italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear Steven
I have missed the deadline, but I hope you may still be able to
consider a proposal from me. I will set it out briefly, but if you
tell me I am out of time, then I can't argue!
I would like to present a paper entitled 'Cadaveri non eccellenti in
the cinema of the 90s'.
This would consist of a comparative study of the incidence and
representation of murders in the films of Gianni Amelio and Francesco
Rosi. In Rosi's 'Cadaveri eccellenti' both the subject matter and the
mise-en-scene offer a series of elaborately staged deaths of high-
ranking officials (in this film judges, in other Rosi films
the focus is on leading national figures such as Mattei). There is
much evidence of the noir style and the cinematic thriller genre
found in Hollywood and French cinema traditions. Amelio, on
the other hand, offers often anonymous deaths presented with visuals
of understated, almost brutal realism (death of the young terrorist
in 'Colpire al cuore', the murder of a fellow southerner by one of
the Scordia brothers in 'Cosi ridevano') These differing
characterstics of their film-work follow invoke the discourse
of a pattern similar to that identified in Lukacs's discussion of the
historical novel: Rosi shows the fate of those of high status
('above') while Amelio offers a focus on those 'below'. While Rosi
offers the death of figures that make the news, Amelio makes clear
that the deaths he depicts will
pass almost unnoticed. Rosi's is surely the richer cinema in that his
multi-layered work encompasses the various social levels on which the
corruption he exposes makes impact (the citizens of the towns where
the judges are killed, the ex-criminals, the life of the bourgeois
pharmacist, and of the ex-criminals investiagted again as possible
suspects). Amelio's cinema consistently shows an interest in the
marginalised, on those whose fate will not make headlines. But both
directors share an intense sense of moral injustice: ultimately
'death' in their films is the death of a democracy. For Rosi, the
corruption that pervades Italian society is manifested in the fate of
those who involved in the system of justice. For Amelio it is
conveyed in a kind of cinema where the resonances of the anonymous and
insignificant deaths are left for the audience to pick up. Both
directors carry in their work the tradition of cinema as a vehicle of
heightening social awareness. Their differing styles may be
attributed to their different qualities as auteurs but also to a
changed cultural climate. Amelio's cinema, less declamatory in style,
surely also picks up on a climate of politcal and moral ambiguity
that characterises the discourse of late 20th century public and
private spheres. Let me know what you think!
best wishes, Pauline
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