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2036-461X
19385
1
en
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Research Project – Cartography of Film Genres in the Italian Cinema
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
1
Projects & Abstracts
2001-10-01
2022-12-13
2001-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Leonardo Quaresima
2001/10/01
Università di Udine
2036-461X
1
en
Research Project – Cartography of Film Genres in the Italian Cinema
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/19385/17252
1
CARTOGRAPHY OF FILM GENRES IN THE ITALIAN CINEMA
Università Cattolica di Milano / Università di Firenze / Università di Pavia /
Università di Pisa / Università di Udine




   Research on film genres, especially in the Italian tradition, has often been character-
ized as particular: single genres (for example the inquiry on the Italian comedy) or sin-
gle trends (the exemplar case is the spaghetti western) have been investigated, at times
with great specificity, without considering the overall frame, which treats the develop-
ment of the history of national cinema, or the cultural context in which they were
placed. There certainly exist studies of the field as a whole. However, it seems that the
analysis which will highlight the permanence of certain genres (one can think of melo-
drama which takes different forms in the twenties, thirties, and between the forties and
fifties, yet maintains very similar narrative structures) or will highlight the relation
between film genres and narrative trends in other media (television, for example; one
can think of movies from the fifties based on literature or on TV scenarios) has yet to be
developed. Today there is a revival of interest in film genres, especially evident in the
international domain. The key to this revival seems to be the idea that these genres are
dynamic phenomena, capable of mutation and reorganization, and consequently phe-
nomena that elude the classificatory approach characteristic of traditional research on
film genre. Nevertheless, Italian cinema has not significantly position genres in the
articulate and dynamic communicative processes nor it has promoted any relation-
ships between film and other cultural and artistic series. In addition, research on Italian
film genres lacks an articulate mapping of overall phenomena from the historical and
philological points of view (a start in this direction was made Quaresima, Raengo, Vichi
in La nascita dei generi cinematografici,1 even if this work is not exclusively dedicated
to Italian cinema) as well as from the points of view of fruition and consumption.
   The proposal of the Cartography of Italian Film Genres aims to give a comprehensive
view of the inquired area. In particular, the research will aim at recognizing the recurrence
of some structures of genre, over years, in different types of cinematic production, by indi-
viduating constant and variant in styles and narratives. In addition, the research attempts
to reconstruct the characteristics of different genres and trends of Italian motion pictures:
those well-known, as Italian comedy, as well as those less known such as fantasy, by trac-
ing the appearance, the development and the decline of every genre. Furthermore, the
research will compare every genre with analogue genres in the other national cine-
matographies, or with analogue genres in other types of symbolic production (literature,
television, etc.). In the end, the research will aim at the reconstruction of the production
as well as cultural context which marks the appearance of every genre and the main pat-
terns of genres consumption. In the background, there will be two other points of interest.
In the first place, a reflection on the role of genre in mass culture will be developed (as it is
well known, according to one of the current hypothesis in the mass-mediology what is

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                                             CARTOGRAPHY OF FILM GENRES IN THE ITALIAN CINEMA

consumed are genres, not texts). In this regard, the problem of authorship and similar
problems will be examined. In the second place, the relationship between the structure of
the genre and broader narrative structures will be investigated, connecting the genre with
the symbolic productions specific for every society. The problem of forms and proper
functions of narration (for example, the capacity of the story to give a “model of reality”
and, at the same time, to activate an “entertainment”) will be treated in this context with
significance. The methodological research will be focused on relations between genre and
serial production. The research aims to trace the map of Italian film genres by significant-
ly advancing the knowledge of the filed through publications and conferences as well as
by using specific tools (bibliographies, filmographies, base data) which will favor further
inquires. The research aimes to achieve the following objectives:
  a) Filmic and bibliographic reconnaissance of materials inherent to the research will
be carried out in film archives, libraries, and at national and foreign foundations.
Publication of the filmographies and bibliographies of general as well as specific char-
acter, concerning the single genre and on the inquiry of every unit of research.
Realization of a computerized data base will make all the gathered materials available
locally as well as via Internet.
  b) Realization of the editorial series specifically dedicated to the scientific contribu-
tions produced by the units of research, publication of monographic international jour-
nals and the organization of international conferences. Publication of essays in the
already existing editorial series.
  c) Realization of the computerized data base, accessible locally as well as via Internet,
constructed by the indexes of consumption (takings and attendance) and by the testi-
monials of the spectator experiences (in the form of the testimony as well as in form of
memory of consumption).
  d) Establishment of a digital archive of shots of situations, places, characters and ges-
tures and the individuation of the isotopies and variants from a thesaurus of key words
which allows access to images and the formal and narratological individuation of the
underground connections between the genres.
  e) Editing of contributions and results of research oriented and destined to converge
in the editorial project of the History of Italian cinema promoted by the National
School of Cinema (Scuola Nazionale di Cinema).

The project is promoted by

  - Sandro Bernardi / Università di Firenze (alessandro.bernardi@unifi.it)
  - Francesco Casetti / Università Cattolica di Milano (casetti@mi.unicatt.it)
  - Lorenzo Cuccu / Università di Pisa (l.cuccu@arte.unipi.it)
  - Alberto Farassino / Università di Pavia (farassino@iol.it)
  - Leonardo Quaresima / Università di Udine (lquaresima@iol.it)



1 L. Quaresima, A. Raengo, L. Vichi (a cura di), La nascita dei generi cinematografici/ The Birth
  of Film Genres (Udine: Forum, 1999). Atti del VI Convegno internazionale di studi sul cine-
  ma. Università degli Studi di Udine 1998.



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