Mauro Giori | Università degli Studi di Milano - State University of Milan (Italy) (original) (raw)
Books by Mauro Giori
UTET, 2021
The essays collected in this book focus on unusual relations and marginal objects, with the purpo... more The essays collected in this book focus on unusual relations and marginal objects, with the purpose to draw a portrait of Luchino Visconti less fossilized than that resulting from canonical authorial perspectives, and more vividly connected to both ideological clashes and the secular interests of cultural industry. These ten essays (five of which previously unpublished) cover neglected aspects (and the reasons of their removal) surfacing in sometimes extravagant aesthetic contrasts (between Hollywood and Thomas Mann, Greek theater and avant-garde, political commitment and popular cinema); in harmonies and dissonances in the collaborations with Marcello Mastroianni, Nino Rota and Helmut Berger; in the often gross comments of the extreme right-wing press; in the hostility of the Venice Film Festival; in the distortions produced by the lens of popular culture through political or even porn parodies, post-1968 ironies, and unexpected affinities with popular genres. What come out are new readings of films such as "White Nights", "Rocco and His Brothers", “Sandra", “Ludwig" and "Conversation Piece", but also a general revision of Visconti’s career.
UTET, Torino, 2019
This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in... more This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. It uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.
Palgrave MacMillan, London, 2017
This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in... more This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.
The downloadable file includes the front matters and the introduction.
ETS, Pisa, 2015
This book is devoted to study how the breakthrough representation of the connection between sexua... more This book is devoted to study how the breakthrough representation of the connection between sexuality, criminality and sickness of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) has been being reworked for 50 years, according to changing cultural contexts and different personal and political agendas. The analysis focuses on eight case studies selected from the enormous number of works more or less closely inspired by “Psycho”: William Castle’s “Homicidal” (1961); Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” (1972); Brian De Palma’s “Sisters” (1973) and “Dressed to Kill” (1980); slasher horror movies from the 1970s and 1908s; Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho II”; the three cinematic sequels produced in the 1980s; Gus Van Sant’s remake (1999); and Gary Orona’s pornographic version “Official Psycho Parody” (2010).
The download includes the introduction and the table of contents.
LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2012
In the 60s and 70s, Visconti consistently continues his transgressive work, mostly through the re... more In the 60s and 70s, Visconti consistently continues his transgressive work, mostly through the representation of alternative sexualities and masculinities. Nonetheless, the fast transformation of society, culture and politics, not to mention cinema itself, provokes a radical change in the discourses surrounding his works from "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard", 1963) to ‘"L'innocente" ("The Innocent", 1976). This book puts in context the films directed by Visconti in these years thanks to an extensive archival research and a philological analysis of Visconti's papers.
Libraccio, Milano, 2011; 2nd ed., revised and augmented, 2018
Since its beginnings, Luchino Visconti’s career was characterized by scandals, controversies, cen... more Since its beginnings, Luchino Visconti’s career was characterized by scandals, controversies, censures and even seizures, as a consequence of a particularly reactionary context but also of a transgressive intention which found its main expression in the representation of alternative sexualities and masculinities. Through a large amount of unpublished documents preserved in various archives and among Visconti’s papers, this book aims to study this largely overlooked aspect of Visconti’s work in relation to its cultural context, focusing on five case studies: the staging of Marcel Achard’s “Adamo” (1945) and Giovanni Testori’s “L’Arialda” (1961), and the films “Ossessione” (1943), “Senso” (1954) and “Rocco e i suoi fratelli” (1960).
UTET, Torino, 2021
In the shadow of the transgressive heritage of Fellini's "La dolce vita", in 1960 "Rocco e i suoi... more In the shadow of the transgressive heritage of Fellini's "La dolce vita", in 1960 "Rocco e i suoi fratelli” ("Rocco and His Brothers") provoked an institutional uproar, in unprecedented forms, in months of delicate political transition. The scandal involved the press, censorship, politics and even the magistracy. Thanks to new unpublished documents and a refining of its philological analysis, this new edition of the book (originally published in 2011) further develop its ideas about the production, the literary sources (particularly Giovanni Testori’s short stories), the reception, and the cultural context of Visconti’s most controversial, complex and admired film.
Lindau, Torino, 2009
This book offers a close analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) focusing among other thin... more This book offers a close analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) focusing among other things on its literary source, Robert Bloch’s novel, which has been largely disregarded by previous scholars.
Edited books and journal issues by Mauro Giori
Introduzione a Parker Tyler, "Allucinazione Hollywood", traduzione e note di M. Giori, Temi, Trento, 2017
This essay serves as introduction to my Italian translation of Parker Tyler's "The Hollywood Hall... more This essay serves as introduction to my Italian translation of Parker Tyler's "The Hollywood Hallucination" (1944).
Book Chapters by Mauro Giori
In Luchino Visconti oggi: il valore di un’eredità artistica, 2020
This essay addresses Visconti’s critical reception by the four ultraconservative magazines “Candi... more This essay addresses Visconti’s critical reception by the four ultraconservative magazines “Candido”, “Meridiano d’Italia”, “Il Borghese” and “lo Specchio”. Always neglected by scholars, this press is not only relevant to get a wider picture of the director’s critical fortune, but also essential to the understanding of his public image and relevance throughout thirty years of Italian culture and society. Reviews and political articles, comments on current affairs and events, society pieces and gossips, no matter how rough and gross, all contribuite to fill the voids of the leftist press which respectfully (that is, also with an embarrassed and opportunistic discretion) supported Visconti from his debut until his late years. What comes forward is a totally different public image of the director, one which uninhibitedly intertwines his private life with his works, and whose changes are incomprehensible without putting them against the background of the major shifts in the attitudes toward homosexuality occurred in the Italian society between the 1940s and the 1970s.
in G. Albert, G. Carluccio, G. Muggeo, A. Pizzo (eds / a cura di), Ciao Maschio. Politiche di rappresentazione del corpo maschile nel Novecento, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino, pp. 135-154., 2019
Silent peplum notoriously offered a model of masculinity in which Fascism was able to recognize i... more Silent peplum notoriously offered a model of masculinity in which Fascism was able to recognize itself. Instead, the connection between the peplum of the 1950s and 1960s and the fall of Fascism has never been addressed. This essay examines how, and with which strategies and meanings, the new peplum was received by ultraconservative magazines which guarded the relics of fascist imagery. Recognition was then replaced by disavowal, and a no more hegemonic masculinity was blamed for carrying unacceptable values and homoerotic undercurrents. This article explains how what used to be synonym for strength, sexual potency and a binary conception of gender was now accused to be instead a cover for fragility, impotency and ambiguity, and the meaning of certain consonance between the rightist and the leftist reception of peplum. It considers also how Forza e salute (later renamed Ercole) – one of the first Italian bodybuilding magazines – answered back promoting a positive image of muscle-bound men, exploiting again the peplum and insisting on sexuality through no less conservative discourses.
In Maddalena Mazzocut-Mis (ed.), Estetica della fruizione. Sentimento, giudizio di gusto e piacere estetico, 2008
After a brief survey of the first controversies caused by what was considered pornographic in the... more After a brief survey of the first controversies caused by what was considered pornographic in the first Italian film magazines (1907-1918), this essay approaches pornographic films as examples of what Tom Gunning has labeled “cinema of attractions”. In order to reconsider the peculiar relationship they constructed with their spectators since their origin, the essay focuses on three common features of pornographic films which have been often misunderstood: the marginality of the narrative impulse, the look at the camera by actors and the use of extreme close up.
Luciano Curreri, Michel Delville (a cura di), Il grande «incubo che mi son scelto». Prove di avvicinamento a 'Profondo rosso' (1975-2015), pp. 41-50., 2015
In Cristina Formenti (a cura di), Mariangela Melato. Tra cinema, teatro e televisione, pp. 139-15, 2016
In Raffaele De Berti (ed.), Sophisticated comedy e cinema déco, pp. 173-199, 2007
This essay analyses Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (1941) as a very personal reworking o... more This essay analyses Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (1941) as a very personal reworking of what Stanley Cavell called “comedy of remarriage”, resulting from negotiations between author’s idiosyncrasies and Hollywood standards.
In Raffaele De Berti (ed.), "Federico Fellini", pp. 75-101., 2006
In the light of the debate surrounding the publication of Umberto Eco’s seminal book “The Open Wo... more In the light of the debate surrounding the publication of Umberto Eco’s seminal book “The Open Work”, and of Italian critics’ emerging interest in psychoanalysis, this essay puts Federico Fellini’s “8 ½” in its cultural context, offering a close analysis of the film and investigating its criticism, split between the almost surprisingly acclaim of catholic reviewers and the derisory condemnation of left wing ones.
in M. Mainetti (ed.), Anatomical Waxes. La Specola di Firenze. David Cronenberg, Fondazione Prada, Milano, pp. 338-354., 2023
This article focuses on David Cronenberg’s representation of monstrosity as a form of knowledge, ... more This article focuses on David Cronenberg’s representation of monstrosity as a form of knowledge, particularly when connected with sexuality. After a discussion of Robin Wood’s harsh criticism of Cronenberg’s works on this respect, the essay elects “The Fly” as a case study, analyzing its development from Kurt Neumann’s 1958 version to Cronenberg’s one, passing through Pogues’ first screenplay.
In T. Subini (ed.), Maria, Clarissa e le altre: le figure femminili nei tre Heimat, 2007
This essay reconsiders Edgard Reitz’s “Heimat” and “Die zweite Heimat” female characters and thei... more This essay reconsiders Edgard Reitz’s “Heimat” and “Die zweite Heimat” female characters and their development against the background of about forty years of German history.
In Elena Dagrada, Elena Mosconi, Silvia Paoli (eds.), "Moltiplicare l’istante. Beltrami, Comerio e Pacchioni tra fotografia e cinema" (“Quaderni Fondazione Cineteca Italiana”, 12), pp. 125-138, 2007
This paper analyses how photography is involved in the discussions surrounding early cinema on th... more This paper analyses how photography is involved in the discussions surrounding early cinema on the first Italian film magazines (from their appearance in 1907 to the end of the First World War), both on aesthetic and technical ground, as a model to relay on for acceptance and to compete with for advancing in spheres as diverse as medicine, military, teaching, and, of course, art and fiction.
UTET, 2021
The essays collected in this book focus on unusual relations and marginal objects, with the purpo... more The essays collected in this book focus on unusual relations and marginal objects, with the purpose to draw a portrait of Luchino Visconti less fossilized than that resulting from canonical authorial perspectives, and more vividly connected to both ideological clashes and the secular interests of cultural industry. These ten essays (five of which previously unpublished) cover neglected aspects (and the reasons of their removal) surfacing in sometimes extravagant aesthetic contrasts (between Hollywood and Thomas Mann, Greek theater and avant-garde, political commitment and popular cinema); in harmonies and dissonances in the collaborations with Marcello Mastroianni, Nino Rota and Helmut Berger; in the often gross comments of the extreme right-wing press; in the hostility of the Venice Film Festival; in the distortions produced by the lens of popular culture through political or even porn parodies, post-1968 ironies, and unexpected affinities with popular genres. What come out are new readings of films such as "White Nights", "Rocco and His Brothers", “Sandra", “Ludwig" and "Conversation Piece", but also a general revision of Visconti’s career.
UTET, Torino, 2019
This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in... more This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. It uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.
Palgrave MacMillan, London, 2017
This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in... more This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.
The downloadable file includes the front matters and the introduction.
ETS, Pisa, 2015
This book is devoted to study how the breakthrough representation of the connection between sexua... more This book is devoted to study how the breakthrough representation of the connection between sexuality, criminality and sickness of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) has been being reworked for 50 years, according to changing cultural contexts and different personal and political agendas. The analysis focuses on eight case studies selected from the enormous number of works more or less closely inspired by “Psycho”: William Castle’s “Homicidal” (1961); Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” (1972); Brian De Palma’s “Sisters” (1973) and “Dressed to Kill” (1980); slasher horror movies from the 1970s and 1908s; Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho II”; the three cinematic sequels produced in the 1980s; Gus Van Sant’s remake (1999); and Gary Orona’s pornographic version “Official Psycho Parody” (2010).
The download includes the introduction and the table of contents.
LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2012
In the 60s and 70s, Visconti consistently continues his transgressive work, mostly through the re... more In the 60s and 70s, Visconti consistently continues his transgressive work, mostly through the representation of alternative sexualities and masculinities. Nonetheless, the fast transformation of society, culture and politics, not to mention cinema itself, provokes a radical change in the discourses surrounding his works from "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard", 1963) to ‘"L'innocente" ("The Innocent", 1976). This book puts in context the films directed by Visconti in these years thanks to an extensive archival research and a philological analysis of Visconti's papers.
Libraccio, Milano, 2011; 2nd ed., revised and augmented, 2018
Since its beginnings, Luchino Visconti’s career was characterized by scandals, controversies, cen... more Since its beginnings, Luchino Visconti’s career was characterized by scandals, controversies, censures and even seizures, as a consequence of a particularly reactionary context but also of a transgressive intention which found its main expression in the representation of alternative sexualities and masculinities. Through a large amount of unpublished documents preserved in various archives and among Visconti’s papers, this book aims to study this largely overlooked aspect of Visconti’s work in relation to its cultural context, focusing on five case studies: the staging of Marcel Achard’s “Adamo” (1945) and Giovanni Testori’s “L’Arialda” (1961), and the films “Ossessione” (1943), “Senso” (1954) and “Rocco e i suoi fratelli” (1960).
UTET, Torino, 2021
In the shadow of the transgressive heritage of Fellini's "La dolce vita", in 1960 "Rocco e i suoi... more In the shadow of the transgressive heritage of Fellini's "La dolce vita", in 1960 "Rocco e i suoi fratelli” ("Rocco and His Brothers") provoked an institutional uproar, in unprecedented forms, in months of delicate political transition. The scandal involved the press, censorship, politics and even the magistracy. Thanks to new unpublished documents and a refining of its philological analysis, this new edition of the book (originally published in 2011) further develop its ideas about the production, the literary sources (particularly Giovanni Testori’s short stories), the reception, and the cultural context of Visconti’s most controversial, complex and admired film.
Lindau, Torino, 2009
This book offers a close analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) focusing among other thin... more This book offers a close analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) focusing among other things on its literary source, Robert Bloch’s novel, which has been largely disregarded by previous scholars.
Introduzione a Parker Tyler, "Allucinazione Hollywood", traduzione e note di M. Giori, Temi, Trento, 2017
This essay serves as introduction to my Italian translation of Parker Tyler's "The Hollywood Hall... more This essay serves as introduction to my Italian translation of Parker Tyler's "The Hollywood Hallucination" (1944).
In Luchino Visconti oggi: il valore di un’eredità artistica, 2020
This essay addresses Visconti’s critical reception by the four ultraconservative magazines “Candi... more This essay addresses Visconti’s critical reception by the four ultraconservative magazines “Candido”, “Meridiano d’Italia”, “Il Borghese” and “lo Specchio”. Always neglected by scholars, this press is not only relevant to get a wider picture of the director’s critical fortune, but also essential to the understanding of his public image and relevance throughout thirty years of Italian culture and society. Reviews and political articles, comments on current affairs and events, society pieces and gossips, no matter how rough and gross, all contribuite to fill the voids of the leftist press which respectfully (that is, also with an embarrassed and opportunistic discretion) supported Visconti from his debut until his late years. What comes forward is a totally different public image of the director, one which uninhibitedly intertwines his private life with his works, and whose changes are incomprehensible without putting them against the background of the major shifts in the attitudes toward homosexuality occurred in the Italian society between the 1940s and the 1970s.
in G. Albert, G. Carluccio, G. Muggeo, A. Pizzo (eds / a cura di), Ciao Maschio. Politiche di rappresentazione del corpo maschile nel Novecento, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino, pp. 135-154., 2019
Silent peplum notoriously offered a model of masculinity in which Fascism was able to recognize i... more Silent peplum notoriously offered a model of masculinity in which Fascism was able to recognize itself. Instead, the connection between the peplum of the 1950s and 1960s and the fall of Fascism has never been addressed. This essay examines how, and with which strategies and meanings, the new peplum was received by ultraconservative magazines which guarded the relics of fascist imagery. Recognition was then replaced by disavowal, and a no more hegemonic masculinity was blamed for carrying unacceptable values and homoerotic undercurrents. This article explains how what used to be synonym for strength, sexual potency and a binary conception of gender was now accused to be instead a cover for fragility, impotency and ambiguity, and the meaning of certain consonance between the rightist and the leftist reception of peplum. It considers also how Forza e salute (later renamed Ercole) – one of the first Italian bodybuilding magazines – answered back promoting a positive image of muscle-bound men, exploiting again the peplum and insisting on sexuality through no less conservative discourses.
In Maddalena Mazzocut-Mis (ed.), Estetica della fruizione. Sentimento, giudizio di gusto e piacere estetico, 2008
After a brief survey of the first controversies caused by what was considered pornographic in the... more After a brief survey of the first controversies caused by what was considered pornographic in the first Italian film magazines (1907-1918), this essay approaches pornographic films as examples of what Tom Gunning has labeled “cinema of attractions”. In order to reconsider the peculiar relationship they constructed with their spectators since their origin, the essay focuses on three common features of pornographic films which have been often misunderstood: the marginality of the narrative impulse, the look at the camera by actors and the use of extreme close up.
Luciano Curreri, Michel Delville (a cura di), Il grande «incubo che mi son scelto». Prove di avvicinamento a 'Profondo rosso' (1975-2015), pp. 41-50., 2015
In Cristina Formenti (a cura di), Mariangela Melato. Tra cinema, teatro e televisione, pp. 139-15, 2016
In Raffaele De Berti (ed.), Sophisticated comedy e cinema déco, pp. 173-199, 2007
This essay analyses Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (1941) as a very personal reworking o... more This essay analyses Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (1941) as a very personal reworking of what Stanley Cavell called “comedy of remarriage”, resulting from negotiations between author’s idiosyncrasies and Hollywood standards.
In Raffaele De Berti (ed.), "Federico Fellini", pp. 75-101., 2006
In the light of the debate surrounding the publication of Umberto Eco’s seminal book “The Open Wo... more In the light of the debate surrounding the publication of Umberto Eco’s seminal book “The Open Work”, and of Italian critics’ emerging interest in psychoanalysis, this essay puts Federico Fellini’s “8 ½” in its cultural context, offering a close analysis of the film and investigating its criticism, split between the almost surprisingly acclaim of catholic reviewers and the derisory condemnation of left wing ones.
in M. Mainetti (ed.), Anatomical Waxes. La Specola di Firenze. David Cronenberg, Fondazione Prada, Milano, pp. 338-354., 2023
This article focuses on David Cronenberg’s representation of monstrosity as a form of knowledge, ... more This article focuses on David Cronenberg’s representation of monstrosity as a form of knowledge, particularly when connected with sexuality. After a discussion of Robin Wood’s harsh criticism of Cronenberg’s works on this respect, the essay elects “The Fly” as a case study, analyzing its development from Kurt Neumann’s 1958 version to Cronenberg’s one, passing through Pogues’ first screenplay.
In T. Subini (ed.), Maria, Clarissa e le altre: le figure femminili nei tre Heimat, 2007
This essay reconsiders Edgard Reitz’s “Heimat” and “Die zweite Heimat” female characters and thei... more This essay reconsiders Edgard Reitz’s “Heimat” and “Die zweite Heimat” female characters and their development against the background of about forty years of German history.
In Elena Dagrada, Elena Mosconi, Silvia Paoli (eds.), "Moltiplicare l’istante. Beltrami, Comerio e Pacchioni tra fotografia e cinema" (“Quaderni Fondazione Cineteca Italiana”, 12), pp. 125-138, 2007
This paper analyses how photography is involved in the discussions surrounding early cinema on th... more This paper analyses how photography is involved in the discussions surrounding early cinema on the first Italian film magazines (from their appearance in 1907 to the end of the First World War), both on aesthetic and technical ground, as a model to relay on for acceptance and to compete with for advancing in spheres as diverse as medicine, military, teaching, and, of course, art and fiction.
In Mauro Giori, Tomaso Subini, Mother is here. La donna in Vertigo di Alfred Hitchcock, 2011
This essay focuses on the female characters of “Vertigo” in respect to Hitchcock’s interest for p... more This essay focuses on the female characters of “Vertigo” in respect to Hitchcock’s interest for psychoanalysis and melodrama.
NON, 2023
The essay identifies the sources and reconstructs the context and events of Michelangelo Antonion... more The essay identifies the sources and reconstructs the context and events of Michelangelo Antonioni's unrealized story Stanotte hanno sparato (1950). Thanks to unpublished documents, it traces the strategies used by the authors to deal with a bureaucracy meant to act as a form of censorship, and the strategies used by Giulio Andreotti's subordinates to prevent Antonioni from filming his story because of its homosexual main character. The procedures followed on both fronts were abnormal in the way they played a surprisingly open hand but according to obscure rules. Nonetheless, the consequent superimposition of Fascist practice and contradictory postwar laws clearly reveals the institutional choices which ruled for at least a decade such sensitive an issue as male homosexuality.
Schermi, 2017
The essay traces the development of the way in which the catholic culture tried to handle the rep... more The essay traces the development of the way in which the catholic culture tried to handle the representation of homosexuality in the after-war, aiming at removing it completely as during Fascism. This utopian effort fails between the late 1950s and early 1960s both because of the reaction of the laic culture and because Christian Democrats chose to manage it in a different and more moderate way.
Cinema e Storia, 2016
An analysis of the representation of homosexuality in the Italian cinema offers new perspectives ... more An analysis of the representation of homosexuality in the Italian cinema offers new perspectives on the study of the relationship between cinema and history. Drawing on case studies from an ongoing research, this essay focuses on a few aspects of the link between cinema and homosexuality, from the 1950s (an age of continuity with the previous fascist regime and of relevant censorship intervention) to the early 1960s, when cinema begins to address, even if with difficulty, complex issues such as homosexuality
Between, 2016
This essay aims at analyzing an aspect of pornography as notorious as neglected by scholars: that... more This essay aims at analyzing an aspect of pornography as notorious as neglected by scholars: that of parodying a text of some sort. The article focuses on porn comics, which in Italy, between the 1960s and the 1980s, bloomed and contributed to prepare the way to the emergence from clandestinity of film porn industry. Considering the different relationships established between mainstream cinema and pornographic, from giving the face of a well known actor to a character to conceiving a proper film spoof, this essay will enlighten forms, characteristics and functions of parody which are specific to pornography.
Between, 2016
Even if the influence exercised by Hitchcock on the cinema is widely known, it has been largely d... more Even if the influence exercised by Hitchcock on the cinema is widely known, it has been largely disregarded by scholars, especially in comparison to the uncountable studies devoted to dissect his own movies. Hitchcock’s influence on television has been even more disregarded. This essay draws on the case study involving "Psycho" (1960) to enlighten a few radical changes to which intertextuality in the television seriality has been undergoing since the 1990s. In fact, the classical seriality and the most recent one (usually referred to as the new seriality of quality television) have handled the intertextual relationship in very different ways. The selection of the contents offered by the model is different: indeed, difficult topics and issues, such as serial killing, mental illness and queer sexuality, as well as the performative side of gender, were hardly suitable for the classical seriality. More importantly, it is the conception of the viewer and of his/her habits that changed considerably, so much so to influence the conception and form of seriality itself.
Arabeschi, 2015
This essay presents first results of an ongoing archival research on homosexuality and Italian ci... more This essay presents first results of an ongoing archival research on homosexuality and Italian cinema in the after war period. It analyses how film censorship dealt with the representation of homosexuality, first trying to interdict it and then, from the late 1950s, negotiating its depiction in more refined manners, eventually envisaging the possibility of withdrawing it from the list of forbidden topics since the early 1970s.
Porn Studies, 2015
Luchino Visconti's 1973 film "Ludwig" exploited the biography of Ludwig II of Bavaria, a notoriou... more Luchino Visconti's 1973 film "Ludwig" exploited the biography of Ludwig II of Bavaria, a notorious homosexual. In turn, Visconti's film became an erotic tale primarily intended to arouse heterosexual male readers in the form of "Ludwig, il folle di Baviera", a porn comic book conceived as a spoof published while the film was still in post-production. As well as considering the general relationship between mainstream cinema and pornographic comics and their representation of homosexuality, this article analyzes "Ludwig, il folle di Baviera" as a re-adaptation of Visconti's film that exploits the director's peculiar image in order to handle its ambiguous sexual content.
Cabiria, 2014
Riding the wave of the success of Ralph Bakshi’s "Fritz the Cat", in 1973 Italian animator France... more Riding the wave of the success of Ralph Bakshi’s "Fritz the Cat", in 1973 Italian animator Francesco Maurizio Guido, known as Gibba, conceived the project of the first animated “porn” movie ever produced in Italy. Thanks to unpublished documents from Gibba’s personal papers and from other archives, this essay reconstructs the story of this unfortunate movie and the failure of the following project, that of a porn animated version of "Faust".
Cabiria, 2014
Thanks to new archival documents, the essay addresses the production of "La terra trema" and the ... more Thanks to new archival documents, the essay addresses the production of "La terra trema" and the most relevant problem it poses: the collaboration between Luchino Visconti, a renown communist, and the catholic producing company Universalia
Cinergie, Mar 2014
This essay offers a general survey of the representation of homosexuality in the Italian Cinema o... more This essay offers a general survey of the representation of homosexuality in the Italian Cinema of the 1960s
Cinema e storia, 2014
This essay focuses on the connection between sexuality and politics, frustrated dreams of revolut... more This essay focuses on the connection between sexuality and politics, frustrated dreams of revolution and subversive schemes, depicted by Luchino Visconti in “Gruppo di famiglia in un interno” (1974). Tracing the development of these aspects throughout the pre-production of the movie and comparing their results with those of a popular genre such as the Italian thriller, the article tries to explain why, despite its being informed by politics, “Gruppo di famiglia in un interno” was discharged by the communist party, which previously had always been keen on defending Visconti and on using his works for electioneering.
This essay traces the almost unique history of “Films and Filming”, widely renowned as film magaz... more This essay traces the almost unique history of “Films and Filming”, widely renowned as film magazine but also conceived, in 1954, as a closeted gay magazine for a community still to come. The article shows how the political agenda became more and more patent, affecting in a variety of ways every aspect of the magazine, from its covers to its film reviews, depending on the editors and on the changing historical contexts. The essay is based on a close study of more than 400 issues as well as on original interviews to editors, contributors and readers of the magazine.
Studi pasoliniani, 2012
Thanks to unpublished documents, mostly preparatory drafts and manuscripts from Pasolini’s papers... more Thanks to unpublished documents, mostly preparatory drafts and manuscripts from Pasolini’s papers, this essay argues that it is misleading to consider "Comizi d’amore" as a simple example of ‘cinéma vérité’, as it is commonly understood. The paper particularly focuses on how and why Pasolini manipulated the footage through editing and dubbing, sometimes in problematic ways, in order to build a film with a thesis rather than simply showing without any interference the results of his inquiry about the sexuality of Italians.
Lanx, 2011
Ancient greek tragedy notoriously provided director Luchino Visconti and his screenwriters with i... more Ancient greek tragedy notoriously provided director Luchino Visconti and his screenwriters with invaluable inspiration while they were writing "Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa..." ("Sandra"). Working on unpublished documents and collating six different versions of the screenplay, this essay aims to establish when and in which ways the three versions of the Atridis’s myth by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides exactly influenced Visconti’s project and how they contributed to its basic ambiguity. At the same time, it shows the relevance of others suggestions of the antiquity, and in particular that of Etruscans inspired by Gabriele D’Annunzio’s novel "Forse che sì forse che no".
Altre modernità, 2011
In 1963, Luchino Visconti signed a contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis to direct a film ins... more In 1963, Luchino Visconti signed a contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis to direct a film inspired by the biblical story of Giuseppe and his brothers. "Giuseppe e i suoi fratelli" was meant to be a part of an Italian colossal along with several other episodes to be directed by renowned artists such as Orson Welles and Robert Bresson. Analysing letters and several versions of the screenplay never studied before, this essay trace a thorough story of this project and explains the reasons of its failure.
Lanx, 2010
In adapting Tony Kushner’s "Angels in America" for television, Mike Nichols accurately respected ... more In adapting Tony Kushner’s "Angels in America" for television, Mike Nichols accurately respected the political agenda of the author (democratic, hebrew and homosexual), who also wrote the screenplay. The choice of Hadrian’s Villa (instead of a San Francisco devastated by the earthquake of 1906) as a background for the scenes which take place in the Paradise can be understood as coherent with Kushner’s ideological perspective, as well as with his peculiar camp aesthetics.
Paragrafo, 2009
This essay traces the almost unique history of “Films and Filming”, widely renowned as film magaz... more This essay traces the almost unique history of “Films and Filming”, widely renowned as film magazine but also conceived, in 1954, as a closeted gay magazine for a community still to come. The article shows how the political agenda became more and more patent, affecting in a variety of ways every aspect of the magazine, from its covers to its film reviews, depending on the editors and on the changing historical contexts. The essay is based on a close study of more than 400 issues as well as on original interviews to editors, contributors and readers of the magazine.
A short article on Luchino Visconti’s project to adapt Marcel Proust’s "À la Recherche du temps p... more A short article on Luchino Visconti’s project to adapt Marcel Proust’s "À la Recherche du temps perdu", which epitomizes a few considerations I have developed in my book "Scandalo e banalità. Rappresentazioni dell’eros in Luchino Visconti (1963-1976)", Milano, LED Edizioni Universitarie, 2012.
In order to read Luchino Visconti’s artistic experience from a performative point of view, we nee... more In order to read Luchino Visconti’s artistic experience from a performative point of view, we need to consider his constant aim to shock as an essential part of his work instead of an occasional corollary of it. This is true both with his films and with his stage productions. "Adamo" (1945) and "Rocco and His Brothers" (1960) offer two examples out of many.