Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema

In 2005 Michele Placido's Romanzo criminale showcased to an international audience a generation of stars (Riccardo Scamarcio, Kim Rossi Stuart, Pierfrancesco Favino, Elio Germano, Stefano Accorsi and Claudio Santamaria). The film foregrounded many of the features of current Italian cinema production: its emphasis on homosocial bonding, particularly its turning towards the contested period of 1970s terrorism, and its use of charismatic male performers working together repeatedly. Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema is the first book to explore contemporary male stars and cinematic constructions of masculinity in Italy, uniting star analysis with detailed consideration of the masculinities that are dominating current Italian cinematic output. Focusing on star bodies and performance styles, this book argues, however, that we can read a palpable anxiety regarding contemporary Italian masculinity, which is seen as constantly vulnerable.

Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema is the first book to explore contemporary male stars and cinematic constructions of masculinity in Italy. Uniting star analysis with a detailed consideration of the masculinities that are dominating current Italian cinema, the study addresses the supposed crisis of masculinity.

Catherine O'Rawe is Senior Lecturer in Italian at Bristol University, UK. She is co-editor of The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts (Palgrave, 2010), and has published widely on post-war and post-2000 Italian cinema.

Introduction: Trouble Men: Masculinity, Stardom, and Italian Cinema

1. Mad About the Boy: Teen Stars and Serious Actors

2. Comedy and Masculinity, Italian Style

3. Boys Don't Cry: Weeping Fathers, Absent Mothers, and Male Melodrama

4. The Last Real Men: Romanzo criminale

5. Brothers in Arms: History and Masculinity in the anni di piombo

6. Impersonating Men: History, Biopics, and Performance