Bibliography:
1. Slides and pdf available in Moodle e-learning
2. Victor I. Stoichita, Effetto Sherlock, Il Saggiatore, Milano 2017
3. M. Locatelli, Perché noir. Come funziona un genere cinematografico, Vita e pensiero, Milano 2012 4. Filmography:
The excellent knowledge of the following movies is indispensable prerequisite for exam preparation:
1. I topi grigi (E. Ghione, 1918)
2. The Maltese Falcon (Il mistero del falco, J. Huston, 1941)
3. La città nuda (The Naked City, Jules Dassin, 1948)
4. Ossessione (L. Visconti, 1943)
5. Grattacieli (G. Giannini, 1943)
6. Un maledetto imbroglio (Pietro Germi, 1959)
7. La ragazza che sapeva troppo (M. Bava, 1963)
8. Sei donne per l’assassino (Mario Bava, 1964)
9. La donna del lago (L. Bazzoni, 1965)
10. Blow up (M. Antonioni, 1966)
11. L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo (Dario Argento,1970)
12. Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (L. Fulci, 1971)
Learning Objectives
The course provides a historical knowledge and specialized training in genres, movements and aspects in cinema and in interactions between movies and media landscape and cultural environment. The student will develop advanced tools and analytical skills for the comprension of audiovisual language and the cultural study of the relationship between media. In this regard it is given great attention to popular culture and its audiovisual events.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
Advanced knowledge and understanding of specific aspects of the history of cinema, both national and international, and of the relationship with the surrounding media and cultural landscape.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
Acquisition of advanced skills of analyzing movie texts and surveys on film practices, considering the intermedial and cultural connections and the distinctive features of a specific historical and geographical context.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS:
Know how to analyze and evaluate research practices and advanced analysis models on film texts and cinema practices.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
Knowledge and use of specific and appropriate terminology.
LEARNING SKILLS:
Ability to build autonomous paths of in-depth knowledge on specific themes addressed during the lessons and to develop further advanced research paths both on thematic and methodological front.
Prerequisites
The course requires the registration to the Moodle e-learning platform: the key will be communicated at the beginning of the course. The study materials published in it and in particular the links to the movies are an integral part of the program.
Teaching Methods
Lectures, screenings and listening to audio and video documents, depth study materials on Moodle e-learning Platform.
Type of Assessment
The course provides the frequency. At the end of the course, there will be a mid-term exam, consisting of a brief report, accompanied by a presentation in Powerpoint, of a work conducted for small groups of up to three people or individually. The subject of the test will be the application of the analysis tools and the iconographic and figurative motifs studied during the course and their exemplification on a film selected in a corpus indicated by the teacher; if successful, the student will not have to discuss text in point 3 of the bibliography given during the final exam.
Students who do not take part in the mid-term exam are strongly encouraged to prepare a personal paper which presents a deepening of a movie or of a theoretical aspect of the course other than what has been examined in class; the document will be delivered to the teacher maximum 10 days before the exam date.
The final exam - which will take into account the intermediate test - consists of an oral interview in which the student must be able to re-elaborate the bibliography and critically address the filmography indicated in the program. It is suggested to prepare a written personal report that introduces the study of a film or a theoretical aspect of the course other than what has been discussed in lesson; the paper will be delivered to the teacher maximum 10 days before the exam date. The student who has supported the intermediate test may, at his discretion, resume and deepen the subject already discussed through a Written Report (mandatory if intermediate test was insufficient) to increase his or her assessment; otherwise the student will be free to just discuss during final exam the residual bibliography and filmography.
Students not registered on the platform will not be admitted to the exam. No non-attending students will be admitted to the exam if they could not exibit special and individual program for the exam agreed with the professor after dimostrating real impediments to the frequency.
Course program
Prof. Paola Valentini
Theory and analisys of Tv anche cinema language (LM Scienze dello spettacolo)
36 hours (6 cfu) - A.a. 2018-2019
Different gazes on crime in Post-war Italian cinema
Course program:
1. Cinema, genre, author (Bordwell-Steiger, Thompson, M. Vernet, R. Altman, J. Cawelti). The detective novel (T. Todorov)
2. At the origins of crime. Police fiction and detective story between the old and the new continent: the myth of the clue and evidence between Auguste Dupin (Edgar Allan Poe), Monsieur Lecocq (Emile Gaboriau) and Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
3. Serial films between detective and criminal: Nick Carter (V. Jasset, 190-09) and Fantomas (L. Feuillade, 1913-14). The serial film and the origins of the detective in Italy: I topi grigi (E. Ghione, 1918)
4. America and crime: from D. W. Griffith to the birth of the gangster movie
5-6. The new hero of crime and the modern character: thriller, Hard Boiled School, noir and the influence on Italian cinema: Ossessione (L. Visconti, 1943).
7. The explosion of yellow in Italy and the Mondadori case.
8. Prodromi of the Italian mystery, from Grattacieli (G. Giannini, 1943) to Un maledetto imbroglio (Pietro Germi, 1959)
9-10. The spectator at the center: the thriller and the birth of a national genre. Italian Giallo: from La ragazza che sapeva troppo (M. Bava, 1963) to Sei donne per l'assassino (Mario Bava, 1964)
11. Crime between onirism and psychoanalysis: La donna del lago (L. Bazzoni, 1965)
12. Snapshot and movement: scene photography in Italy
13. The woman, the femme fatale: Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (L. Fulci, 1971)
14-15. To investigate / to watch: Dario Argento and the vertigo of the gaze: L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo (D. Argento, 1970)
16-18. A short view on Antonioni’s thriller (lessons led by Prof. A. Bernardi)
Bibliography:
1. Slides and pdf available in Moodle e-learning
2. Victor I. Stoichita, Effetto Sherlock, Il Saggiatore, Milano 2017
3. M. Locatelli, Perché noir. Come funziona un genere cinematografico, Vita e pensiero, Milano 2012 4. Filmography:
The excellent knowledge of the following movies is indispensable prerequisite for exam preparation:
1. I topi grigi (E. Ghione, 1918)
2. The Maltese Falcon (Il mistero del falco, J. Huston, 1941)
3. La città nuda (The Naked City, Jules Dassin, 1948)
4. Ossessione (L. Visconti, 1943)
5. Grattacieli (G. Giannini, 1943)
6. Un maledetto imbroglio (Pietro Germi, 1959)
7. La ragazza che sapeva troppo (M. Bava, 1963)
8. Sei donne per l’assassino (Mario Bava, 1964)
9. La donna del lago (L. Bazzoni, 1965)
10. Blow up (M. Antonioni, 1966)
11. L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo (Dario Argento,1970)
12. Una lucertola con la pelle di donna (L. Fulci, 1971)
Prerequisites:
The course requires the registration to the Moodle e-learning platform: the key will be communicated at the beginning of the course. The study materials published in it and in particular the links to the movies are an integral part of the program.
Type of assessment:
The exam consists of an oral interview in which the student must be able to autonomously rework the bibliography and critically address the filmography. At the end of the course there will be a mid-term exam consisting in the presentation and
collegiate discussion of film analysis essays not included in the examination filmography (more information will be provided during the course).
Students who do not take part in the mid-term exam are strongly encouraged to prepare a personal paper which presents a deepening of a movie or of a theoretical aspect of the course other than what has been examined in class; the document will be delivered to the teacher maximum 10 days before the exam date.
Part time students
If part-time students do not attend, they must agree on a special program.
In any case, non-attending students, part time or not, who have not personally agreed with the teacher a substitution program and are not registered on the Moodle platform will not be accepted.
Further readings (useful for i deep studies and research):
L. Mazzei -P. Valentini (a cura di), Giallo italiano, numero monografico di «Bianco e Nero», n. 587, 2017
AAVV, I colori del nero, Ubulibri, Milano 1989
AAVV, Genealogia del delitto. Guida al cinema di Mario & Lamberto Bava. Milano, Dossier Nocturno n. 24, 2004
AAVV, Prima della rivoluzione. Schermi italiani 1960-1969, Marsilio, Venezia 1989
Il cinema secondo Hitchcock, di Francois Truffaut, Il Saggiatore, Milano 2008
C. Bartolini, Il cinema giallo-thriller italiano, Gremese, Roma 2017
M. Bonfantini, Il giallo e il noir. L'evoluzione di un genere in sei lezioni, Bergamo, Moretti Honegger, 2007 [disponibile su http://www.lanaturadellecose.it/dina]
G. Acerbo & R. Pisoni, Kill, Baby, Kill! Il cinema di Mario Bava. Roma, unmondoaparte, 2007
R. Altman, Film/Genere, Vita e pensiero, Milano 2004
D. Argento, Confessioni di un maestro dell’horror, Alacran, Milano 2007
R. Borde, E. Chaumeton, A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941–1953, trans. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books 1955
A. Bruschini – A. Tentori, Guida al cinema giallo Made in Italy, Profondo rosso, Roma 2010
I. Curti, Italia Odia: il cinema poliziesco italiano, Lindau, Torino 2007
M. Dall'Asta, La trama spezzata. Archeologia del film seriale, Le Mani, Recco (Ge) 2007
M. Dall'Asta (a cura di), Fantômas, la vita plurale di un antieroe, Il principe costante, Udine 2004
U. Eco – T. Sebeok (a cura di), Il segno dei tre. Holmes, Dupin, Peirce, Bompiani, Milano 1983 (2000)
G. Carluccio, G. Manzoli, R. Menarini (a cura di), L’eccesso della visione. Il cinema di Dario Argento, Lindau, Torino 2003
L. Crovi, Tutti i colori del giallo. Il giallo italiano da De Marchi a Scerbanenco a Camilleri, Marsilio, Venezia 2002
S. Della Casa, Storia e storie del cinema popolare italiano, La Stampa, Torino 2001
S. Della Casa, Riccardo Freda, Bulzoni, Roma 1999
F. Faldini, G. Fofi, L’avventurosa storia del cinema italiano raccontata dai suoi protagonisti, Feltrinelli, Milano 1981
G. Frezza (a cura di), Fino all’ultimo film. L’evoluzione dei generi nel cinema, Editori riuniti, Roma 2001
M. Gervasini, Cinema poliziesco francese, Le Mani, Genova 2003
L. Gandini, Il film noir americano, Lindau, Torino 2001
C. Ginzburg, Spie. Radici di un paradigma indiziario (1979)
F. Giovannini, Storia del noir. Dai fantasmi di Edgar Allan Poe al grande cinema di oggi, Castelvecchi, Roma 2000
F. Hirsch, The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir, Barnes & Co., New York 1981
S. Iachetti, La paura cammina con I tacchi alti. Il giallo all'italiana raccontato dalle protagoniste e dai protagonisti del cinema degli anni Settanta, La Cineteca di Caino, Roma 2017
E. A. Kaplan (ed.), Women in Film Noir, new ed. London: British Film Institute 1998
J.-L. Leutrat, Vita dei fantasmi. Il fantastico al cinema, Le Mani, Genova 2008
M. Locatelli, Psicologia delle emozioni. Thriller e noir nell'età dell'ansia, Vita e pensiero, Milano 2017
T. Lucas. Mario Bava. All The Colors Of Dark, Cincinnati, Video Watchdog, 2007
A.G. Mancino, Il processo della verità. Le radici del film politico-indiziario italiano, Kaplan, Torino 2008
L. Miccichè (a cura di), Il cinema italiano: gli anni ’60 e oltre, Marsilio, Venezia 2002
R. Moine I generi del cinema, Lindau, Torino 2005
J. Naremore, More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts, 2d ed. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press 2008
R. Pastore, Sulle strade della fiction. Le serie poliziesche americane nella storia della televisione, Lindau, Torino 2002
G. Pescatore (a cura di), L' arte del risparmio: stile e tecnologia. Il cinema a basso costo in Italia negli anni Sessanta, Carocci, Roma 2005
A. Pezzotta. Mario Bava. Milano, Il Castoro Cinema, 1995
M. Pistelli, Un secolo in giallo. Storia del poliziesco italiano (1860-1960), Donzelli, Roma 2006
R. Pugliese, Dario Argento, Il Castoro, Milano 1996
L. Rambelli, Storia del giallo italiano, Garzanti, Milano 1979
J. P. Telotte, Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1989
R. Venturelli, L’età del noir. Ombre, incubi e delitti nel cinema americano, 1940-60, Einaudi, Torino 2007
D. Vermandere, M. Jansen, I. Lanslots (a cura di), Noir de noir: un'indagine pluridisciplinare, Peter Lang 2010
Reception
Prof. Paola Valentini meets students all the year on Wednesday from 9.00 till 11.00 a.m. (November-December 11.00-12.45) in Department SAGAS, via Gino Capponi 9 – Room 8.