10.54103/2036-461X/22509
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
ABSTRACT PRIN 2017 – Free-range chicken. Cinema and the New Culture of Consumption in Italy (1950–1973)
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2024-02-10
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Cinéma & Cie
2023
10.54103/2036-461X/22509
204
2036-461X
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205
ABSTRACT PRIN 2017 – Free-range chicken. Cinema and the New Culture of Consumption in Italy (1950–1973)
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/22509/20371
23
ABSTRACT PRIN 2017
Free-range chicken. Cinema and the New Culture
of Consumption in Italy (1950-1973)
Research units:
University of Messina: Federico Vitella (Principal Investigator), Laura
Busetta, Antonia Cava, Giorgio Grasso, Francesco Parisi, Dario Tomasello
University of Bari “Aldo Moro”: Federico Zecca, Gabriele Landrini,
Angela Bianca Saponari
University of Cagliari: David Bruni, Mattia Cinquegrani
University of Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele D’Annunzio”: Fabio Andreazza,
Federico Pagello, Eleonora Sforzi
DOI https://doi.org/10.54103/2036-461X/22509




  The research project PRIN 2017 Free-range            project has taken into account the period of time
chicken. Cinema and the New Culture of                 defined by Eric Hobsbawm as “the golden age of
Consumption in Italy (1950-1973) questioned            capitalism”; this choice is motivated by two main
the role that cinema played in the processes           reasons. First of all, the nature and structure of
of Italy’s modernization, with a particular            consumption gradually changed in Italy during
reference to the diffusion of the new culture of       that time, due to the massive imports of American
consumption during the so-called “golden age           goods and cultural products, the significant
of capitalism”, (1950-1973). We intend “cinema”        increase of the national and per capita incomes,
as an institution, that is, as the sum of industrial   and the rapid increase of the youth population.
processes of film production, distribution             In the context of a considerable expansion of
                                                       consumption during the 1950s and 1960s, food
and exhibition, rooted in a specific historical
                                                       expenses decreased for the first time to under half
context. With the notion of “consumer culture”
                                                       of the available resources, while other kinds of
we address the ways in which individuals and
                                                       expenses (transport, communication and culture,
families have experienced and processed the
                                                       hygiene and health, and durable goods) started to
daily exposure to the distinctive consumer goods
                                                       increase. Secondly, in the same period, the media
typical of Western societies during the second
                                                       system has undergone a progressive process of
half of the 20th century. This object of study has
                                                       “commercialization”, that is, the quantity, quality,
been traditionally neglected by film scholars,
                                                       and social visibility of consumer goods offered
undoubtedly due to the problematic identification
                                                       by advertising increased significantly. Long
of suitable sources, methodologies and tools for       before reaching its full potential in the context
the extensive investigation of such a culturally       of private broadcasting—as a consequence of
significant theme. In terms of periodization, the



204                                                                            Vitella, Free-range chicken.
the so-called “air deregulation” of the second        digital humanities standards. It is accessible, by
half of the 1970s—a varied and impressive             registration, through the official website of PRIN
materialist imagination spread transversally in       (https: //ilpolloruspante.unime.it). In addition to
Italian society in proportion to the increase of      this research product, the project output includes
advertising investments in the press, national TV     the publication of a monographic journal issue
and radio broadcasting, billboards, and cinematic     (“Il cinema e la nuova cultura dei consumi in
spaces.                                               Italia: discorsi, pubblicità, rappresentazioni”,
   The project followed three different               L’avventura. International Journal of Italian
perspectives. In the first place, we have examined    Film and Media Landscape, ns 2022), along with
the ways in which cinema has made consumer            a series of conference, seminar and workshop
goods a central element of film narrative,            presentations, and a forthcoming collection
staging their narrativisation through different       of volumes in the series “Cinema, media and
(often biased) articulations. Secondly, we have       consumption” to be published by Marsilio.
investigated the extent to which cinema was
explicitly thematized within the national public
debate that arose at that time around the incipient
phenomenon of mass consumption. Thirdly, we
have explored how cinema was strategically
used in the context of advertising campaigns
envisioned by the popular illustrated press. In
this respect, each team involved examined a
large amount of comparable materials, according
to their respective outlooks, starting from the
exploration of a wide range of Italian periodicals
published in the same period, including film
magazines (such as Cinema Nuovo), popular
illustrated magazines (such as Oggi), political
and cultural magazines (such as L’Espresso),
women’s magazines (such as Annabella), and
teen and children’s magazines (such as Big and
Il Corriere dei Piccoli).
   The team selected materials thematizing the
relationship between cinema and consumption:
documents of different editorial typology—
ranging from magazine covers to photo-text,
from letters to advertising, from articles to film
reviews—have been selected, photographed
and had their metadata recorded in order to
aggregate both bibliographical references and
relevant information for the researchers to
locate the resource. This series of reflections
has been developed within the framework of
a database of digitized sources populated by
the research project group and specifically
developed in accordance with the most advanced


Cinéma & Cie vol. 23 no. 41 2023 · ISSN 2036-461X                                                205
