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| New Italian Cinema | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Italian Cinema |
| Years active | 1960s–1980s |
| Country | Italy |
| Notable people | Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Luchino Visconti |
New Italian Cinema
New Italian Cinema emerged in the 1960s as a vibrant period of filmmaking centered in Rome, Milan, and Turin and intersecting with institutions such as the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the Cinecittà Studios, the Venice Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and distributors like Embassy Pictures and United Artists. Filmmakers engaged with contemporaneous debates in the Italian Communist Party, the Christian Democracy (Italy), the Hot Autumn (1969), the 1968 protests, and the cultural institutions of the Italian Republic. The movement produced influential works screened at venues including the La Biennale di Venezia, the Palme d'Or competitions, and the Academy Awards circuit, affecting actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, and composers.
Roots trace to precedents such as Italian neorealism, exemplified by Rome, Open City, Bicycle Thieves, and practitioners like Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti whose earlier films informed aesthetics later developed by Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. The postwar economic changes of the Italian economic miracle and institutions like the Istituto Luce shaped production conditions alongside labor unrest during the Years of Lead and the rise of political discourse involving figures such as Enrico Berlinguer and events like the Piazza Fontana bombing. Funding models involved state entities such as the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, tax incentives enacted after debates in the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), and collaborations with European partners via co-productions with companies in France, West Germany, and United Kingdom.
Prominent directors included Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francesco Rosi, Luchino Visconti, Marco Bellocchio, Elio Petri, Dario Argento, Ettore Scola, Nanni Loy, Franco Zeffirelli, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Carlo Lizzani, Giuseppe De Santis, Ermanno Olmi, Sergio Leone, Gillo Pontecorvo, Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, Lina Wertmüller, Valerio Zurlini, Alberto Lattuada, Luigi Comencini, Pupi Avati, Antonio Pietrangeli, Nanni Moretti, Francesco Maselli, Salvatore Samperi, Gian Maria Volonté, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, Giulietta Masina, Anna Magnani, Silvana Mangano, Totò, Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro, Tonino Delli Colli, Gianni Amelio, Roberto Benigni, Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, Saverio Costanzo.
Key institutions and collaborators comprised the National Association of Theatre and Musical Entertainment, the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, the Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana, production houses like Fiorenzo Serra, distributors including Titanus, Cecchi Gori Group, and festival programmers at Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.
Stylistically the period combined the realism of Italian neorealism with modernist experimentation associated with surrealism aesthetics in works by Federico Fellini and the existential tableaux of Michelangelo Antonioni influenced by painters such as Giorgio de Chirico and writers like Italo Calvino and Alberto Moravia. Themes tackled class conflict reflected in texts by Antonio Gramsci, sexual politics informed by debates featuring Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and postcolonial questions connected to the legacy of the Italian colonial empire in Ethiopia and Libya. Narrative devices included long takes, elliptical editing, diegetic soundscapes by composers Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota, and mise-en-scène referencing opera at venues like La Scala and literature adaptations from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Gabriele D'Annunzio.
High-profile films encompassed La Dolce Vita, 8½, L'Avventura, Blow-Up, Accattone, The Conformist, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, The Leopard, Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dollars, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Amarcord, Cinema Paradiso, Il Posto, Bread and Chocolate, The Night of the Shooting Stars, The Battle of Algiers, La Notte, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Suspiria, Le notti bianche, Mamma Roma, The Tree of Wooden Clogs, The Consequences of Love, The Great Beauty. Movements and subcurrents included Spaghetti Western, Giallo (genre), political cinema associated with Lotta Continua, documentary currents from Cinéma Vérité encounters, and auteurist trends debated in the pages of Cahiers du cinéma and Rivista del Cinema Italiano.
Production networks relied on studios such as Cinecittà Studios and independent producers like Filmar and Titanus while financing drew on partnerships with Rai and European co-productions with Gaumont and Bavaria Film. Distribution channels included art-house circuits in Paris, New York City, London, and festival premieres at Venice Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival securing deals with companies such as Paramount Pictures and MGM. Labor organizations like the Italian General Confederation of Labour influenced on-set conditions; film schools including the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia trained key technicians; censorship battles unfolded before the Tribunale di Milano and cultural policy reviews in the Italian Parliament.
Critics and theorists such as André Bazin, Roland Barthes, Gillo Pontecorvo (as filmmaker-critic figure), Pierpaolo Pasolini (as polemicist), and reviewers at Sight & Sound and Positif shaped international reputations. Awards history included Palme d'Or wins, Academy Award nominations and wins for Best Foreign Language Film, and lifetime honors at the Venice Film Festival. The cultural legacy influenced later generations like Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, Nanni Moretti, Francesco Rosi’s successors, and global directors who cite the period in retrospectives at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the British Film Institute. The era’s impact is traceable in contemporary debates over preservation by archives like the Cineteca di Bologna and scholarly work published by Edizioni Cineteca di Bologna and university presses at Sapienza University of Rome and University of Bologna.