Context of Practice.: LECTURE NOTES: FILM THEORY 3: ITALIAN VERNACULAR CINEMA

ITALIAN VERNACULAR CINEMA

"Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates" - Werner Herzog

Fellini is taken seriously as an 'auteur'

* Comments on the superficiality of middle class existence

* Films are associated with style and sophistication

* Seen as worthy of critical appraisal

La Dolce Vita (1960) Fellini

Famous Trevi Fountain Scene

8 1/2 (1963) Fellini

Famous dream sequence

Italian cinema was about:

audiences

Historical and social context

economics

"A forkful of westerns: industry, audiences and the italisan western," - Christopher Wagstaff

Prima visione and Seconda visione - cinemas that attracted middle class sophisticated audiences. Usually in major cities and the audience selected films to watch.
Terza visione - less populated areas, not just in major cities. Cheaper tickets, more of a working class feel. Audience went to watch a film out of habit rather than a more artistic kinda appreciation where they make an informed decision and select a film. Films were more formulaic and designed to be popular. Similar to how we have blockbusters now that are abit crap like Twilight - designed for the masses to eat up.

Italian working classed in the 70s:

Went to cinema pretty much every night so the italian film industry needed alot of films to keep up
Appreciated the art of cinema
Conventions of watching film are different
People used to talk, and eat and drink during the film - a more social experience?
People entered at random times like half way through a film
Very social environment

Wagstaff said terza visione was more like a tv audience, who go to the cinema after dinner and working hours to relax and wind down, arriving without respect to the start times and kind of in auto-pilot mode so they needed something less abstract and deep and something more in your face. In some churches mass was conducted in a similar way too.

Filone

An italian word, meaning similar to 'genre'

Based on idea of geology, layers of veins within a larger layer

Example of filone are:

Giallo - films based on detective novels
Spaghetti Westerns
Mondo/Cannibal films
Poliziottesco - police procedural

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 1966 - Directed by Sergio Leone

(Actually love this film.)

Really cool scene from it, the music is incredibly important to the scene.

Use of sound
Use of music, Ennio Morricone was incredibly important to Leone's The Man With No Name trilogy, his music did half the work.
Lack of dialogue
Use of eye line and cutting
Differences in scale
Use of camera to tell a story
Fragmentation of body
Catholic references

Focus on Giallo

Italian for "yellow"
stems from cheap paperback crime novels which had yellow covers

Notable Giallo Directors

Dario Argento
Lucio Fulci
Mario Bava

The films were stylish and expressionistic
Exploitation movies
Similar to American grindhouse
Wonderful and creative titles used to sell the concept

House by the Cemetry by Lucio Fulci

Shock by Mario Bava

Don't Torture a Duckling - Lucio Fulci
Death Walks on High Heels - Luciano Ercoli
(more in lecture powerpoint)

Names similar to the kind of taglines and titles grindhouse movies of the 70s had, directors like Tarantino are modern day examples of a similar style.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Mario Bava (1963) was one of the first genre defining Giallo films

Protagonists tend to be:

Working in the creative industries such as fashion, music, photographers etc - quite a glamorous feel toi t
Cosmopolitan 'jet set' lifestyle
Usually American or British, visiting Italy

Killers in Giallo movies:

Black gloves
Black hat
In disguise
Gender disguised
Black overcoat
Priests often used as part of gender confusion, the strong influence of religion again

Blood and Lace

Dario Argento

The Italian Hitchcock
Places himself in the film, as the killers gloved hand
Visually stunning set pieces
Shot without sound, the films were dubbed
Worked with Sergio Leone on Once Upon A Time In The West
His influence can be seen in the famous opening scene..

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)

Jet set lifestyle
Protagonist is an American writer
Changing POV's High birds eye view camera shots
Connections to art, an appreciation of art
Fast cutting using eye-line shots
Run of the mill dialogue joins the setpieces together, like a musical
Argento always plays the killers hands, a signature in the film like Hitchcocks appearance
Killers look abit like Rorschach in Watchmen by Alan Moore
Story told visually
Hitchcock references with voyeurism and shots of the eye looking through a 'hole'
Solution of the mystery is within a piece of art
Stylish disorientating POVs
Ending mirrors the beginning, revisiting a scene right from the start

Use of Killer cams, just like Hitchcock
Set Pieces
Art and cultural references
Appearance by director
Ambivalence towards modernity, religion and superstition
Semiotics, visual stimuli

Dubbing and heightened sound

Like Leone, Argento shot his films without sound and then added dialogue and sound effects afterwards for the desired effect
Allows easier dub for many different languages
Often sold to America and Britian as B-Movies

Freudian Psychology

Many giallo are read in a psychoanalytical point of view
Based on false memory
Themes of eroticism and fetishism
Solution of mystery lies in art

Works of art in gialli are very important to the film, and provide info on the past and present of the antagonist.

Are exploitation films worthy of examination

Well yeah, isn't pretty much anything?
Innovation and auteurship
Necessity is the mother of invention
Technical mastery
Visual critique is based on spectacle rather than literary critique based on narrative
Tell us about different kinds of audiences
Challenged Hollywood's continuity cinema

Is vernacular films dead?