Carlorosi - A grammar of cinepoiesis: poetic cameras of Italian cinema

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carlorosi, Silvia, 1975

A grammar of cinepoiesis : poetic cameras of Italian cinema / by Silvia Carlorosi.

pages cm. (Cine-aesthetics: new directions in film and philosophy)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4985-0984-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4985-0985-5 (ebook)

1. Motion picturesItalyHistory. 2. Motion picture producers and directorsItalyInterviews. 3. Motion picturesPhilosophy. I. Title.

PN1993.5.I88C2717 2015

791.430945dc23

2015024294

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To Anna Laura and Alessandro,
May they become and accomplish all they desire.

Dear to me this project has always been, an idea that I began conceptualizing years ago when I entered the academic world as a PhD student. Especially dear to me is an evening in Milan in the distant 2004, walking around the Navigli in the company of my professor and amazing mentor Millicent Marcus and my dear friend and colleague Elena Past. It was here that this project began, while talking and theorizing about cinema and poetry and how they could possibly meld into each other. Many years have passed, and many things have changed in my life since then, as the project itself has evolved through different forms before manifesting its definitive self in this book. My love for poetry and cinema, however, has stayed the same.

Long the project has been, and long is the list of individuals and institutions that helped and sustained me along this path. It starts with my first teacher and mentor Prof. Sante Matteo at Ohio University, who was the first to convince me that I could really succeed in what I was dreaming and opened up for me the field of Italian cinema. I have loved films since I was a child, but it was not until I met Sante that I really came to see the full potential of cinema not only as entertainment, but also as an art and a cultural artifact. At the same time, I am indebted to Prof. Millicent Marcus, whose powerful thinking and passion shaped me as a scholar and critic of cinema in my years at the University of Pennsylvania. Thank you, Penny and Sante: more than just mentors, you are models for me to emulate. Many friends and colleagues have played a great part in this project, as well. Deborah Amberson, Elena Past, and Giovanna Faleschini have provided insightful (and tireless) readings and valuable feedback at various stages of this project. My deepest thanks to you, my dear friends, for inspiring, supporting, and encouraging me both academically and emotionally. Paola Bonifazio and Nicoletta Marini-Maios friendly words, moral support in time of need, and graceful expert suggestions eased my workload on many occasions. I could have not have done it without you all. More thanks also to my many other friends, who have always been there to listen to me and motivate me when needed it: Valeria Castelli, Alessia Valfredini, Corinna Messina, Annalisa Guzzini, and Kathleen LaPenta. I wish to gratefully recognize also my former colleagues at the University of Maryland: Elizabeth Papazian, Eric Zakim, Saverio Giovacchini, Carolin Eades, Andrea Frish, Joseph Brami, Giuseppe Falvo, and Stefania Amodeo for their warm support and advice on many occasions during the initial stages of my project. I sincerely wish I could have finished it under your oversight.

Furthermore, I am greatly indebted to directors Franco Piavoli and Matteo Garrone. Franco Piavoli welcomed me to his house and into his family, and he answered all my numerous questions. Thank you, Franco, for bringing the poetry of the image to the big screen, and believing in it despite everything! My heartfelt thanks goes to you, your son Marco, and Zefirofilm for supplying pictures for this book and kindly granting me permission to publish them. My gratitude goes also to Matteo Garrone, who took time away from his busy schedule to grant me an interview, and to Fandango srl., which conceded me permission to publish images of his films. My special thanks to these directors who believe in the power of cinema to show the invisible and say the unspeakable. Special thanks go also to the inspiring poet Valerio Magrelli and to the heirs of Eugenio Montale who generously gave me permission to publish some of their poems here. And thanks also to Garzanti Editors for granting me permission to publish Pasolinis poems. It was while reading your poems, together with those of Giacomo Leopardis, a recanatese like me, that I conceived the core of this project. Along the same lines, I would also like to extend my thanks to all the other directors and poets I analyzed for this book, and whose artistic work makes the cinema of poetry a reality: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Dino Campana.

I extend my grateful appreciation to the bright Sarah Luehrman Axelrod, who provided a professional editing for the manuscript, and to Alison Pavan, Associate Editor for Rowman and Littlefield, who greeted my project with great enthusiasm, and who has been supportive throughout. It has been a pleasure working with you. And thank you Kasey Beduhn, for helping and supporting with the difficult task of copyright finding.

I would also like to note that excerpts of chapter 1 originally appeared in Neo-Romanticismo in risposta al Postmodernismo? Linfluenza leopardiana nella poetica cinematografica felliniana di La voce della luna. Paesaggi: Film e Letterature. Ed. Luca Pasquale. Bologna: Gedit Ed, 2007. 89111. Also, brief excerpts of sections of the introduction, chapters 2 and 5 appeared in Neorealism, Cinema of Poetry, and Italian Contemporary Cinema, in