Schooling in modernity: the politics of sponsored films in postwar Italy

322 Pages·2014·17.733 MB·English

by  Bonifazio, Paola

SCHOOLING IN MODERNITY
The Politics of Sponsored Films in Postwar Italy
Between 1948 and the end of the 1950s, Italian and American govern-
ment agencies and corporations commissioned hundreds of short films
for domestic consumption and for export on topics such as the fight
against unemployment, the reconstruction and transformation of rural
and urban spaces, and the re-establishment of democratic regimes in
Italy and the rest of western Europe. In Schooling in Modernity, Paola
Bonifazio investigates the ways in which these sponsored films promoted
a particular vision of modernization and industry, and functioned as
tools to govern the Italian people.
The author uses extensive archival research and various theoretical
approaches to examine the politics of sponsored filmmaking in postwar
Italy. Among the many topics explored are target audiences and audi-
ence response, sources of funding, censorship, debates on cinematic
realism, and the connections and differences between American and
Italian strategies and styles of documentary filmmaking. Insightful and
richly detailed, Schooling in Modernity shows the importance of these un-
der-appreciated films in the postwar modernization process, the transi-
tion from Fascism to democracy, and Italy’s involvement in the Cold War.
(Toronto Italian Studies)
paola bonifazio is an assistant professor in the Department of French
and Italian at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Schooling in Modernity
The Politics of Sponsored Films
in Postwar Italy
PAOLA BONIFAZIO
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2014
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in the U.S.A.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4789-3 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-4426-1598-4 (paper)
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper
with vegetable-based inks.
Toronto Italian Studies
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Bonifazio, Paola, 1976–, author
Schooling in modernity : the politics of sponsored films in postwar Italy/
Paola Bonifazio.
(Toronto Italian studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4789-3 (bound). – ISBN 978-1-4426-1598-4 (pbk.)
1. Documentary films – Italy – History and criticism. 2. Documentary films –
Political aspects – Italy – History and criticism. 3. Documentary films – Italy –
History – 20th century. I. Title. II. Series: Toronto Italian studies.
PN1995.9.D6B65 2014 070.1'8094509045 C2014-900135-5
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its
publishing activities.
To PP
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 3
1 Work, Welfare, Neorealism 25
2 Sneaky Sponsors 51
3 Filming the Housing Revolution 87
4 South Like North 115
5 “United Europe Starts in School” 145
6 Histories through Tabloids 169
Filmography 199
Notes 237
Film Catalogues 275
Bibliography 277
Index 287
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Illustrations
1.1 Aquila (Jacopo Erbi, 1949) 36
1.2 Aquila (Jacopo Erbi, 1949) 37
2.1 La gamma delle vetture Fiat (Cinefiat, 1955/56) 57
2.2 La gamma delle vetture Fiat (Cinefiat, 1955/56) 58
2.3 Il paese dell’anima (Victor De Sanctis and Remigio
Del Grosso, 1957) 62
2.4 Il paese dell’anima (Victor De Sanctis and Remigio Del Grosso,
1957) 63
2.5 La scuola allievi Fiat “Giovanni Agnelli” (Stefano Canzio, 1962) 64
2.6 La scuola allievi Fiat “Giovanni Agnelli” (Stefano Canzio, 1962) 65
2.7 Piccoli calabresi sul Lago Maggiore: Nuovi ospiti alla colonia di Suna
(Ermanno Olmi, 1951) 70
2.8 Piccoli calabresi sul Lago Maggiore: Nuovi ospiti a / lla colonia di Suna
(Ermanno Olmi, 1951) 71
2.9 La diga del ghiacciaio (Ermanno Olmi, 1955) 75
2.10 Una fabbrica e il suo ambiente (Michele Gandin, 1957) 80
2.11 Una fabbrica e il suo ambiente (Michele Gandin, 1957) 82
3.1 INA-Casa housing project in the Tiburtino neighbourhood,
Rome, Italy (2013) 91
3.2 INA-Casa housing project in the Tuscolano neighbourhood,
Rome, Italy (2013) 92
3.3 E. Spreckmeester, Marshall Plan Poster (1950) 98
3.4 Leonard Ray Horton and Ronald Sandefort, Marshall Plan
Poster (1950) 99
3.5 Ernst Haas, “Matera, Italy” (1948–1953) 109
4.1 Paese senz’acqua (Giuliano Tomei, 1949) 127
4.2 Cristo non si è fermato a Eboli (Michele Gandin, 1952) 130