Italian 212:

Italian Women Directors
The Female Authorial Voice in Italian Cinema

This course examines the films of several major Italian women directors across two artistic generations: Liliana Cavani and Lina Wertmüller from the 1960s to the 1980s, Francesca Archibugi, Cristina Comencini in the 1980s and 2000s. Neither fascist cinema, nor Neorealism fostered female talents, so it was only with the emergence of feminism and the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s that a space for female voices in Italian cinema was created. The course will explore how women directors give form to their directorial signatures in film. Discussion will focus on films’ aesthetic features and narrative themes in the light of their socio-historical context. Conducted in English.