Beijing decided to reopen funded by the British 4 producer Jeremy its doors to western countries. In 1981–1982, Giuliano Montaldo – who had Thomas and its original previously worked with Lizzani – directed the miniseries Marco Polo, which title is in English. was the first Chinese–western co-production for television.5 Then, in 1986, Bernardo Bertolucci filmed The Last Emperor, based on the autobiography of Puyi, the last emperor of China. Bertolucci’s Academy-Award winning productionwas the first fictional feature film shot in the PRC by a western director. Also, Bertolucci was reportedly the first foreigner permitted to use the Forbidden City in Beijing as a set (Bowker 1987).6 Two decades later, in 2005, Amelio shot The Missing Star in China. In 2007, Sandro Cecca, another Italian director, abandoned his predecessors’ intellectual approach and shot Two Tigers, an Italian-produced, English-spoken exploitation film set in

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7. Several Italian left-wing Shanghai. At the time of writing, a further popular film is being completed: intellectuals visited China in those years. Dario Baldi’s C’è sempre un perché/Shi chu you yin/There is Always a Reason, Among them, writers a cross-cultural comedy of errors shot in both Sicily (Italy) and Chengdu Alberto Moravia and (China). This Chinese–Italian co-production is scheduled for distribution first Dacia Maraini in 1967, actors and directors in China and then in Italy in 2013 (Cinemaitaliano.info 2012; Italpress.com Dario Fo and Franca 2012; Anon. 2012), it only contains internationally distributed documentary Rame, and the leader features, fictional films and series have been considered here, as other forms of the Students Movement Mario of footage – such as adventure travelogues and journalistic footage – are too Capanna in 1975 (Pini numerous and wide-ranging to allow an in-depth analysis. 2011: 117; Valentini 1997: 162–63). The third assumption, regarding the influence of a historical moment on film-makers and film reception, can be illustrated by the two films analysed in 8. Lumley (1983), as cited in Paul Ginsborg (1990: this article. When Chung Kuo was shot in 1972, Italy was a leading industrial 307). For details over country characterized by long-lasting socio-political unrest based on a wide- the years of collective spread dissatisfaction with the local and international situation. A significant action in Italy, see Ginsborg (1990: number of Italian students, workers and intellectuals used mass protests and 298–347). strikes to demand better social and working conditions in Italy, and to call 9. For a list of common for the end to wars and dictatorships around the world. Disillusioned with complaints and American and western values, they began to admire Maoism and the Cultural stereotypes, see Ratto Revolution in which they saw a rejection of established power and the practical (2006: 57–70). application of Marxism–Leninism. A similar fascination also took hold in other western countries, from France to Australia.7 So influential was the myth of the Cultural Revolution, that during protests in Genoa in the 1960s workers called themselves ‘Guardie Rosse’ (Red Guards). Several Maoist-inspired subversive organizations flourished and their opponents labelled these student activists as ‘Cinesi’ (Chinese) to conflate the notions of ‘the red menace and the yellow peril’.8 Meanwhile, major foreign policy changes led Italy and the PRC to establish full diplomatic relations in 1970, although internal feuds and sudden political reversals reverberated in China for another decade. A combination of these factors was to influence and to haunt Antonioni’s documentary, from its genesis to its controversial reception after 1974. Three decades later, the situation was completely overturned: in 2006, the stagnating Italian economy experienced a large-scale deindustrialization process, which contrasted with China’s unprecedented economic boom. To many Italians – especially the working class who had previously considered China a guiding light to improve their own conditions – the country became a deceitful nation taking advantage of unfair competition, copyright infringe- ment, large-scale exploitation of workers, and the mass production of poor quality goods.9 Although it is not a pessimistic film, The Missing Star conveys these ideas in two ways: narratively, through the tropes of Italian deindustrialization and cross-culturalism; and cinematically, by showing aspects of both contemporary Italy and China. On the basis of these assumptions, it is now possible to analyse,compare, and explain the significance of the two films.

Chung Kuo – China Antonioni (1912–2007) arrived in Beijing in the wake of China’s reopening to the West and of recent contact between Rai – the Italian national television – and the Chinese embassy in Rome (Bachmann 1975: 29; Sun 2009: 45–46). Antonioni enthusiastically accepted the proposal of making a documentary in China. He believed Maoism had led ‘one billion people to be protagonists on the world scene’ (Antonioni 1974: viii–ix, xiv), but he had no intention of adopting such an ideological perspective in his film. Nor did he want to apply

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his own ‘fairy-tale’ idea of China (Antonioni 1974).10 He left for China feeling 10. Unless otherwise indicated, all open-minded and soon realized that the Chinese people, rather than their translations from the work, should be the very protagonists of the film. This was perfect for him. In original are mine. fact, Antonioni’s approach to cinema was based precisely on his analysis of 11. Jean Paul Sartre had the individual. Since his early works – the documentaries Gente del Po/People of Maoist sympathies the Po (1943) and Nettezza Urbana/Sanitation Department (1948) – he had ceased and his partner, the communist intellectual using sequential storylines in order to concentrate on individuals (Bondanella Simone De Beauvoir’, 2001: 108). His perspective was increasingly influenced by Existentialism had been one of which, in the 1950s, gained popularity thanks to Jean-Paul Sartre’s emphasis the first westerners invited to the PRC of man’s freedom and responsibility, and which had begun to pervade art, in 1955. Her diary, including cinema (Brunette 1998: 1).11 Thus, his camera extensively used pans, La longue marche: Essai sur la Chine, zoom-ins, close-ups, and ‘spying’ on characters, on their relationship with the was ideologically surrounding environment and on the contrast between past and modernity, biased but enjoyed a trying to reveal their psychological instability and their inability to adapt to large popularity, thus contributing to the an industrialized and technology-dominated environment (Bondanella 2001: creation of a partial 220–21; Tinazzi 1974: 34–35). and stereotyped image When he arrived in Beijing, in May 1972, Antonioni had to negotiate a of China (Rampini 2007: 8–15). detailed filming schedule with authorities, and he was told that it was ‘Man’ who better symbolized the changes which occurred during the Cultural 12. In France and the United States, shorter Revolution. This created a common ground between his main interest and the versions of the PRC’s requests (Antonioni 1974: ix). After long discussions, he was allowed documentary were broadcast – of 130 to film in Beijing, Shanghai, and in areas highly representative of the achieve- and 104 minutes, ments reached under the Communist rule. Antonioni and his crew, constantly respectively (Chatman controlled by their chaperons, travelled for 2000 kilometres in little more 2008: 64). than twenty days. The outcome of their intensive work was a 220-minute colour documentary about Chinese people and their life, which was screened on Italian television and in an abridged version in other countries.12 For the present analysis of Chung Kuo, the Italian DVD edition (2007) was used. It is divided in three parts: the first part is set in Beijing and its surroundings; the second shows the trip across rural China to the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu, and the cities of Suzhou and Nanjing; the third is entirely set in Shanghai. In filming this documentary, Antonioni used then recently introduced lightweight, unobtrusive 16mm cameras, which could be easily transported and combined with synchronous sound (Nichols 2010: 30; Sun 2009: 48). This technology permitted the production of more observational and participatory documentaries, characterized by a closer approach to subjects’ life and by a reduced use of voice-over commentary. This new equipment also matched Antonioni’s goals, as he did not presume to explain China, but simply to docu- ment what he saw and to share his visual ‘notes’ (Antonioni 1974: vii–xvi). The long opening sequence in Tiananmen Square is a concentration of Antonioni’s cinematic techniques which establishes the documentary’s set of ideas and visually clarifies the director’s intention to behave as a simple observer. The camera alternates between close-ups on people and pans over the square, a quiet crowd of workers, peasants, soldiers, boys, girls with plaited hair, and children strolling peacefully and taking photos in front of the Forbidden City walls mounted with Mao’s giant portrait. Similar shots will recur in the rest of the film. Subjects are often aware of the camera. Despite his purely observational intention, Antonioni could only rarely hide it, as he did in a four-minute sequence showing Xidan food market in Beijing. Moreover, the documentary occasionally switches to a participatory mode, with set-up sequences played by social actors. In some school sequences, for instance,

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children dance and sing specifically for the camera; similarly, in Beijing, two persons going home after work do stage their actions. Sequences showing political meetings are also clearly set-up. The editing of Chung Kuo is characterized by an extensive use of long takes, typical of Antonioni as well as of the canons of cinema-vérité. They make scenes more believable and seem to adapt the film’s rhythm to the slow pace of the hard life of the Chinese people observed by the film-maker. One sequence, also analysed in detail by Sun (2009: 52–53), perfectly illustrates this point: two long takes – 73 and 40 seconds, respectively – show two farmers compacting the soil with shovels next to a wall, while another three farmers are managing some donkeys that move in circle around them, drag- ging stone rolls to crush the grain scattered on the ground. According to Sun (2009), this sequence reveals the ‘monotony and tediousness’ of rural work. In the absence of a clear plot, the editing acquires a strong narrative function. Chung Kuo proceeds through several ellipses – from Beijing to Henan province, from Henan to Suzhou, from Nanjing to Shanghai – and also through cuts that make the narration flow smoothly, creating a logic of implication between sequences. Several examples of these cuts are evident in Part One. Here, after an eight-minute sequence where a mother is anesthe- tized with acupuncture during a Caesarean birth, Antonioni shows children in a kindergarten and in a school at the ‘No. 3 Cotton Mill’. Next comes a sequence where two workers go home, which is followed by shots of a large textile factory and a political meeting of workers sitting in the factory yard. The following sequence opens with shots of other similarly dressed people having their meals in a yard. Surprisingly, as the sequence progresses, the camera reveals that those people are not workers from the previous factory, but visitors to the Great Wall. Next, a sequence of other people visiting the Ming Tombs is followed by students marching to the countryside, by shots of a large agricultural commune and – back to urban Beijing – by the Xidan food market scene. The editing of these sequences seems to sketch the biography of the ‘new men’ from their birth to adulthood. Political education is an essential part of their life: at school they learn to sing their love for Mao; as adults, they join political meetings and apply his theories to their work. There is no distinction between family, work, political indoctrination and spare time, and no separa- tion between rural and urban life. Visiting historical monuments, a symbol of previous imperial exploitation, is a way to learn how unfair farmers’ lives under the imperial rule were. In Maoist China not only were farmers working in better conditions, but students were also sent to help them, to learn about the strategic importance of agriculture to feed the urban population, represented by Xidan market. This message is also repeated in Part Two, where the camera follows farmers delivering their vegetables to Suzhou. After all, Mao Zedong and Chinese communism were deeply rooted in rural China. If this is how China appears visually, what does the commentary say about it? And how does this country sound? In accordance with the documentary’s predominantly observational mode, journalist Andrea Barbato’s voice-over commentary is extremely limited: on a total film length of 220 minutes, it lasts only about 32 minutes. First, in the opening sequence it explicitly states the director’s observational intentions and reveals Antonioni’s frustration with the Chinese authorities, for example by stating that: ‘China is still largely inaccessible and forbidden’ and ‘[…] [O]ur chaperons made us cover only limited itineraries’. These comments match the

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conclusive statement in Part Three, which is also an honest reflection about 13. However, the historical information lacks the representation of reality: accuracy. For example, the commentary China opens its doors, but is still a largely remote and unknown world. cites Marco Polo’s description of the We could have a bit more than a glimpse of it. There’s a saying of Imperial Palace ancient China: ‘You can draw the skin of a tiger, not its bones. You can but refers it to the draw the face of a man, but not his heart’. Forbidden City, which had not been built a century after his visit to Occasionally the commentary becomes informative, by adding general details China. about the organization of society and the historical monuments shown by the 14. As cinematographer camera, or by translating a few slogans and songs.13 In general, its tone remains Luciano Tovoli explained, no one in neutral, balancing praise and critique. It praises China, for example, by listing the crew, on location the achievements of collective society in agricultural communes and in infra- and during editing, structure, and by celebrating the capability of Nanjing and Shanghai to rise realized what the song said. Tovoli also added from a dark past. On the other side, critiques include the already mentioned that when Chinese remarks about the travelling limitations, the observation that ‘Temples […] are diplomats in the often desecrated and transformed into factories’, and the statement that Mao United States saw this sequence, they left the is the only remaining member of the first congress of the Chinese Communist projection room deeply Party, while the others were ‘dead or remembered as traitors’. offended (Liu 2005). On other occasions, the commentary assumes a reflexive tone, such as when it states that: ‘[W]e remain to them [the Chinese] like unknown objects and maybe even a bit ridiculous’, and that, ‘It is a serious blow to our pride of Europeans: for a quarter of humanity, we are so unknown that we become frightening …’. Finally, the commentary also includes ambivalent statements, in particular, when it repeatedly underlines the austerity, the simplicity and the poverty of daily life. Such ambivalence was later interpreted negatively and used by the Chinese to blame Antonioni’s work for denigrating China and its people. The use of direct sound reveals millions of bicycle bells and traffic noises, people chattering and clearing their throat, students reading and singing, ubiquitous loudspeakers diffusing revolutionary songs and The Internationale. Ironically, the recording of these songs was later used to harshly criticize Chung Kuo, particularly for a scene in which pigs filmed in an agricultural commune suddenly react to a song diffused by loudspeakers.14 In brief, what does Antonioni’s China look like? Its apparent social harmony contrasts with the social unrest that upset several western countries at the time. In contrast with distressed men struggling to cope with modernity portrayed by Antonioni in his previous films, the Chinese new man has found his place in society. The new man has no class or gender distinctions: people appear to behave with equality, both in their way of dressing and in their daily actions, with women fully involved also in political discussions. The new man lives simply and works hard, relying on physical work as mechani- zation is almost non-existent in the countryside. The new man is dominated by portraits and slogans of Mao, whose cult has replaced other forms of reli- gion. The new man considers historical monuments a memory of a feudal past, but he is also proud of tradition: sequences of people practicing taijiquan in front of the ancient Beijing walls are matched by other people practicing it on the modern riverbank in Shanghai; traditional Chinese medicine is largely used to cure every disease but also in combination with modern surgical techniques. The Maoist man has created monumental and strategic infrastruc- ture such as the Red Flag Canal and the bridge on Yangzi River in Nanjing, as well as large size industries. Finally, the large number of happy children and young people underlines that Chinese society has a bright future ahead.

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15. This episode was This optimistic portrayal of China and its people was largely the result of the recalled by film-maker Carlo di Carlo (Liu 2005). numerous restrictions imposed on Antonioni during his stay in the PRC. As the film-maker later explained, 16. By contrast, Luciano Tovoli mentioned that the film was screened the set-up scenes are clearly the representation that the Chinese wanted even in small villages to give of themselves, which is still related to the reality of the country. to show how wrong the perception westerners The same thing could be said regarding busts and works of Mao seen in had of China was (Liu people’s homes: it is propaganda, but it is not a lie. 2005). (Antonioni 1974: X–XI)

Unfortunately for Antonioni, his documentary became a target for a Chinese internal feud. In order to attack Prime Minister Zhou Enlai’s moderation and his gradual opening up to western countries, a radical faction – led by Mao’s wife Jiang Qing – took power and began attacking all that represented western culture and values. Thus, Antonioni’s film was also attacked, as the final approval to invite the Italian director to China had come directly from Zhou Enlai (Pini 2011: 156). The off-the-record reason behind the critiques was that when Jiang Qing watched Antonioni’s work, she reportedly commented that the sequence of the pigsty was “unacceptable” as it compared revolutionary China to pigs (Pini 2011: 156–57). On 30 January 1974 Beijing-published Renmin Ribao newspaper launched a long-lasting campaign against Antonioni accusing him of denigrating China because he insisted on filming the poor aspects of the country instead of underlying its modern achievements. Diplomatically, relations between Italy and China were put at risk, while in terms of propaganda, Antonioni was heavily attacked by the Chinese media (Pini 2011: 157). Antonioni, who had been an anti-fascist in the 1940s, was now ‘accused of being a fascist, a reac- tionary on the payroll of Soviet revisionism and American imperialism, hated by 800 million people’ (Eco 1977: 9). Political motives even turned into cinematic critiques. For example, he was also criticized for the way he shot the Nanjing bridge and for the ‘cool’ colour tone that eliminated the real colours of China (Bachmann 1975: 29–30). The Chinese government even tried to stop all screenings of the documentary in western countries (Bachmann 1975), where it also spread the anti-Antonioni campaign. A particular episode well illustrates to what degree the tension escalated: after a screening in Venice in 1974, a group of Italian Maoists began insulting Antonioni. He reacted physically, and a serious brawl was avoided just by a hair’s breadth.15 Antonioni had filmed China with an affectionate eye – affectionate and a touch nostalgic – following instructions received from his hosts. The river scenes recall his Gente del Po, some urban shots are reminiscent of his Nettezza Urbana and Italy of the 1940s. After watching the documentary in 1972, the director of the Xinhua news agency in Rome had thanked him for his ‘very affectionate eye’ (Bachmann 1975: 29). To Antonioni, the sudden change of mind was inexplicable. His approach had been truly genuine and he had tried to represent the ‘new man’ through his well-known cinematic style. Chung Kuo was never officially screened to the Chinese public until November 2004, when it was projected during an academic retrospective about Antonioni at the Beijing Film Academy.16 This long-awaited reconcili- ation came as a surprise to the 92-year-old Maestro and pleased him greatly. His health conditions did not allow him to attend the projection – a decade earlier, a stroke had left him unable to speak and to walk. However, in an

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official statement prepared with his wife Enrica Fico, and read by his friend 17. The producers are companies and and film critic Carlo Di Carlo during the opening ceremony, he expressed his television broadcasters satisfaction for this event and for its importance. The audience was mainly based in Italy, France, composed of young Chinese people who particularly appreciated the film Switzerland and Singapore. because it showed them a China they had never seen before (Liu 2005).With this retrospective Chung Kuo turned from being a forbidden documentary to a work of interest for the Chinese themselves. A long-time broken bridge was rebuilt, at last.

La stella che non c’è/The Missing Star Since the late 1990s, Italy has gradually lost substantial parts of its large scale industry. Steel mills, mechanical factories, white goods and textile factories moved their production to low-cost countries, or shut down altogether, with obvious occupational consequences. By contrast, in 2010, the heavily production-based and export-oriented Chinese economy has become the second largest in the world after the United States (Bloomberg News 2010). Facing these changes, Italy has begun to rediscover China, finding it a country deeply different from either the one described by Marco Polo or the mythicized Maoist country of the 1960s and 1970s. The above context is used as socio-historical background in The Missing Star. The film written by Gianni Amelio and Umberto Contarello and co-produced by a global partnership is based on Ermanno Rea’s novel La dismissione (2002), which recounts the impact that the dismantling of a large steel mill has on the town of Bagnoli (Naples). The author seems to consider this closedown as ‘a metaphor of the end of […] political ideology, social solidarity, loyalty to work’ (Persoli 2008).17 The Missing Star opens with the dismantling of the blast furnace, which is the novel’s ending. Rather than working on a simple adaptation of the book, Amelio tells a new story reflect- ing on Italy and China as opposite symbols of globalization. Reflections on the present social situation are a key point in the films of Amelio (b. 1945), one of the most prominent Italian contemporary film-makers and a left-wing intellectual. Themes examined by him include the relations between northern and southern Italy, emigration, loneliness, incommuni- cability, the encounter of children and adults, and special attention paid to the poor. For a director so interested in these themes, the representation of reality in cinema assumes a crucial importance. One of Amelio’s distinctive strategies to enhance realism is his frequent use of non-professional actors. From the cinematic and visual point of view, long silent scenes, a meticu- lous image composition, and frequent close-ups are used to give prominence to characters’ expressions and feelings. These themes and stylistic features put Amelio close to Neorealism, American cinema and the nouvelle Vague, and make his work easier to compare to Antonioni’s (Selvaggi 2010: 153–54; Silvestri 2001: 121–22; Vitti 2009: 23–44). In 1994 and in 2004, Amelio shot two feature films abroad both with Italian protagonists: Lamerica and Le chiavi di casa/The Keys to the House, set in Albania and in Germany, respectively. These allowed him to explore the cynicism of Italians and the consolidation of relations between two persons in the context of linguistic isolation. The Missing Star is a further step for Amelio along the same line of translocal, cross-cultural cinema. Its plot is linear, without flashbacks or flashforwards, and the narration is anticlimactic and open-ended. In an unnamed Italian city, a large blast furnace

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is sold to a Chinese company. Vincenzo Buonavolontà, a middle-aged Italian technician, knows there is a glitch in the plant, but the Chinese technicians abruptly disassemble it and leave before he can produce a new component to replace the damaged one. Thus, he decides to carry the new part to Shanghai. Once arrived there, he discovers that what he believed to be the buyer of the furnace is actually just a trading company, which avoids disclosing the end user details. Then, accompanied by the young interpreter Liu Hua, he embarks on a 3000 km-long journey from Shanghai to the cities of Wuhan, Chongqing and Baotou trying to find the factory by himself. Eventually he succeeds in the delivery, but he is unaware that his component is immediately scrapped, as the Chinese technicians have already produced several others. The film ends with Vincenzo and Liu Hua sitting along a metaphorical railway in the Mongolian grassland. To better analyse this work, and to find the film’s implicit meaning, it is useful to begin with a close-up on the two protagonists. The enigmatic Vincenzo, played by Sergio Castellitto, introduces himself as a maintenance technician who has worked in the Italian factory for 30 years. Nothing else is said about his past in the film. However, his behaviour shows a deep connection with his workplace and passion for his job. He moves around the Italian rusted steel mill like a silent observer, like a soul in a place of death – as Amelio himself calls the mill (Amelio 2006b) – or a custodian of its memory. His past and his beliefs are mainly revealed through images, particularly in the sequence where he enters a steel plant in Wuhan. Here, his arrival is preceded by a crane shot of a giant red statue of Mao Zedong, just in front of the factory gate. The same statue is then seen in the background of a low angle reverse dolly shot of Vincenzo walking through the gate. Then, in a series of shots accompanied by the increasing volume of the theme music, the camera tracks Vincenzo walking into a modern and lively production facil- ity, and cheerfully greeting some workers. Next, a series of shots and reverse shots links his increasingly ecstatic expression to a blast furnace in full activity, becoming progressively closer at each take. The furnace seems to be a living creature, in contrast with the Italian furnace seen in the establishing sequence of the film. It is here that suddenly something of Vincenzo’s life can be understood. He is a 50-year-old metal worker who remembers how in the past he shared the Italian working class myth of Mao and of the Cultural Revolution. Amelio himself explained how here ‘from Vincenzo’s expression, we understand that perhaps in the past he had mythologized China, sort of fallen in love with it. As the story progresses, he will see both good and bad things, but he already had an idea in mind’ (Amelio 2006b). This factory represents what he hoped to find, however he will soon also discover the darker side of his mythicized China (Amelio 2006b). His trip has in fact just begun. In a sort of filmed Bildungsroman, he will be taken into police custody, discover the vastness of China, see children living in dangerous and noxious factories, witness the disparities between poor houses and opulent westernized shopping centres, fall ill, overcome his own crisis, and at last reach his unknown destination alone, without the help of the interpreter whom he has sent back to her home and her child. His persistence allows him to overcome all these ordeals, and to adapt himself to local life. He is able to enter the core of China and of himself by progressively smaller and shakier means of transportation: airplane – not seen in the film, but deduced by his arrival at Shanghai airport – and train, ferry boat, bus, truck, pickup, and three-wheeler. An interior conflict, a hidden strength impels him

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to persist. The only time Vincenzo seems to give up, Liu Hua encourages him 18. To add a technical note, The Missing Star to continue. The construction work he finds everywhere seems to accompany was filmed in 35mm his own reconstruction process: that of a jobless worker trying to rethink his with two cameras for a future, reconcile with himself and with society. Eventually, this process seems standard 1.85: 1 aspect ratio (Amelio 2006a, successful. Thanks to this trip, he takes his eyes off technical drawings and 2006b; Amelio and starts watching the world around him. Life is more important than a mechan- Contarello 2006: 24). The ical component, and human values are stronger than linguistic barriers. This is shooting on location in China was organized well expressed in the last sequence, where Liu Hua asks him in Chinese: ‘Was in chronological order, it hard to find that factory?’ and Vincenzo replies in Italian ‘Not at all, every- while the establishing sequence in Genoa was thing was fine, I was lucky’. shot last in summer The co-protagonist Liu Hua, played by Tai Ling who in 2005 was a 2005 (Amelio 2006; student of Italian at the University of Beijing, is Vincenzo’s key to access the Amelio and Contarello 2006: 22). ‘real’ contemporary China. She is also in need of rebuilding her own life: as a failed student and a single mother with no stable job, she seems to find in Vincenzo a lifeline. Her figure seems to encapsulate the harsh life of the so-called ‘floating population’ of internal migrants – the over 200 million Chinese people who (often illegally) moved from rural areas to follow work opportunities in industrialized cities in search of a better life. Most of them have to endure extremely tough living conditions and are only able to reunite with their families – and their own children – once a year, during the Spring Festival holiday. Liu Hua’s demonstration of strength and obstinacy encom- passes those of Chinese people and transform her into a heroine (Vitti 2009: 384). By choosing her as a co-protagonist, Amelio also expands the social analysis he undertook in his previous films about illegal emigration to Italy – Lamerica, 1994 – and Italian internal migration – such as Così ridevano/The Way We Laughed (1998) – to a significantly larger scale. Liu Hua’s unusual trip with Vincenzo, his immediate affection for her son, and the hardships they are experiencing in their lives create a deep bond between them, which seems likely to continue well after the film’s open ending. The cinematography, directed by Luca Bigazzi, is the key to understanding the protagonists.18 With a few exceptions, the camera never leaves Vincenzo, and occasionally uses point-of-view shots, ideally connecting the film to Rea’s book, in which Vincenzo is the first-person narrator. His feelings, frustrations and unexpressed ideas are underlined by numerous and accurate close-ups of his bewildered look and on a final, long, liberating cry. Thus, similarly to what happens in Amelio’s previous works, also in this film detailed images become far more important than words. In fact, dialogue constitutes only 40 minutes out of a film length of approximately 102 minutes. The camera also has to connect the characters to the setting, and does so in multiple ways. One way is characterized by complex movements and an extremely accurate frame composition, such as in the Italian factory sequence. Here the camera cranes up and down through the dark, old steel mill, to track the parallel actions of Vincenzo – who observes from upstairs – and of the Chinese delegation visiting the factory. Some shots of all the technicians standing in front of the old furnace recall similar Chinese propagandistic posters of the Maoist era, when steel production was one of the official priorities in the PRC. Another way in which cinematography connects characters and space, and conveys their mood about the places around them, is the prevailing use of cold colours, grey tones, rain and mist in most scenes. The constant absence of sunlight gives an overall discomforting impression. The narrative rhythm is characterized by several long takes – lasting up to 90 seconds – and an average length of about eight seconds per shot.

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19. Guanyin is venerated The story’s low pace is sometimes broken by sudden accelerations obtained by the east-asian Buddhists as the through elliptical editing. For example, an ellipsis ‘disassembles’ the Italian goddess of mercy factory, and further ellipses instantaneously ‘move’ Vincenzo from the Italian and prayed to for factory to Shanghai airport and through his trip in China. good health, as she is believed to have Regarding the film’s meaning, The Missing Star appears to suggest Italy’s the power to relieve small size and its marginal role in the globalized economy. This message is suffering, grant a exemplified by three sequences. In the first, Liu Hua explains that she studied quick recovery, and also grant children Italian because it is a ‘minor language’ suitable for students from less prestig- to couples. Statues of ious schools. In the second sequence, a local man cannot distinguish Italy from Buddhist deities are often kept in homes on Iraq. In the third, the control unit that Vincenzo produced with passion and altars or in cabinets. accuracy ends up in the Chinese scrapheap, a symbol of craftsmanship defeated by mass production. Nevertheless, Amelio seems to imply that Italians can still overcome a negative moment in their history, on condition that they dismiss their pride, think outside the box, accept new challenges and view the world with an unbiased mind, as does Vincenzo. In fact, at present, for many westerners and Italians, China represents an occasion to rethink their lives and to find new professional and personal opportunities. Thus, rediscovering China and its culture is also for them an occasion for self-rediscovery. The film also suggests that China’s success comes at a cost. Vincenzo discovers that the construction of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangzi River will oblige people to leave their homes before they are flooded by the new, enormous artificial lake. He also discovers the social problems of this industrialized and urbanized China. Here, people work day and night in hard conditions, a wide gap exists between the rich and the poor, and children born out of the single-child policy rules are hidden from authorities. This society has lost its identity. During a conversation with Vincenzo, when Liu Hua says that the stars on the Chinese flag symbolize ‘honesty, patience, justice, solidarity’ but fails to mention the largest one which represents the Communist Party, Vincenzo replies: ‘I heard a different explanation, however something is still missing’, thus implicitly acknowledging that communism is de facto no longer part of Chinese society. Liu Hua is the personification of the weakness of this new, ruthless society that leaves little space for those who miss their opportunity to reach individual success. As Amelio declared, China will become stronger only if it does not forget more basic needs other than an uncon- trolled development (Amelio and Contarello 2006: 29). The two protagonists, then, assume a symbolic connotation, as their story shows that globalization may have winners and losers – China and Italy, respectively – however, it equally creates victims like Liu Hua and Vincenzo everywhere. It is only if those victims support each other, regardless of their cultural differences, that they may possibly have the hope of a better future. From this perspective, Amelio’s film relays a very optimistic message. Considering Amelio’s preoccupation with realism, is it possible to call this film ‘realistic’? Lighting, actors, setting, mise-en-scène, sound and music allow one to think so. The use of natural light helps to convey a feeling of realism to the images on-screen. This feeling is reinforced by the non- professional actors employed – for example, Vincenzo is questioned by real police officers (Amelio 2006b). Realism is also present in cultural details: certain sequences are touching for their cultural delicacy, exemplified by Liu Hua’s frequent use of proverbs and by her grandmother who prays to the goddess Guanyin for Vincenzo’s health.19 Furthermore, realism is rendered through the mise-en-scène with only few places having been set-up for the film (Amelio 2006b). Some sequences are even more realistic than the

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director’s original intentions: for instance, children in the Chongqing factory 20. The song talks about a lover who asks his were found by chance and filmed covertly (Amelio 2006b). The soundtrack girlfriend to look out seems to have a twofold function: on one side, it contains popular Chinese her window and throw songs to reinforce the feeling that the story is unfolding in China; on the him a rose. other side, Franco Piersanti’s melodies convey an impression of detachment from the chaos of traffic and crowded cities, probably with the aim of ampli- fying Vincenzo’s mood. The leitmotiv is a traditional Chinese love serenade, entitled Ban ge yue liang pa shang lai/Half Moon Rising, which adds a further, hidden romantic dimension to the story, conveying an implicit message about the protagonists whose love for each other can be sensed but never actually comes to the surface in the film.20 Although the realistic impact of The Missing Star is unquestionable, several inconsistencies should also be noted. First, in reality, it is unimaginable that anyone would ever leave for an international business trip without a mobile phone or without having made any previous arrangements (Young 2006: 74). Also, disassembling a blast furnace does necessarily take longer than producing a small mechanical component. Then, the sequence where Vincenzo is questioned by the police and ill-treated by officers may be a means of symbolizing that China is still an authoritarian country, yet nowadays local police would unlikely use such methods with a western visitor. Finally – and more remarkably – a western traveller never passes unnoticed in China, particularly in its remote areas: in real China, Vincenzo would have always been surrounded by curious people and children making comments about him and his long nose, asking him to take photos together. Most of these inconsistencies, however, properly match the typical superficiality of Italian travellers to the authentic China, like Vincenzo who has no idea of the location of Wuhan and Baotou, thus mirroring the ignorance of the Chinese regarding the location of Italy. Unfortunately these choices also affect the narrative effectiveness of the whole story and the cinematic value of the representation of China. This becomes evident if The Missing Star is compared to the Chinese independent film-maker Jia Zhangke’s, Sanxia Haoren/Still Life (2006), which shows how the construction of the Three Gorges dam affects the life of people in the areas to be evacuated and flooded. The two films have many similarities and were shot in the same area and period. Both competed at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Significantly, the Leone d’Oro for Best Film was won by Sanxia Haoren, while Amelio’s film received the Pasinetti Award for Sergio Castellitto’s interpreta- tion in the lead role. The Missing Star also had little success at the Italian box office, totalling just 2.2 million Euros (Mymovies.it 2006). It was never distributed in China, while Jia Zhangke’s film was screened there, uncensored. Summing up, The Missing Star uses Vincenzo’s journey to China as a means to discuss contemporary Italy’s specific social and economic problems, including the issue of emigration. The Italian deindustrialization is represented in the film by dismissed workers protesting against the Chinese delegation, by the empty and rusted Italian factory, and by the large hole left in the wall after the removal of the blast furnace. Vincenzo may be considered the symbol of middle-aged skilled workers who are able to re-plan their lives after losing permanent jobs, opening themselves up to other cultures without prejudice just as the global importance of Italy is fading. Indeed Italy does fade in the film, on a physical level, as represented by the old, rusted furnace being dismantled in the early sequences; on an economical level, as factories are closing down; and on a cultural level, as Italian is considered a ‘minor language’. Vincenzo is never actually shown returning to Italy. During his trip it becomes clear to

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21. Statistics show that him that China may be different to what he had expected but it is the land of the percentage of urban population opportunity, thus the obvious place to stay for an experienced maintenance in China in the early technician who has lost his life-long job. Vincenzo’s sudden ability to under- 1980s was about 20%. stand Chinese, as shown in the last sequence, seems to prove his acceptance of In 2000, it soared to about 35%. This figure this fact, and Liu Hua is the person who introduces the protagonist to his new has increased to 54% life. Twenty-first century Italy is no longer Lamerica, rather it has become once in 2012 and there are again a source of emigration, this time of skilled workers. plans to move other 250 million people From a stylistic and cinematic perspective, the frequent use of close-ups from farmland to cities of characters’ expressions, of ellipses and long silent sequences – ‘subtraction (Johnson 2013; Xinhua 2013). and not-said’, as A. C. Vitti suggests – allows Amelio to reveal the importance of the moral dimension in people’s life (Vitti 2009: 417). The director’s use of natural light, filming on location, stealthy shots of children in factories, non-professional actors and a story based on a precise social background could place The Missing Star give it an ethical depth. From this point of view, Vincenzo’s almost ‘apostolic’ mission initially moved by his ‘buona volontà’ (good will) gradually allows him and the audience to become aware of the contradictions of contemporary China. His words ‘I never imagined China like this’ are loaded with such awareness (Vitti 2009: 392).

Amelio and Antonioni The Missing Star seems to refer to Antonioni’s Chung Kuo not only because its realism resembles a documentary style, but also because of several links existing between the two films. First, Amelio’s cinematic style has much in common with Antonioni’s: long takes, long silences and close-ups on characters abound in both directors’ works. Second, a few sequences seem to recall parts of Antonioni’s documentary: shots of large inscriptions of white characters on a red background seem to recall the slogans shown by Antonioni; and, more evidently, the image of a railway bridge in Amelio’s film appears extremely similar to Antonioni’s shots of Nanjing bridge – having a similar angle, foggy exterior, and the same colours. These similarities remain the only tangible link between present-day and 1972 China. Thus, they actually remark the enormous changes the country has undergone in the thirty years following the end of Maoism. China is no longer an idyllic rural country dominated by the leader’s personality cult and Communist ideology. From a reference point for anti-imperialist and Third World-ism movements, it has fashioned itself into the symbol of globalization (Vitti 2009: 375). Propagandistic billboards and loudspeakers have been replaced by advertising and television commercials; political education meetings have been replaced by karaoke; simple grocery markets have been replaced by mass consumerism and luxurious westernized shopping centres; and, more remarkably, in twenty-first-century China cities appear completely transformed into skyscraper-filled and partially westernized megalopolis. Rural areas – which were just a few kilometres out of major cities in 1972 – are not shown as the film focuses on Vincenzo and his search for factories (Amelio 2006b). However, this scenographic choice seems also to suggest the degree to which rural China has been ‘invaded’ by a relentless urbanization and industrialization process and by the needs of modernization. The ideological importance that Maoism attached to agriculture has disap- peared. The new China, the modernized China can only be found in increasingly larger conglomerates.21 Not only has China changed, but its perception in Italy has also changed, as indeed, has Italy itself. In 1972, when Italy was a growing industrial power

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shaken by social unrest, many Italians viewed China with affection for ideo- 22. Among them, executive producer Mario logical reasons, and considered it a guiding light to establish a stronger Cotone, China-based social justice. By contrast, today Italian economy has stopped, while China production coordinator is being physically and socially reshaped by its relentless economic growth – Maria Barbieri and scenographer Attilio blamed by Italians for being one of the main causes for the country’s dein- Viti. The assistant dustrialization and its subsequent social changes. Yet, in the present critical director Sergio Basso situation, China may also represent an opportunity. Certainly Amelio recog- has a degree in Oriental Languages and nizes it as such. The director – himself an internal migrant, coming from the Literatures. emigration-ridden region of Calabria – has tackled migration issues in most of his films and seems to be well aware of the New Wave of Italian emigration. His Vincenzo seems to invite Italians to rediscover Chinese culture as a chance for self-rediscovery and for restarting from scratch. The future for the two protagonists, and for many like them, is in China. While Chung Kuo as a window on Maoist China made for western audi- ences, Amelio acknowledged that The Missing Star is a film made with Italian viewers in mind (Amelio and Contarello 2006: 120). Unlike Antonioni, Amelio’s main purpose was not portraying China, even though his film was almost entirely shot there. His ultimate aim seemed more to reflect on the consequences of the Italian deindustrialization. Vincenzo could very well be metaphorically described as a ‘baton’ being passed from a declining Italy to a rising China. In other words, he becomes the symbol of a historical transition of Italian economy – and more in general of the large-scale deindustrialization in developed western countries. Moreover, by putting two migrants side by side, Amelio seems to suggest that globalization is not causing problems only to Italy, but also to its main beneficiary. Common problems may be faced, and possibly solved, if those who are affected by them join forces, and manage to overcome cultural barriers. Compared to Antonioni, Amelio had several production advantages: for example, he was able to hire local actors and extras, while free interaction with locals was not possible in 1972; also, Amelio – despite being affected by censorship – was relatively free to travel extensively through China, while Antonioni had severe limitations imposed on him; moreover, Amelio could rely on the support of Italian staff well prepared on China.22 As a conse- quence, The Missing Star shows a deeper, better prepared insight into Chinese daily life than does Chung Kuo. However, as has been explained, its numerous references to the Italian socio-historical context and to Rea’s novel make it cryptic for an international audience.

Conclusion In conclusion, these two films belong to different times and genres, but are equally remarkable attempts to show how China appeared in two oppos- ing historical moments, when the economic status of Italy and China was substantially inverted. The two films have different purposes: Chung Kuo talks to Italians and westerners about China; and The Missing Star uses China to talk to Italians about their crises and about globalization. Both films, however, explain the complexities and the contradictions of China only marginally. In an increasingly ‘smaller’ world, occasions for cross-cultural contact become more frequent every day. The need to better understand each other is no longer just something desirable: it is a necessity. If institutional support is essential in this field, the arts – and specifically cinema – can also help to

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achieve significant results, acknowledging that those who have already taken a step in this direction deserve the greatest respect. It took more than 30 years for Antonioni’s documentary to be officially appreciated in China, while Amelio’s work was not fully understood in the West and was not distributed in China. Their misfortunes seem to symbolize the continuous twists in Chinese–western relations, and show how difficult it is to build a bridge between two cultures. However, as Marco Polo and Matteo Ricci proved in the past, ‘difficult’ does not mean ‘impossible’.

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Rea, E. (2002), La dismissione/The divestment, Milano: BUR. Selvaggi, C. (2010), ‘Il cinema globale di Gianni Amelio. Il ribaltamento’/’The Global Cinema of Gianni Amelio. The Reversal, Psicobiettivo, 30: 3, pp. 149–76. Silvestri, S. (2001), ‘A skein of reversals: The films of Gianni Amelio’, New Left Review, 10: July–August 2001, pp. 119–32. Sun, H. (2009), ‘Two China? Joris Ivens’ Yukong’, Studies in Documentary Film, 3: 1, pp. 45–59. Tinazzi, G. (1974), Michelangelo Antonioni, Firenze: La Nuova Italia. United Nations (2010), World Economic Situation and Prospects 2010, New York: UN. Valentini, C. (1997), La storia di Dario Fo/The Story of Dario Fo , Milano: Feltrinelli. Vitti, A. C. (2009), I film di Gianni Amelio/The Films of Gianni Amelio, Pesaro: Metauro. Xinhua (2013), ‘China’s urbanization challenged by polarization’, http:// www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-08/16/content_16900549_2.htm. Accessed 18 August 2013. Young, D. (2006), ‘The Missing Star (La stella che non c’è)’, Variety, 9–15 October, p. 74. Zhang, T. (2009), ‘The legend of a film-maker and a country – fifty years of Ivens and China’, Studies in Documentary Film, 3: 1, pp. 35–44.

Suggested citation Bona, S. (2014), ‘Italian film-makers in China and changing cultural perceptions: Comparing Chung Kuo – China (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1972) and La stella che non c’è/The Missing Star (Gianni Amelio, 2006)’, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies 2: 1, pp. 41–58, doi: 10.1386/jicms.2.1.41_1

Contributor details Stefano Bona is a Ph.D. candidate in Italian Cinema at Flinders University. He completed a Masters degree in Political Sciences from the Università di Milano with a dissertation on the China–Taiwan issue, and a Master of Language Studies from Flinders University in 2012. His research interests include Italian Studies, Cinema Studies, Chinese Studies, and Italy–China relations. He is also the author of several short stories set in China and of the article ‘L’influenza di Pier Paolo Pasolini sui film e sullo stile cinematografico di Nanni Moretti: un’analisi’ (Fulgor, 4: 3, 2011, pp. 32–43). Contact: Department of Language Studies/Italian Section, School of Humanities, Flinders University, GPO Box 2001, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

Stefano Bona has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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