Mussolini's Dream Factory

Film Stardom in Fascist Italy
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78533-041-4
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 485 g

The intersection between film stardom and politics is an understudied phenomenon of Fascist Italy, despite the fact that the Mussolini regime deemed stardom important enough to warrant sustained attention and interference. Focused on the period from the start of sound cinema to the final end of Fascism in 1945, this book examines the development of an Italian star system and evaluates its place in film production and distribution. The performances and careers of several major stars, including Isa Miranda, Vittorio De Sica, Amedeo Nazzari, and Alida Valli, are closely analyzed in terms of their relationships to the political sphere and broader commercial culture, with consideration of their fates in the aftermath of Fascism. A final chapter explores the place of the stars in popular memory and representations of the Fascist film world in postwar cinema.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gundle, Stephen

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: Fascism, Cinema and Stardom

Chapter 1. Italian cinema under Fascism

Chapter 2. The creation of a star system

Chapter 3. Stars and commercial culture

Chapter 4. The public and the stars

Part II: Italian Stars of the Fascist Era

Chapter 5. The national star: Isa Miranda

Chapter 6. The matinée idol: Vittorio De Sica

Chapter 7. Everybody's fiancée: Assia Noris

Chapter 8. The star as hero: Amedeo Nazzari

Chapter 9. The uniformed role model:  Fosco Giachetti

Chapter 10. The photogenic beauty: Alida Valli

Chapter 11. The Duce's whim: Miria Di San Servolo

Part III:  The Aftermath of Stardom

Chapter 12. Civil war, liberation and reconstruction

Chapter 13. Survival, memory and forgetting

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Gundle, Stephen
Stephen Gundle is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick. His books include Between Hollywood and Moscow: the Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943-91 (2000), Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy (2007), Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the Cold War (2008, with David Forgacs), Glamour: A History (2008) and Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s (2011). He is co-editor, with Christopher Duggan and Giuliana Pieri, of The Cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians (2013).