Table of Contents

- PART ONE: BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE COMMEDIA ALL'ITALIANA CHAPTER I: THE FORERUNNERS - The Origins of Italian Comedy - The Silent Era and the Prestige of Hollywood Comedies - The Prewar Era, Cinecittà and Telefoni Bianchi - The Marc'Aurelio and the New Screenwriters CHAPTER II: THE AGE OF NEOREALISMO ROSA - Neorealism and Neorealismo Rosa in Question - A Special Case in Italian Comedy: Totò - Differences between Commedia Italiana and Commedia all'italiana - The Forerunners of the Comedy Italian Style PART TWO: THE YEARS OF EUPHORIA AND THE COMMEDIA ALL'ITALIANA CHAPTER I: ITALIAN COMEDY IN THE 1960s - Italy During the Years of Economic Miracle - Italian Film Industry in the 1960s and State Censorship - The Art of Getting by and the Commedia all'italiana CHAPTER II: THE PROTAGONISTS OF THE NEW COMEDY STYLE - Dino Risi and the Art of Caustic Satire - Mario Monicelli and Historical Comedies - Regional Comedies Pietro Germi's Style - Alberto Lattuada: Between Versatile and Eclectic Comedy - The Newcomers to the Commedia: Antonio Pietrangeli and Elio Petri PART THREE: THE FINAL ACT OF THE COMMEDIA ALL'ITALIANA CHAPTER I: ITALIAN COMEDY IN THE 1970s - Italy During the Lead Years - Italian Film Industry in the 1970s - Ettore Scola and the Discourse of Cynicism - Marco Ferreri's Grotesque Style CHAPTER II: THE LAST PROTAGONISTS - Dino Risi: A Legacy in Evolution - Lina Wertmüller: When Humor challenges the Rules - Federico Fellini's Successful Return to Comedy - A Comedy of Frustrations: Franco Brusati - Luigi Zampa's Satirical Cinema - The Human Comedy of Alberto Sordi - Mario Monicelli and the Difficult Years - Luigi Comencini: the End of an Era ABBREVIATIONS APPENDIX - Academy Awards - Cannes Film Festival - Venice Film Festival - David di Donatello - Nastri d'Argento - Italian Comedies at the Box Office NOTES SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

Promotional Information

Rémi Fournier Lanzoni's Comedy Italian Style is the first book to cover the genre "officially" known as commedia all'italiana comprehensively in English. For some, commedia all'italiana serves as a national cinematographic patrimony, and for others, it provides a satirical outlook on the economic boom years. In truth, it functioned as the principal economic engine of the Italian film industry. For in many ways, Italy and the Italians are best known through these works of biting humor and incredible grace. The landmark comedies are those of the 1960s and 1970s, when the political soil helped germinate a new society. But this radiant tradition is not contained within two decades; it started in the days before Neorealism and continues well into the 21st century.

About the Author

Rémi Lanzoni earned his M.A. in French from the University of South Carolina at Columbia, USA, and his PhD in French from Florida State University, USA. He also earned a second PhD in Italian from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He has written two books, French Cinema: From its Beginnings to Present (2003, Continuum) and Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies (Continuum, 2009) as well as several articles on Italian cinema.

Reviews

The so-called Comedy Italian Style has been, in a certain way, engendered by Neorealism, and is often considered a realistic comedy; but it was also a fusion of "bitter and sweet", a genre of entertaining films that at the same time told something on a particular moment about an Italian society in rapid transformation. This comedy Italian Style was able to reveal on the big screen the common denominator among Italians: their gift for improvisation, a gift to look at reality with a knowing smile, even as a comedic satire. Lanzoni's Comedy Italian Style offers a faithful and interesting portrait about a unique period in Italian cinema. --Dino Risi, Director of The Monsters, Scent of a Woman and A Difficult Life

The subject of this book is one of the most important in Italian film history. Commedia all'italiana was a series of comedy films based on farse that dealt with current events, not evasive, but with their bold humor very pointed about societal difficulties.   --Mario Monicelli, director of The Great War (La grande guerra) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti).