Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922–1943

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University of California Press, 2008 M02 1 - 248 pages
This study considers Italian filmmaking during the Fascist era and offers an original and revealing approach to the interwar years. Steven Ricci directly confronts a long-standing dilemma faced by cultural historians: while made during a period of totalitarian government, these films are neither propagandistic nor openly "Fascist." Instead, the Italian Fascist regime attempted to build ideological consensus by erasing markers of class and regional difference and by circulating terms for an imaginary national identity. Cinema and Fascism investigates the complex relationship between the totalitarian regime and Italian cinema. It looks at the films themselves, the industry, and the role of cinema in daily life, and offers new insights into this important but neglected period in cinema history.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
1 Amnesia and Historical Memory
19
2 The Political Economy of Italian Cinema 19221943
52
3 Leisure Time Historiography and Spectatorship
77
Fascination and ReNegotiation
125
5 The Fascist Codex
156
Resistance and the Return of the Local
178
Notes
187
Selected Bibliography
207
Index
219
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About the author (2008)

Steven Ricci is the Director of the Moving Image Archive Studies program at University of California, Los Angeles, where he also teaches in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media and the Department of Information Studies.

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