Cesare Zavattini’s Neo-realism and the Afterlife of an Idea: An Intellectual Biography

Description

How many Zavattinis are there? During a life spanning most of the twentieth century, the screenwriter who wrote Sciuscià, Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan, and Umberto D. was also a pioneering magazine publisher in 1930s Milan, a public intellectual, a theorist, a tireless campaigner for change within the film industry, a man of letters, a painter and a poet. This intellectual biography is built on the premise that in order to understand Zavattini’s idea of cinema and his legacy of ethical and political cinema (including guerrilla cinema), we must also tease out the multi-faceted strands of his interventions and their interplay over time. The book is for general readers, students and film historians, and anyone with an interest in cinema and its fate. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Early days 1.1 Luzzara 1.2 Alatri 1.3 Parma: Zavattini, writer and journalist 1.4 Zavattini’s ‘Holliwood’ in La Gazzetta di Parma 1.5 From Parma to Florence Chapter 2: Editorial director and screenwriter in Milan 2.1 Milan, the Modernist publishing Mecca 2.2 Editing the Bompiani Literary Almanacs 2.3 Zavattini at Rizzoli 2.4 Zavattini’s Hollywood at Rizzoli 2.5 From Rizzoli to Mondadori 2.6 Zavattini, Disney-Mondadori and other comics 2.7 From publisher to editorial director Chapter 3: Zavattini’s early fiction and diary 3.1 The short story trilogy 3.2 Zavattini’s abstract humour 3.3 Zavattini’s magic realism 3.4 From fiction to non-fiction and autobiography 3.5 Zavattini’s Cinematic Diary Chapter 4: Early screenwriting 4.1 Five Poor Men in a Motorcar 4.2 I’ll Give a Million 4.3 Everyone Should Have a Rocking Horse 4.4 Comedy in theory 4.5 Art and (film) industry 4.6 Magic realism in cinema: Totò il Buono, script, novel, film 4.7 The Children Are Watching Us 4.8 La porta del cielo (The Door to Heaven) Chapter 5: Post-war critique of cinema 5.1 The context 5.2 An alternative idea of cinema: Italia 1944 5.3 Towards an ethical cinema 5.4 Zavattini’s post-war journalism Chapter 6: Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves 6.1 Sciuscià (Shoeshine) 6.2 Bicycle Thieves 6.3 André Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer and Bicycle Thieves 6.4 Zavattini’s qualms: The Great Deception Chapter 7: Cinema as commitment: The Perugia Conference (1949) 7.1 The context: Fascist censorship revived 7.2 Zavattini’s inaugural paper 7.3 The Soviet realist alternative Chapter 8: First Communion, Miracle in Milan, Bellissima, Umberto D. and beyond 8.1 First Communion 8.2 Miracle in Milan 8.3 Rome, 11 o’Clock 8.4 Bellissima 8.5 Umberto D. 8.6 The Overcoat Chapter 9: Italia mia, proposal for ethnographic cinema 9.1 Towards new ethnographic cinema 9.2 Vittorio De Sica and Italia mia 9.3 Rossellini and Italia mia 9.4 The Roof: An episode of Italia mia 9.5 The legacy of Italia mia Chapter 10: Neo-realism to come 10.1 Zavattini’s ‘Some Ideas on Cinema’ 10.2 Zavattini’s ‘Theses on Neo-realism’ 10.3 Reactions to Zavattini before the Parma Conference Chapter 11: Manifesto films: Love in the City and We Women 11.1 From theory to theory-in-practice: Love in the City 11.2 We Women 11.3 Stazione Termini Chapter 12: The Parma Conference on Neo-realism 12.1 The context 12.2 Renzo Renzi and the debate about censorship 12.3 Zavattini’s paper 12.4 Neo-realism or Neo-realisms? 12.5 The Catholic stance at the Parma Conference 12.6 Reporting the Parma Conference in the press Chapter 13: The Catholic Varese Conference on Neo-realism 13.1 Varese: Phenomenology and Neo-realism 13.2 Varese: Brunello Rondi’s critical response 13.3 Varese: Zavattini’s response Chapter 14: Zavattini and cinematic ethnography: Un paese 14.1 Un paese, an episode of Italia mia 14.2 Un paese and photography history 14.3 Zavattini’s dialogical approach 14.4 Un paese magazine preview 14.5 Un paese and the ethnographic impulse Chapter 15: Zavattini’s transmission of Neo-realism to Spain 15.1 Cinema and Spain 15.2 Zavattini at the Second Italian Film Week 15.3 Mingling with Spanish critics and directors 15.4 Zavattini and the launch of Objectivo 15.5 The collaborative scenario: Film Festival 15.6 España mía 15.7 The new Cinema Universitario 15.8 The ‘Salamanca National Film Conversations’ 15.9 After Salamanca Chapter 16: Transmission of Neo-realism to Cuba 16.1 Zavattini in Latin America 16.2 Zavattini in Cuba 16.3 The Cubans opt for Neo-realism 16.4 Zavattini and Cuban cinema during the Revolution Chapter 17: Transmission of Neo-realism to Mexico 17.1 Zavattini’s first trip to Mexico 17.2 Zavattini’s second journey to Mexico 17.3 Zavattini’s Mexican scenarios 17.4 Zavattini’s Contribution to Mexican cinema Chapter 18: Transmission to Argentina 18.1 Another transmission route 18.2 Birri disseminates Neo-realism in Argentina 18.3 Adopting the Neo-realist photo-documentary 18.4 Photo-documentary as script: Tire dié 18.5 Critical and popular Neo-realism: Birri’s Los Inundados Chapter 19: Experimenting with non-fiction in the 1960s 19.1 Censorship 1960 19.2 A film adaptation and a television documentary 19.3 The Mysteries of Rome 19.4 Zavattini and ethnographer Josué de Castro 19.5 Mapping the city 19.6 From non-fiction to fiction: Assault on Television 19.7 From fiction to personal film: The Guinea Pig 19.8 More field research: Why? 19.9 The Newsreel for Peace Chapter 20: Zavattini and the 1968 Venice Film Festival 20.1 Preparing the ground for debate 20.2 Dealing with censorship 20.3 Rinascita round-table discussion 20.4 Sequences from a Cinematic Life and Free Newsreels Collective 20.5 The 1968 Cannes Film Festival 20.6 Venice Film Festival 1968 20.7 ‘Is cinema over?’ Free Newsreels historic debate 20.8 Venice is a farce: The Free Newsreels boycott Chapter 21: Zavattini’s Free Newsreels 21.1 Theorizing guerrilla filmmaking 21.2 Free Newsreels at aid Algiers 21.3 Applying the shadowing model: Apollon 21.4 Grassroots, not counter-information Chapter 22: The Truuuuth: Zavattini’s testament? 22.1 After the Free Newsreels 22.2 Re-imagining Quixote ’63 22.3 The Truuuuth: The story 22.4 The Truuuuth: The context 22.5 Aldo Moro 22.6 Telesubito 22.7 Postscript: Ligabue Notes Bibliography Index