Passion and Defiance

Since World War II, aesthetic impulses generated in Italy have swept through every film industry in the world, and in her book Mira Liehm analyses the roots in literature, philosophy, and contemporary Italian life which have contributed to this extraordinary vigor. An introductory chapter offers a unique overview of the Italian cinema before 1942. It is followed by a full and profound discussion of neorealism in its heyday, its difficult aftermath in the fifties, the glorious sixties, and finally by an analysis of the contemporary cinematic crisis. Mira Liehm has known personally many of the leading figures in Italian cinema, and her work is rich in insights into their lives and working methods. This impressive scholarly work immediately outclasses all other available Italian film histories. It will be essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the cinema.

Preface

First Encounters

I. Obsession

II. Lacrimae Rerum

III. Neorealism, Act II

IV. What Is Reality?

V. Neorealism is Like...

VI. Difficult Years

VII. The Rift

VIII. The Glorious Sixties

IX. Highlights of the Sixties

X. The Changing Image of the Movies

XI. The Dusk of the Leopards

XII. Under the Sign of Violence

Notes

Bibliography

Index