Index
Page references in italics refer to figures.
Abject, as dysgenic Other, 116
abjection: of northern European whiteness, 162; performance of, 177; of wartime assignments, 197; in Western modernity, 116; of white elites, 116, 119–20, 120
Acciaio (Ruttmann), 17, 29, 66–78, 121; audience of, 67; cult of machine in, 76; dangers of work in, 69, 71; dehumanization in, 77; diegetic universe of, 74; factory symphony sequence, 69; factory visitors in, 67, 68; failure of, 77–78; formalism of, 67; genealogy of, 256n4; German appreciation of, 77; German cultural tropes of, 78; German title of, 74; human-machine assemblage in, 72; individuals in, 68–69, 71, 76–77; individual/state conflict in, 80; innocence of the state in, 69; isolation in, 74; Italian workforce of, 60, 64, 70, 74, 76, 76–77; lightscape of, 69; military-industrial complex in, 73; mythologization of Fascism, 76; national bodies in, 73; noncompliance in, 77; Pirandello’s treatment and, 72–73, 257n16; plot of, 67–68; private/nationalized sphere in, 75; reality of, 73–74, 75, 78; reunited community of, 71; ritual cave of, 78, 79; score of, 73; shot-reverse-shots of, 69; sociopolitical docility in, 72; Soldati’s role in, 66–67; sonic-photo montage of, 75; spectatorial pleasure at, 77; state authority in, 69, 71, 75–76; steelworks floor in, 75; symbolism of, 78; Terni in, 67–69; tone of, 67–68; water in, 75; worker discipline in, 71. See also Gioca, Pietro!
Adorno, Theodor W.: Dialectic of Enlightenment, 33
aesthetics: politics and, 27; of security cameras, 195
affectivity: of Italian Fascism, xi; knowledge-power networks of, 15, 21–22; in media scholarship, 26–27; racism in, 31; state use of, 20
affectivity, cinematic, 27, 28; power of, 39, 60; of De Sica’s landscapes, 184; realism in, 15
Africa, Italian: depictions of whiteness in, 202
Agamben, Giorgio, 8, 146, 220; on anthropological machines, 115; on comedy, 170; on Leviathan, 179; on sovereignty, 170
Agbamu, Samuel, 150
Ahmed, Sara, 18
Akbaba (Turkish magazine), critique of Mussolini, 177
Alberini, Filoteo: La presa di Roma, 40
Alessandrini, Goffredo, 86; Luciano Serra, pilota, 97, 150; Seconda B, 188; La segretaria privata, 126
Alicata, Mario, 201, 217; at Cinema, 205; imprisonment of, 211; on realism, 206; “Verità e poesia: Verga e il cinema italiano,” 209, 210, 214
All’armi siam fascisti (Del Fra, Mangini, Miccichè), 248
Almirante, Giorgio, 173
Althusser, Louis: on consent to capitalism, 19; “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” 4, 5
Amato, Giuseppe, 173
Americans, white: assumptions of superiority, 136
Amin, Kadji: Disturbing Attachments, 221
Andreotti, Giulio, 247
Anker, Elisabeth, 136
antifascism, 83; as degenerate, 90; Italian repression of, 140; political registry of, 268n15
Antliff, Mark, 110
antisemitism, Italian, 172–73; in fascist cinema, 172
apparatus theory, 4, 7, 27; bodily sensations in, 26
Arbeit macht frei (slogan), 74
Argentieri, Mino, 161; on laughter, 180
Aristarco, Guido, 144; imprisonment of, 264n41
Aryanism: disposition to order, 46; Italian, 149; Nordic, 42
askari (soldier), at LUCE groundbreaking, 2, 6, 7
Attori e Direttori Italiani Associati (ADIA) consortium, 112
audiences: racialized sense of self, 16; self-misrecognition of, 4
Augustus (film company), 86, 92, 121
authority, state: embodiment of, 19; virtuous disregard for, 171
autonomy: biopolitical anxiety over, 58; of submarines, 270n1
Bacon, Henry, 214
Baldwin, James: The Fire Next Time, 139
Balibar, Étienne, 58
Barbaro, Umberto, 204, 209, 246; on neorealism, 212
Barratoni, Luca, 255n36
Barthes, Roland, 144
Baudelaire, Charles, 37
Baudry, Jean-Louis, 27; on movie theaters, 4
Bazin, André, 14, 56; “An Aesthetic of Reality,” 231–34, 237–38, 241; on La corona di ferro, 231; on De Sica, 171–72, 271n16; on fascist cinema, 138, 232; on genre fiction, 233; on imperfect humanity, 237–38; infantilizing of Italy, 242; on Italian ethnic character, 241; on narrative, 235; on neorealism, 30, 200, 229–40; on Paisà, 241; pro-realism of, 30; on realism, 144, 233; on Uomini sul fondo, 150; on L’uomo dalla croce, 263n26
Benelli, Sam: La cena delle beffe, 204
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth: on communist purge, 247; Fascist Modernities, 2, 15; on Italian colonialism, 89, 125; Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema, 15; on La nave bianca, 155
Benjamin, Walter, 30; on cinema, 192; on comedy, 171; on Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore, 52; “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility,” 191
Berbrier, Mitch, 135
Bergman, Vera, 174
Bergson, Henri, 30; on comedy, 171, 180–81, 192; Creative Evolution, 180–81; Laughter, 180–81, 183
Berlant, Lauren, 17; on comedy, 176–77; on cruel optimism, 222
Bertani, Mauro, 21
Bertolucci, Bernardo, x
biopolitics: apparatuses of, 8; comedy’s opposition to, 170; De Sica’s contestation of, 180, 197; effect of laughter on, 176; embodiment of, 8, 83; feminist, 199; Foucault on, 22, 24, 31; intervention in liberal state, 11; of Italian cinema, 8, 62; mediation practices, 28; perception of rulers in, 100; racial dimension of, 8, 83, 111, 238, 240; remaking of collective living, 58; reproduction of patriarchy, 8; technologies of governance, 17; truth-weapons of, 26. See also warfare, biopolitical
biopower, Foucault on, 18
biopower, state: historical formation of, 27; mass mediation devices, 229
Birth of Jesus (film, 1906), 41
Black men, racist imaginaries of, 127, 129
Blackness: in Italian labor spaces, 117; of Mediterranean Sea, 158; in Sole!, 29; in Vecchia guardia, 29; white existence and, 16
Black Panther Party (BPP), 19
Black people, colonized, 125, 149
Blackshirts: in fascist cinema, 202; genealogy of, 10–11; industriousness of, 110, 124; internal enemies of, 29; jazz orchestras, 117, 118; model of humanity, 116; narratives contributing to, 233; political strategies of, 13–14; in Rossellini’s oeuvre, 160; supremacy in national life, 126; survival of, 204; in Vecchia guardia, 105; whiteness of, 29, 88, 92, 158, 248; white supremacy of, 83–84, 88, 92
Blasetti, Alessandro, 15, 28, 222; anticipation of liberation, 231; cinematic language of, 80; depiction of Blackshirts, 110; ecofascist realism of, 90, 97; on Ferri, 258n15; film criticism of, 84–85; film language of, 105; fundraising by, 86, 109; on race, 81–82
Blasetti, Alessandro, works: Aldebaran, 97, 151; La corona di ferro, 231; La crociata degli innocenti, 84; 1860, 107; Ettore Fieramosca, 107; Quattro passi fra le nuvole, 199. See also Sole!; Terra madre; Vecchia guardia
body: in apparatus theory, 26; as capitalist subject, 238; in film theory, 18; incorporation into state, 169; shaming of, 110, 111–12; truth in, 25–26; without identity, 26
body, Black: cinematic reclamation of, 6; disposable, 137; in fascist Italy, 88
body, Italian: arming of, 134; authentic, 114; autonomy of, 197; cinematic representation of, 202; in De Sica’s comedies, 183–84; disciplining of, 34; ethno-national, 109; fascist expectation of, 73; fascist ordering of, 214; fictions restraining, 58; gendered, 192; nonconforming, 139; reclamation of control over, 197; ways of being, 182; White-Dark division, 10, 42, 47, 52, 73, 81; woundedness of, 154
body, racialized, 192; cinema in governance of, 30
Bolter, Jay David: on remediation, 36–37
Bombacci, Nicola, 243
Bondanella, Peter, 240
Bonifazio, Paola: Schooling in Modernity, 27
Bonitzer, Pascal, 20
Boulainvilliers, Henri de, 23
Bragaglia, Carlo Ludovico, 173
Brinkema, Eugenie: The Forms of the Affects, 27
Brooks, Peter, 213
Bruegel, Pieter: The Harvesters, 216, 217
Brunetta, Gian Piero, 63, 115; on Uomini sul fondo, 150
Brunette, Peter, 160
Bruni, David, 172; on racial discrimination, 173
Bruno, Giuliana, 5
Cahiers du Cinéma (journal), 4
Cain, James M.: The Postman Always Rings Twice, 199
Calamai, Clara, 213
Calboli de’ Paulucci, Giacomo, 61, 258n9
camera, weaponization, 54
Camerini, Mario, 15, 28, 246; abjectification of white elites, 116; anticipation of liberation, 231; biography of, 260n7; cinematic language of, 80, 115–16; depiction of urban underclasses, 110; diegetic universe of, 114; escapism of, 115, 195; gender compliance in, 119; race-making in, 110; racial subjugation in works of, 112; relatable characters of, 115; shame in works of, 110, 112, 115, 131; social position in, 117; urban films of, 109; weaponization of irony, 180; work abroad, 260n18; World War I service, 178
Camerini, Mario, works: Come le foglie, 114; Darò un milione, 114; Maciste contro lo sceicco, 112; Ma non è una cosa seria, 114; I promessi sposi, 204. See also cappello a tre punte, Il; grande appello, Il; grandi magazzini, I; Kif Tebbi; Rotaie; signor Max, Il; uomini che mascalzoni . . . , Gli
Caminati, Luca, 143
Campbell, Timothy, 24
Canal grande (film), 41
Cannella, Mario, 247
Cannistraro, Philip V., 45
capitalism: alienation in, 52; biopolitical warfare of, 7–8; consent to, 5, 19; division of labor, 59; modes of production, 59, 125–26; state power and, 20; technologies of, 191
capitalism, fascist, 5, 19, 60; expendability of life under, 132
capitalism, Italian, 251n19; conflict with labor, 45–46, 81; Italian people under, 49; liberal, 11, 49, 83; in modern nation-state, 9; rural/urban unity against, 110; in traditional life, 67
capitalism, racial, 24; transnational, 18; Western history of, x
capitalism-colonialism: biological warfare under, 7–8; fascist connection to, 248; following liberation of Europe, 240; gender under, 8; Italian, 8, 10–11, 18, 53; production/reproduction of, 137; racial, 146. See also colonialism, Italian
Capitol Riot, Washington, D.C., 2021, 135
cappello a tre punte, Il (Camerini), 178–80; abjectification of ruler in, 179; nationalism in, 178; reinstatement of order in, 179; satirization of Mussolini, 178–79; schadenfreude in, 179; sovereign/people reconciliation in, 179
Caprotti, Federico, 88
Carné, Marcel, 212
Casarino, Cesare, 234
Casetti, Francesco, 36
Castellani, Renato, 209
castor oil, fascist use of, 194, 266n33
catharsis, Aristotelian, 175
Catholic Church, Italian fascism and, 97–98
Cavani, Liliana, x
Celli, Carlo, 179; on Maddalena zero in condotta, 187–88
Centro Cinematografico del Ministero della Marina, 143, 150, 155; De Robertis’s work for, 158
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia: alternate film forms at, 17; anti-fascist intelligentsia of, 204; construction of, 1; training at, 204–5
Césaire, Aimé, 156
Chaplin, Charlie: City Lights, 111, 129; Modern Times, 217; The Tramp, 217
Chiari, Mario, 246
children, Italian: in neorealism, 221–22
Christian Democratic Party, 247
Cincotti, Guido, 39
Cinecittà studios: Camerini’s films at, 131; construction of, 87, 258n9; escapism of, 232; Mussolini’s organization of, 1–2; propaganda from, 232
Cine-GUFS (film clubs), 92
cinema: as apparatus of ideological warfare, 4; atmospheric, 262n20; experience of the real in, 4, 256n7; influence on children, 202; as language, 27; Leninist claims for, 2; liberation from, 236; power-knowledge-affect in, 36; processes of racialization, 30, 16, 201; role in nation-building, 39; textuality of, 4; whiteness in, 38, 41, 44–45, 99
Cinema (journal): media activists of, 171; post-Mussolini cover, 224, 225
Cinema (journal), Communist cell, 30, 219; on authenticity, 201; challenges to Italian unity, 210; contesting of racism, 200; on domestic life, 213; establishment of, 205; on Fascism, 211, 213; on film style, 200; on Italian landscape, 208; on Italian reality, 208; on negative Italian present, 213; Ossessione and, 30, 213, 224; on realism, 200, 201, 204, 206; on Sicily, 224; smear campaign against, 212; on technical perfection, 209; underground tactics, 224; and Verga’s fiction, 209–10, 224; Vittorio Mussolini and, 201, 203, 205–6, 212, 224. See also Communist Party, Italian
cinema, American: in fascist Italy, 84; noir, 212
cinema, French: educational, 40, 41; naturalism of, 212; New Wave, 209; WWII resistance in, 20
cinema, Italian: authentic, 231, 237; calligraphic mode of, 208–9; collective endeavor of, 84–85; colonized and colonizers in, 125; in “culture war,” 109; fascist suspicion of, 204; film clubs, 92; filmmaking courses, 86; future of, 227; improvisation in, 232; location in, 232; national character of, 85; before neorealism, 171–76; nonprofessional actors in, 232; production companies, 85; realism of, 15, 56, 232–33; as refuge of culture, 232; representations of labor, 28–29; role in national health, 194; “schoolgirl films,” 188, 195; Soviet influence on, 89, 260n18; state-funded, 84; stracittà–strapaese rift in, 109; U.S. study of, 230–31; weaponization of, 28, 43, 55, 60, 182; whiteness in, 38, 41, 44–45, 99; zero-degree style, 232, 239, 240, 247–48
cinema, Italian early: comparison with theater, 39; complicity with nationalism, 231; crisis of 1910s, 45; in crisis of 1920s, 109; educational, 39, 43–44; as governmental technology, 40; healer-artists of, 56; historical reenactments in, 41; improving features of, 39; invention of, 36; and Italian national life, 47; manipulation of affect, 60; melodrama in, 54; myth of, 56; Orientalizing, 54; prejudices against, 35; racialized anxieties in, 34; redemptive power of, 41; as regenerative apparatus, 40; reproduction of reality, 56; under Risorgimento, 39–50; as security apparatus, 45; social benefits of, 37; success of, 34–35; transition to sound, 119; weaponization of, 55
cinema, Italian fascist: antisemitism in, 172–73; biopolitical, 8, 62, 203; British naval power in, 140–41; brutal vision of, 137; censorship system, 205; contribution to political history, 143; “corpo-realism” of, 29; as denial of reality, 14–15; as disciplinary, 14; end of, 163; escapist, 5, 14, 115, 126, 131, 176, 195, 232; ethno-nationalism of, 85, 159; ideological scripts of, 232; independence from patron state, 17; labor in, 59–60; legitimization of Fascism, 204; locations of, 16; “made in Italy” narratives of, 14; Marxist ideology critique of, 4; masculinity in, 97, 190–91; media archaeology of, 5; Mussolini’s investment in, 1–2; national life in, 15–16, 170–71; national reality in, 29, 63; order in, 210; performance of racism, 203–4; post–WWI crisis, 1; production of docile bodes, 229; proper/improper lives in, 16; racialized tropes of, 93, 203, 210; racially appropriate behaviors in, 201; as racial melodramas, 138; racial unity in, 203; realist, 29, 63, 206, 232; resistance in, 17–18, 229; restorative function of, 97; rule through, 6; social normalization through, 201; soldiers in, 138; state control of, 210–11; territorial expansion in, 201; threat from sea in, 138; unity in, 210; weaponization of, 2–3, 8, 204; white supremacy in, 201; women’s sacrifice in, 138
cinema, Italian postwar, x–xi; auteur, x, 84, 200, 230, 231, 235; conservative agenda of, 247; eco-cinema, 92; educational, 27; in geopolitical order, 240; hagiographic memory of, 229; liberated senses in, 230; liberation school of, 30, 231, 247; moral conservatism of, 226–27; national life in, 30–31; normalization in, ix, 230; post-totalitarian redemption of, 231; purge of communists from, 247; as revolutionary antinarrative, 230; Sicily in, 209–11; social function of, 235. See also neorealism, Italian
cinema, queer: modes of embodiment, 199; of Ossessione, 201, 214, 226. See also queerness
cinema, Soviet: fascist admiration for, 66; influence on Blasetti, 89
Cinematografo, Al (Fabbri), 28, 34–45, 55; artistic merits of, 36; benefits of cinema in, 39; cinema’s respectability in, 35; educational cinema in, 43–44; emotivity in, 40, 41; ethnicity in, 41; on generative apparatuses, 37; genìa in, 41; history of cinema in, 36; modernity in, 44; movie audiences in, 38–39; national regeneration in, 40; national unity, 39; patriotism in, 40; redemptive cinema in, 41; rediscovery of, 36; remediation in, 37; technology in, 36
Cines (production company), 61–62; nationalization of, 62; prototypical film forms of, 63
Civil War, Spanish, 217
class, enactment through race, 127
class conflict, pathologization of, 82
classes, Italian: in Camerini’s films, 116–17; racialized, 44–45, 114; separation in theaters, 38. See also elites; peasants, Italian; working class, Italian
Coke, Edward, 23
colonialism, Italian, 8, 10–11, 88, 251n19; Black subjects of, 202; in Camerini’s films, 112–14; as European phenomenon, 113; internal, 16; mare nostro in, 148; racialized imaginaries of, 83; violence of, 89. See also capitalism-colonialism
comedians, acquisition of power, 177
comedy: ancient Greek, 170; anti-disciplinarian, 30; as challenge to depotentiation, 181; in construction of community, 170; Italian film criticism on, 176; Jewish philosophers on, 171; liberation in, 192; opposition to biopolitics, 170; revelation of alienation, 192. See also laughter
Communism: as biological threat, 104; as biospiritual illness, 163; degenerate subjects of, 82; in Un pilota ritorna, 163; in Vecchia guardia, 104–5
Communist Party, Italian, 205, 243; as proponent of neorealism, 247. See also Cinema (journal), Communist cell
community: comedy in construction of, 170; ecofascist landscapes of, 28; Romantic view of, 13; of victimhood, 136
conformista, Il (1970), x
Cortese, Leonardo, 175
Cowan, Michael, 69
Crary, Jonathan, 5
creativity, human: neglect of, 180–81; normalization and, 181
Crespi, Daniele, 119
Creti, Vasco, 90
Cristiani, Dhia, 213
critical race theory, Mediterranean in, 158
Croce, Benedetto: interpretation of Fascism, ix–x, 244–45
Daney, Serge, 20
D’Annunzio, Gabriele, 84; in Fiume expedition, 164; La nave, 148, 263n23
D’Annunzio, Gabriellino, 263n23
Darwin, Charles, 116
D’Azeglio, Massimo, 33
De Amicis, Edmondo: Cuore, 40
De Benedetti, Aldo, 29, 261n20; collaborations with De Sica, 172, 176, 180; Due dozzine di rose scarlatte, 173; persecution of, 172–73, 190, 197, 246; screenplay for La vita ricomincia, 243, 246; uncredited work of, 172
De Filippo, Eduardo, 178, 244, 246
De Filippo, Peppino, 178
de Grazia, Victoria: The Culture of Consent, 5
de Landa, Juan, 213
de Lauretis, Teresa, 27
Deleuze, Gilles, 14, 31; on hieratic slowness, 234; infantilizing of Italy, 242; on Italian people’s essence, 241; modes of the imaginary, 238; on narrative, 235; on naturalized behaviors, 235; on neorealism, 30, 229–30, 234–37, 240, 242; on Ossessione, 217, 220; sampling technique, 235; taxonomy of images, 238; on time-images, 238–39.
Deleuze, Gilles, works: Cinema volumes, 220, 234–36, 238; “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” 26
Del Fra, Lino, 248
Del Poggio, Carla, 174–75
De Robertis, Francesco, 15; anticipation of liberation, 231; war cinema of, 144; work for Navy Ministry Film Center, 158. See also La nave bianca
De Robertis, Francesco, works: Alpha Tau!, 158–59; Il mulatto, 159; La vita semplice, 159. See also Uomini sul fondo
Derrida, Jacques: on performance of weakness, 135
De Santis, Giuseppe, 29, 176, 224; at Cinema, 205; on De Sica’s comedies, 180; on diversity, 206–7; eco-cinema of, 92; Jewish collaborators of, 173; liberated cinema of, 232; on new national cinema, 207; on Ossessione, 215; peasant origins of, 208; on realism, 206; remediation in, 201; on Verga, 209, 210. Works: “Il linguaggio dei rapporti,” 207; Non c’è pace tra gli ulivi, 92; “Per un paesaggio italiano,” 206–8, 211; Riso amaro, 92; “Verità e poesia: Verga e il cinema italiano,” 209, 210, 214
De Sica, Vittorio: abject female subjects of, 186; affective landscapes of, 184; antifascism of, 182, 192; anti-utopic endings, 195; in Camerini’s films, 115, 126, 127, 180, 183; catharsis in, 175; collaborations with De Benedetti, 172, 176, 180; collaborations with Zavattini, 171; collaborators of, 172; comedic settings of, 182–83; commercial fictions of, 195; conception of virtue, 171; contestation of fascist biopolitics, 180, 197; disciplinary spaces in, 182; dreams in, 194, 195; early films of, 261n20; empowerment of viewers, 182; escapist films of, 176; exuberance in, 191; fantasy of freedom in, 194; futurity in, 195; in Un garibaldino al convento, 191; humanity in films of, 176; Italian body in, 183–84; laughter in comedies of, 181; in Maddalena zero in condotta, 174, 192; mocking of inefficacy, 194; modification of life ways in, 180; narrative structures of, 189, 191, 195; national reality in, 183; neorealism’s possibilities in, 236; noncompliance in films of, 182; nuclear family in, 194; patterns of affect, 167; playfulness in films of, 187; postwar films, 221, 226; pre-neorealist films, 171–76; pursuit of happiness in, 193; realist films of, 171, 236; in redemption of postwar cinema, 231; reenchantment of Italy, 192; rhetorical structure of, 195; romantic comedies of, 29–30, 172–76, 180–97, 229; in Rose scarlatte, 173; sentimentality of, 271n18; in Teresa Venerdì, 174, 175; transgressive desires in, 172; utopic imaginaries of, 195; vital optimism of, 180–97; women protagonists of, 184, 186; women’s resistance in, 197; works created under fascism, 29–30
De Sica, Vittorio, works: I bambini ci guardano, 171; Miracolo a Milano, 221; Sciuscià, 221; Umberto D., 221, 235. See also garibaldino al convento, Un; Ladri di biciclette; Maddalena zero in condotta; Rose scarlatte; Teresa Venerdì
desire, proper representation of, 202
Dilián, Irasema, 193
Di Maio, Alessandra, 158
Di Nicola, Alberto, 265n12
discipline: class, 112; of excesses, 55; of fascist cinema, 14; of Italian body, 34; for Italian national life, 81–82; workers’, 60, 71
documentaries, cinematic, 40–41
Dombroski, Robert S., 52
domus (home and family): in Italian Fascism, 79–80, 220–21; in Italian national life, 214
dopo-lavoro (work clubs), 117, 260n15
Doro, Mino, 103
Duncan, Derek, 208
Dyer, Richard, 99
ecofascism, 84; community, 28; in Sole!, 90; in Terra madre, 97; in Vecchia guardia, 107
education: fascist, 187–88; in Italian early cinema, 39, 43–44; Montessori method, 183
Eisenstein, Sergei, 66
elites: abjection of, 116, 119–20, 120; account of progress, 55; in Camerini’s films, 114, 116; learning from underclass, 114; modernity of, 98; Mussolini on, 81; resentment of, 63, 93, 99; in Il signor Max, 117–19; spoiling of national life, 82; in Terra madre, 99, 101, 102; as vampires, 99; whiteness of, 117. See also classes, Italian; liberalism, Italian
embodiment: biopolitical, 8, 83; discursive forms of, 40; Foucault on, 19; of Italian femininity, 98; Italian modes of, 229; of Italian people, 214; queerness modes of, 199; shame in, 110; in state authority, 19; subjection and, 13
emotion, politics of, 18, 110–11
Epstein, Jean: Faithful Heart, 68
escapism, cinematic, 5, 14, 232; Camerini’s, 115, 126, 131, 195; De Sica’s, 176
Ethiopia, Italian invasion, 6, 84, 140; gas attacks in, 144; war crimes in, 157
Europe: biospiritual warfare in, 23; ethnicities of, 22; mythological ancestries of, 23; proto-capitalism of, 23–24; racial allegiances in, 23
evil, sexualized tropes of, x
Evola, Julius, 79
excess: cultural disciplining of, 55; of Italian people, 41, 48, 51–53
Fabbri, Gualtiero: film theory of, 36; rules of screenplay, 36; weaponization of cinema, 60. See also Cinematografo, Al
Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta, 5
Fanon, Frantz: Black Skin, White Masks, 111–12, 127
Fantasia sottomarina (Rossellini): moral of, 143; spectatorial body of, 142, 143; warfare in, 141–43
Farassino, Alberto, 112
fare razza (making race), 14, 65, 251n19
Farocki, Harun: Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades, 59, 256n1
Fascism, American: Black bodies in, 137
Fascism, Italian: as abjection, x; ableism of, 215; affective mediation of, 137; after-work clubs of, 117; appeal to labor, 119; approach to governing, 110; attitude toward popular culture, 1; being-together in, 109–10; biological body of, 109; biopolitics of, 8, 17, 62, 110, 180, 197, 203; capitalist, 5, 19, 60, 132, 248; Catholic Church and, 97–98; challenge by love, 201; in cinematic realism, 15, 29, 90, 97, 171, 233; class/gender exploitation, 115; consent to, 5; “created life” of, 131; defeat of, 30, 212, 229, 243; disciplined workers of, 60; domesticity in, 79–80, 220–21; economic development models, 109; education under, 187–88; ethno-nationalism of, 11–12, 82–83, 85, 132, 139; as foreign virus, 245; forms of affect, xi; gendered racial assemblage of, 9; global affirmation of, 204; ideal cities of, 88; ideological confusion in, 3–4, 5; intellectuals during, 247; internal colonization, 16; jus soli (birthright citizenship) in, 159, 267n8; land reclamation projects, 84, 86, 88–89, 124; media activists in, 17; Me ne frego slogan, 80; naturalization into landscape, 106; versus Nazism, 3; non-state actions in, 17; parodies of, 177; as passing phenomenon, ix–xi, 11, 227, 244; politics of natality, 267n8; popular commitment to, xi–xii; popular culture of, 1, 206; postwar purge of, 246–47; postwar reinstatement of, 227; queer alternative to, 201; race-empire-nation project, 98; race-making in, 171, 202, 204; race wars of, 80, 83, 167, 212; on racial degeneration, 89–91; Racial Laws of, 43, 132, 138, 139, 153, 172; racism of, 81–84; recovery from, ix–x; resistance to, x, 17–18, 107, 197, 199, 229, 247; rule through cinema, 6; securitarian fixation of, 79; sexual behavior concerns, 202; structures of living under, 60; unifying project of, 8; victimhood in, 139, 151; as war for security, 80; in Western press, 177–78; whitening of, 157; white supremacy of, 99, 201; winning of working class, 60. See also cinema, Italian fascist; Italy, fascist
Fascism, Nazi, 232; aestheticization of politics, 191; importance of water for, 139
fear: affective geographies of, 16; governance by, 161–62; white, 135–36
Federici, Silvia, 18
Fellini, Federico: I vitelloni, 195, 235
femininity, Italian: racially appropriate, 98
feminism, Black, 8
Filippi, Francesco, 243
film culture, early twentieth-century: in Italian social health, 34
flâneurs, French, 37
Fogu, Claudio, x, 137; on Aryanism, 149
Fontana, Alessandro, 21
Forgacs, David: Rethinking Italian Fascism, 2; “Sex in the Cinema,” 14–15, 175–76; on Visconti, 199
Forzano, Giovanni: Camicia nera, 17
Foscolo, Ugo: Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis, 175, 181
Foucault, Michel: on Althusser, 19; analytics of power, 18–19; on biopolitical warfare, 7, 140; on biopolitics, 22, 24, 31; on biopower, 18; on consent building, 19; on Enlightenment discourse, 19–20; on Fascism, 245; on governance, 26; on Marxism, 20; on penal apparatus, 20; on resistance, 31; on state racism, 23–24; on subjugated knowledges, 21; on weaponization of truth, 1
Foucault, Michel, works: Cahiers du Cinéma interview, 20; Discipline and Punish, 19–20; “Friendship as a Way of Life,” 218; Society Must Be Defended, 21–23, 25, 27–28
France: conservative Right of, 22; Popular Front, 205; state violence in, 18
Freddi, Luigi, 85
Fréret, Nicolas, 23
Fuller, Mia, 88
Galt, Rosalind: Queer Cinema in the World, 199
García Düttmann, Alexander: Visconti: Insights into Flesh and Blood, 214
garibaldino al convento, Un (De Sica), 174–75; credits for, 172; De Benedetti’s work in, 172; disciplined female body in, 184, 185; escape from fascist biopolitics, 197; forbidden reading in, 184; masculinity in, 190–91; Risorgimento fighters in, 190–91, 197
Garofalo, Piero, 74, 89; Re-viewing Fascism, 3
gas di guerra sul mare, I (Navy training film), 152
gender: under capitalism-colonialism, 8; under capitalist-patriarchal-colonial order, 8; of Italian body, 192; in Italian workforce, 103, 154; racial assemblage of, 9
genìa, Italian, 43; deviation from norms, 41; unevolved, 45
Genina, Augusto: Lo squadrone bianco, 97, 150
genre fiction, 63, 233; De Sica’s, 29; paratextual outrage against, 97; politics of, 233; schoolgirl comedies and, 195
Gentile, Emilio, 62
geopolitics, Italian: of Mediterranean Sea, 137; of postwar cinema, 240; racialized, 46–47; skeletal morphology in, 46
Germany, Nazi: surrender of, 243
Giachetti, Gianfranco, 103
Gillette, Aaron, 34
Gioca, Pietro! (Piranello), 60, 63–66; Acciaio and, 72–73, 257n16; common good in, 65; discipline in, 66; fare razza in, 65; good capitalism in, 73; the individual in, 72–73; Italian ingenuity in, 65; labor in, 60, 63–66; masculinity in, 65, 73; national subjects in, 73; score of, 64; spiritual/authentic liberty in, 65; steelworks in, 64, 65; synchronicity in, 64. See also Acciaio
Giolitti, Giovanni, 45, 63; liberal governance of, 254n24; socialist critics of, 46
Girotti, Massimo, 160, 162, 213, 223
Giuliani, Gaia, 98
Giuliani, Luca, 34–35
Giuliani, Reginaldo, 164
Goebbels, Joseph: Ruttman’s work for, 77; at Venice Film Festival, 132
Goldberg, David Theo, 10
Goldberg, Jonathan, 214
Good Judge, The (film, 1906), 40
Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs, The (film, 1905), 41
Gramsci, Antonio, 4, 9, 107; on capitalist exploitation, 22; interpretation of Fascism, 22, 79; on rural-urban unity, 109–10; on war of position, 17–18, 206
grande appello, Il (Camerini), 97; biopolitics of, 114; masculinity in, 113; racial imaginary of, 113–14
grandi magazzini, I (Camerini), 29, 115; biopolitical fantasy of, 131; class difference in, 118; consumerism in, 131; heteronormal bodies of, 131; hyperstaged reality of, 131; mannequins in, 131–32, 133; organic/inorganic bodies in, 133; as transitional film, 132; at Venice Film Festival, 132; white space in, 125
Gravelli, Asvero: hate campaigns of, 164
Gray, Hugh, 241
Greene, Shelleen, 34; Equivocal Subjects, 16
Grieveson, Lee, 26
Griffith, D. W.: Birth of a Nation, 105
Grillo, Beppe, 180; political satire of, 177
Grusin, Richard: on remediation, 36–37
Guazzoni, Enrico: Quo Vadis, 62, 231
Guenther, Lisa, 111
Guerzoni, Fausto, 190
Gundle, Stephen, 85
Hall, Stuart, 127
Haneke, Michael: Hidden, 195
Hansen, Mark, 26
Hargraves, Hunter, 26–27
Hawthorne, Camilla, 158
Hay, James, 14, 78; on whiteness, 99, 125
Heath, Stephen, 27
Heiner, Brady Thomas, 18–19
Herring, Emily, 181
heteronormativity, 131; aid to racial identity, 30
historiography, cinema: engagement with filmic texts, 27
historiography, Italian: racism in, 81
Hitler, Adolf: interest in naval power, 139; Nero Decree of, 79; rise of, 66
Hobbes, Thomas: Leviathan frontispiece, 169–70, 179
Hollywood, Italian audiences’ love of, 66
Hom, Stephanie Malia, 33
hooks, bell, 8
Horkheimer, Max: Dialectic of Enlightenment, 33
humanism, Christian, 231
humanism, Western: “the Rest” in, 156
hyper-regulation, disruption by laughter, 181
identity: impact of shame on, 110; white, 135–36
identity, Italian: collective, 206; crisis in, 55; destabilization of, 183; diversity in, 206–7; in exteriority, 207, 208; hard work in, 29; history of, 27; in liberated Italy, 30; modes of embodiment, 229; racial, 29, 34, 202; regressive tropes of, 242; struggle for truth in, 30; “two Italies” of, 12. See also Italian people; national life, Italian
ideology critique, 7; Althusser’s, 4; cognitivism of, 21; in media studies, 26; waning of, 18
imagination, historical: new forms of, 22–23
immediacy, redemptive dimension of, 54
imperialism: patriarchal, 8; “ragamuffin,” 139
imperialism, fascist, 163; cinematic performers of, 159; melodramatic, 29, 139, 149, 151, 156; victimhood and, 140
Inda, Jonathan Xavier, 8
individual, the: in Acciaio, 68–69, 71, 76–77; in Gioca, Pietro!, 72–73; in narrative cinema, 59
industrialization, 11, 38; authenticity in, 109; effect on Italian people, 47, 48; effect on relationality, 55; Pirandello on, 63, 64
Italian literature, postunification, 33–34
Italian people: abject wartime assignments, 197; “alla bula,” 41–42; antagonisms among, 210; association with nature, 241; authentic, 24–25, 28, 41, 55, 104, 107, 109; as biracial, 42; brava gente, x, xi; collaboration with Fascism, 15, 244–45; correct reproduction of, 203; decline in, 46; disciplining of, 34; diversity of, 206–7; effect of industrialization on, 48; excessivity of, 41, 48, 51–53, 64, 66; exuberance of, 73; fascist reclamation of, 87–88; genìa, 41, 43, 45; genio e sregolatezza of, 73; global representation of, 204; “good people” discourse, 139, 150, 157, 227, 241, 248; historically minoritized, 149–50; jus soli (birthright citizenship) of, 159, 267n8; under liberal capitalism, 49; mala vita of, 46, 63; mascalzoni, 127; of Mediterranean ethnicity, 42, 47, 52, 73; northern/Mediterranean divide in, 10, 82, 87, 109, 113; postwar redemption of, 230, 231, 247; “poveri ma belli,” 114; as quasi-African, 9, 12, 46, 86; quasi-feminist, 17; racial anthropology of, 10, 57, 82; racial assemblages of, 60; racial difference in, 206, 207; racially appropriate, 28; relationship to landscape, 207, 208; self-destructive nature of, 55; spiritual-biological destiny of, 208; stereotypes of, 241; structures of living for, 60; suffering of, 147–48, 155, 157, 159; survival of, 154; ungovernability of, 33; unity of, 109–10, 203, 206, 210; unsustainable hyperactivity of, 49; as victim race, 139, 140, 150. See also body, Italian; identity, Italian; Jews, Italian; national life, Italian; whiteness, Italian
Italy: colonial/capitalist, 7–8, 10–11, 18, 53; color line in, 10; contribution to world culture, 12; danger from the sea, 29, 137, 138, 144, 147, 151; industrial apparatus of, 27; as modern capitalist nation-state, 9; Other within, 98; racial health of, 28; racial whiteness of, 12, 15, 149, 248; reenchantment of, 192; right-wing resurgence in, x; “two Italies” myth, 12; unification of, 11; white supremacy and, 16. See also Kingdom of Italy
Italy, fascist: Allied takeover of, ix, 230; American cinema in, 84; assistance to Nazi Germany, 139; Battle for Births, 12–13; Battle for Grain, 13; Battle for Land, 13; cinematographic apparatus sustaining, 62; continuity with postwar Italy, 240; creativity in, 205; dissent in, 205–6; entry into World War II, 204, 232; ethno-nation of, 12; fall of, 212, 229; free-speech zones, 205; during Great Depression, 60; logic of coloniality, 114, 260n10; management of race, 28; marine dominance plans, 139–40; melodramatic imperialism of, 29, 149, 151; postliberal state of, 11; race war in, 80, 83, 167, 212; racial exceptionalism of, 149–58; Racial Laws of, 43, 132, 138, 149, 153, 172; resistance to, x, 17–18, 107, 197, 199, 229, 247; return to normalcy, ix, 242; rural-urban unity in, 109–10; social health campaigns, 12; Spielraum in, 192; transnational expansion of, 204; vulnerability from sea, 137, 138; whitening of, 12; worker strikes in, 212. See also Kingdom of Italy; Ventennio
Italy, postwar: as border zone, 243; cinematic view of, 30; continuity with fascist Italy, 240; “de-fascistizzazione” of, 246; fascist officials in, 247; geopolitical context of, 226–27; liberated, 30, 230–32; national culture of, ix; normalization of, ix, 242; purge commission, 246; sociopolitics of, ix; under U. S. hegemony, 230, 234, 241–43, 270n2; “zero” mythologies of, 248
Jakobson, Roman, 209
Jameson, Fredric, 28; on conspiracy theories, 136; “The Existence of Italy,” 85; on realism, 108
Jesi, Furio, 28, 78; on domus, 79; on fascist mythology, 79–80
Jewish philosophers, on comedy, 171
Jews, Italian: discrimination against, 13, 149, 157, 172; minoritization of, 184
Joon-ho, Bong: Parasite, 99
Kafka, Franz, 171
Khazan, Olga, 135
Kif Tebbi (Camerini), colonialism in, 112–13; femonationalism of, 113; restoration of, 112
Kingdom of Italy: authentic national life of, 41, 55; cheap attractions in, 48; depopulation of, 13; differences within, 9; economic growth in, 45; extractive capitalism of, 11; foreign life patterns in, 49–50; foundation of, 33; internal emigration in, 126; liquidity crisis, 60, 62; Nordic Aryanism in, 42; nostalgia for tradition in, 55; occupation of Somalia, 10; postunification, 33–34, 40; post–World War I, 10; racial background of, 10; racial geopolitics, 46; racialized, 34, 36, 44–45; social health of, 34; sociopolitical volatility of, 34; structural problem of, 10; system of exploitation, 11; tempo of life in, 49–51; unifying technology of, 40; will to govern, 33. See also nation-state, Italian; Risorgimento
knowledge, subjugated, 21
knowledge production, state appropriation of, 31
Kracauer, Siegfried, 47, 57, 76; From Caligari to Hitler, 78; on Ruttmann, 67
Kubrick, Stanley: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 239
labor, Italian: Blackness in, 117; child, 221–22; cinematic, 28–29, 59–60; conflict with capital, 45–46, 81; Fascism’s appeal to, 119; gendered figurations of, 121, 122, 154; in Italian identity, 29; romanticization of, 123; rural-urban unity in, 109–10; in Terra madre, 93, 99–101, 102; women’s, 130. See also working class, Italian
Lacan, Jacques, 4
Laclau, Ernesto, 204
Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe, 78
Ladri di biciclette (De Sica), 221, 230; Bazin on, 236; historical reality in, 234; pessimism of, 172
landscape, Italian: in Blasetti’s films, 93, 96–97, 106; Christianity in, 98; De Sica’s, 184; ecofascist, 28; Italian people’s relationship to, 207, 208; labor in, 93; in Ossessione, 213, 214–15, 218, 220, 222; provincialism of, 217
Lateran Treaty, 97–98
laughter: challenge to heteronormativity, 30; delegitimization by, 177; deployment against racism/sexism, 176; effect on biopolitics, 176; reaffirmation of status quo, 177; in theory of incongruity, 181; as tool of government, 179–80; as warning affect, 181. See also comedy
Leavitt, Charles L., IV, 240, 247
Le Bon, Gustave, 5
Lenin, Vladimir: on ragamuffin imperialism, 139
Levinas, Emmanuel, 28; On Escape, 110, 111, 183; on shame, 129
Leyda, Jay, 36
liberalism, Italian, 11; apparatuses of, 55; capitalist, 11, 49, 83; catastrophe of, 80; crisis of 1910s, 45; dissolute capitalism of, 83; exhaustion under, 49; failure to unify, 40; film forms of, 55; frustrations with, 34; internal colonialism in, 44–45; life expectancy under, 51; Mussolini on, 81; racial order of, 45–46; racial science under, 42, 259n15; in Vecchia guardia, 104; weaponization of film, 28. See also elites
Libya, Italian colonization of, 10, 113
Lichtner, Giacomo, 226
Liehm, Mira, 217
lifeworlds, alternative, 218, 220–21
Lilburne, John, 23
Lizzani, Carlo, 205
Lombroso, Cesare, 42; L’uomo delinquente, 10
LUCE. See L’Unione Cinematografica Educativa (LUCE) Institute
Lumière brothers: film of workers, 59; tour of Italy, 34
Maddalena zero in condotta (De Sica), 171, 186–90, 189; bodily desires in, 195; credits for, 172; De Benedetti’s work in, 172; disciplined female bodies of, 186–87; disciplined spaces of, 182; docile subjects in, 194; escape from fascist biopolitics, 197; loss of dreams in, 192–93; male gaze in, 186, 187, 188; narrative style of, 189; power of writing in, 181; racial science in, 188–90; release from societal impositions in, 194; sadism in, 188; transgressive appetites in, 184, 185; truth and fiction in, 197; white race in, 189–90
Maglione, Margherita, 172
Malevich, Kazimir, 71
Malipiero, Gian Francesco, 73
“Manifesto dalla razza” (1938), 149, 269n19
Marc’ Aurelio (satiric journal), on Mussolini, 178
March on Rome, fascist, 13, 56
Marconi, Guglielmo, 148
Marcus, Millicent, 14, 230; on neorealism, 200
Marcuse, Herbert: Freudo-Marxism of, x
Marcuzzo, Elio, 213
Marshall Plan, 242
Martin-Jones, David, 220
Marx, Karl: materialism of, 245; vampire mythology of, 99
Marxism: fascist cinema and, 4; post-Althusserian, 5
masculinity, Italian: in cinema, 97, 190–91; crisis of, 53, 54; state-sponsored, 217
Masier, Gaetano, 160
Matarazzo, Raffaello: Treno popolare, 78
Mattòli, Mario, 173. See also vita ricomincia, La
McGlazer, Ramsey, 186; on De Sica’s comedies, 194
McGuire, Valerie, 137
media: racialization of, 21; relationship to politics, 20
media, fascist, xi; biopolitical command in, 30; links to government, 14; productive dimension of, 15; weaponization of, 31
media archaeology, of Italian cinema, 5
mediascape, fascist: aesthetic-political conflict in, 18
mediation, technologies of, 36
Medin, Gastone, 71, 86; collaboration with De Sica, 180; designs for Rossellini, 163; set décors of, 116, 125
Mediterranean Sea: anxiety concerning, 143; Blackness of, 158; British hegemony over, 139–40; as cradle of Western civilization, 149; in critical race theory, 158; in fascist cinema, 143–49; in fascist geopolitics, 137; in fascist imaginary, 150–51; in “Manifesto della razza,” 149; as mare nostrum, 148–49, 158, 219; reclamation of, 149, 158; romanticization of, 158; threat from, 137, 138, 144, 147, 151; whiteness of, 150, 158. See also Italian people: northern/Mediterranean divide
Mellino, Miguel, 9; on state racism, 42–43
melodrama: in American public discourse, 136–37; cinematic, 15
melodrama, fascist, 30, 226, 229; imperialistic, 29, 139, 149, 151, 156; male, 159; racial, 138
melodrama, Italian: early, 54; high-contrast lighting of, 171; Visconti’s, 30, 171
Meloni, Giorgia: fascism of, 31
Melville, Herman, 184
memory, popular: reprogramming of, 20
Mercader, Maria, 175
Milan, vitality of, 124
Minghelli, Giuliana, 200; on Cinema, 215
modernity, capitalist: realism under, 85
modernity, Italian, 10–11, 29; in Al Cinematografo, 44; displacement in, 53; excessive nature of, 51; industrial, 55; means of reproduction, 14; mechanization of, 47; Sicilian alternative to, 211; tragic consequences of, 50–51; white, 12; workers’ role in, 115
modernity, racial: water in, 170
modernity, Western: the Abject in, 116; racial antagonism in, 24; ugly feelings in, 137
Modigliani, Amedeo, 215
Moe, Nelson, 9
Montessori, Maria: theory of education, 183
Moravia, Alberto, 205
morphology, skeletal: in Italian geopolitics, 46
Moses, Gavriel, 35
movie theaters: as heterotopias, 45; as Platonic caves, 4; spread in Italy, 254n14; as transformative spaces, 39
Movimento Sociale Italiano, antisemitism of, 173
Mullins, Jonathan, 201
Mulvey, Laura, 27; “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” 222
Muñoz, José Esteban, 220
Murnau, F. W.: Tabu, 211
Mussolini, Benito: anti-Asian stance, 82; banality of evil under, x; biospiritual unity under, 12; capitalist-colonial order of, 18; fall of, 212, 229, 243; Grand Council of Fascism speech, 140–41, 149; “Great Rome” plan, 86–87, 258n9; interest in naval power, 139; investment in cinema, 1–2, 14; on liberal state, 81; LUCE iconography of, 100; at LUCE inauguration, 2, 3, 6; as maker of life, 60; onscreen body doubles, 218; Pirandello on, 57, 60; race war under, 83; racial assemblages of, 13, 31, 60, 233; rise of, 1, 22; satirization of, 177–79; social eugenics efforts, 17; symbiotic relationships of, 7
Mussolini, Vittorio: admiration of Jean Renoir, 205; and Camerini, 178; and Cinema journal, 201, 203, 205–6, 212, 224; as film theorist, 268n11; “Ordine e disciplina,” 203; on Ossessione, 212, 227; ousting from Cinema, 224; Un pilota ritorna scenario, 160; racial strategy of, 203; “Razza italiana e cinema italiano,” 206; on weaponization of film, 203
Nancy, Jean-Luc, 78
nationalism, Italian, 9; in Il cappello a tre punte, 178; romantic comedies in, 184; Verdi’s, 221
national life, Italian: authentic, 41, 55, 83; Blackshirt supremacy in, 126; capacity to re-form, 180; domesticity in, 214; dread in, 171; early cinema and, 47; elites’ spoiling of, 82; in fascist cinema, 15–16, 170–71; fascist violence in, 11, 13, 82; group/environment interaction, 208; impact of foreign film on, 84; multiplicity of, 109; in postwar cinema, 30–31; proper/improper, 16, 44, 82, 140; racialized traditionalism in, 213; reclamation from Fascism, 239; undisciplined, 81–82. See also identity, Italian; Italian people
nation-building, role of cinema in, 39
nation-state, Italian: founding of, x; Italian life under, 33; medical-penal apparatus, 42; nation-building in, 40, 148. See also Kingdom of Italy; Risorgimento
nation-states: racialization of sensibility, 22–23; social war in, 24–25
naval power: labor and materials for, 139; in racial modernity, 170
naval power, British: Italian war against, 139–41; Mediterranean hegemony of, 139–40; in La nave bianca, 152, 155
nave bianca, La (Rossellini and De Robertis), 29, 150–58; British navy in, 152, 155; Christian charity in, 156; dedication of, 154; demonization of enemies, 156; ethno-survival in, 157; expansionism in, 155; fascist jouissance in, 153; funding of, 158; gendered division of labor in, 154; geopolitical vulnus in, 152–53; humanism of, 156; Italian suffering in, 157; justification of Fascism, 155; Nazi soldiers in, 153; patriotism in, 153, 154; phallic arsenal in, 153; postwar scholarship on, 138; racial affects in, 138; racial geopolitical anxiety in, 155; racial laws in, 153; reenactment in, 152; representation of evil, 155; romantic subplot of, 155; Rossellini’s disavowal of, 154–55; sailor-actors in, 151–52; score of, 151, 157; subliminal pleasures in, 138; use of training film, 152; vulnerable bodies in, 152, 155; whiteness in, 150, 152, 153, 154, 157–58, 158; women in, 151, 153–54
Nazism: versus Fascism, 3; mysticism of, 80; “secret Germany” fantasy, 78; state myth of, 78–79
neocapitalism, postwar, 234
neorealism, Italian, x, 97; as antinarrative cinema, 248; as asymptote of reality, 237; barriers to, 238; benevolent U.S. in, 243; canon of, 240; children in, 221–22; cinema before, 171–76; in cinema history, 230–31; as cinema of absence, 234; Communist proponents of, 247; consciousness of clichés, 235; deconstruction of, 231; in definition of cinema, 231; definitions of, 240; ethico-aesthetical revolution of, 159, 237; during fascist era, 232; fascist reality and, 229; fictions enabled by, 248; forgetting of history in, 243; futurity in, 237; historical context of, 235, 238; in Italian cultural history, 30; links to resistance, 247; as mechanism of avoidance, 230; moral conservatism of, 226; mythic status of, 159; narrative in, 235; new world order in, 234; origins of, 92; Ossessione and, 200; pace of, 161; persistent centrality of, 270n1; plot in, 236; potential for speculation in, 238; pseudodocumentary style, 226; redemption of cinema in, 239–40; rejection of cinematic apparatus, 236; as representative of new Italy, 247; speculative images of, 238; subjective mediation of, 236; as token of redemption, 239–40, 247; voyage format, 235; weaknesses of, 240; as zero-degree cinema, 240, 247–48. See also cinema, Italian postwar
Neri, Donatella, 112
Ngai, Sianne, 48, 50, 137; on comedy, 177
Niceforo, Alfredo: La mala vita a Roma, 41–42, 46, 86
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 25
Nuremberg trials, ix
O’Leary, Alan, 231, 271n6; “The Phenomenology of the Cinepanettone,” 176
Opera Nazionale Balilla (fascist youth organization), 2, 104
O’Rawe, Catherine, 15, 271n6; on melodrama, 159; on neorealism, 229, 231; on Ossessione, 226
Ossessione (Visconti), 212–24, 218, 223, 226–27; aesthetic-political disruption of, 200; agency in, 211; airlessness in, 221; allegory of nation in, 217; alternative lifeworld of, 218; antifascism of, 200; as anti-Italian, 212; Blackshirts in, 213; on Cinema cover, 224, 225; collaborative dimension of, 224; contested body in, 227; diegetic/extradiegetic frame of, 226; effect on film realism, 220; family life in, 213–14, 215, 221; fascist response to, 212; film politics of, 220; futurity in, 218, 220, 226; heteronormativity in, 214; homosexuality in, 217, 222, 224; hybrid style of, 212; impact on popular culture, 226; Italian realism and, 213; landscape in, 213, 214–15, 218, 220, 222; mare nostrum in, 219, 219; marshes in, 92; melodrama in, 30, 214, 218, 221; nonconforming body politic in, 199–200; opening sequence, 213; peasants in, 215, 216, 217; political imaginary of, 217; proletariat in, 217; queer living in, 201, 214, 226; realism of, 30; reception of, 226–27, 269n35; redemption in, 30, 215; scholarship on, 200; social status in, 215; sociosexual imaginary of, 199; soundscape of, 214, 219; spaces of difference in, 215; spectators of, 226; system of looks in, 222, 224; transgressive figuration in, 200; transnational aesthetics of, 200; voyage-form of, 220
Other: Abject, 116; conspiracy theories concerning, 25; racialized, 16
Oxilia, Nino: Rapsodia satanica, 62
Pact of Steel, 245
Painlevé, Jean, 143
Paisà (Rossellini), 92; absolution of Italians in, 246; Bazin on, 241; reality in, 237
Panella, Giuseppe, 55
Paola, Dria, 90
“Parlami d’amore Mariù” (song), 126
Pasolini, Pier Paolo, x
Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975), x
Pastrone, Giovanni: Cabiria, 231
Pavolini, Alessandro, 246; death of, 243
peasants, Italian: in Ossessione, 215, 216, 217; racial virtue of, 98; women, 95, 98, 103. See also labor, Italian; working class, Italian
Peele, Jordan: Get Out, 99, 100
Petacci, Claretta: death of, 243
petty bourgeoisie, Italian: rural, 109
Picasso, Pablo, 215
Pietrangeli, Antonio, 205
pilota ritorna, Un (Rossellini), 29, 159, 160–63; antinarrative stance of, 161; banality of war in, 160; colonized and colonizer in, 162; communism in, 163; doubt in, 163; elliptical style of, 160; fascist imperialism in, 163; forced prostitution in, 161; German bombing in, 162; immigrants in, 161; Italian suffering in, 161; last frame of, 222, 223; masculinity in, 165; national alibis in, 160; naturalization of pain, 162; prisoners of war in, 161; realism of, 162; refugees in, 161; repetition in, 160; scenario for, 160; score, 161; shared humanity in, 163; shot-reverse-shot patterns, 162; wartime suffering in, 161–62; wounded bodies/landscape in, 162, 164
Pilotto, Camillo, 113
Pinkus, Karen, 5; Bodily Regimes, 132
Pinocchio, Italian people as, 34
Pirandello, Luigi: on cine-melo-grafia, 67; Cines and, 63; conception of life, 58; on created life, 131; cruel vitalism of, 57; on industrialization, 63, 64; on Mussolini, 57; Nobel Prize of, 49; support of Fascism, 56–58, 255n36; weaponization of cinema, 60. See also Gioca, Pietro!; Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore; “Se il film parlante abolirà il teatro?”; “vita create, La”
Pirelli Tire Company (Milan), arms supplies from, 132, 134
Pittaluga, Stefano: Cines under, 62
Poggioli, Ferdinando Maria: Addio, giovinezza!, 199
Pontine Marshes: reclamation of, 86, 88–89, 124; relocation from, 87–88
Poor Mother, The (film, 1906), 40, 43
Popular Front, French, 205
Porta Pia, battle of, 40
portiere di note, Il (1974), x
post-structuralism, Nietzschean, 231
poverty, Italian: resourcefulness in, 35
power: repressive hypothesis of, 14; seductive, 20. See also state power
public sphere, “commedification” of, 177
Puccini, Dario, 205
Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore (Pirandello), 28, 34, 41, 45–58, 237; alienation in, 52; animal contentment in, 52; antimodernism in, 48; apocalyptic aspect of, 56; audience in, 46; author/protagonist separation in, 54; camera in, 45, 48, 54; capitalist alienation in, 53; Cines’s work with, 63; commodity fetishism in, 53; crisis of liberalism in, 45; destabilization in, 80; diegetic universe of, 54; excess in, 51–53, 55, 64; Fascism and, 57; identity crisis in, 55; illusion in, 56; insatiability in, 52; Italian character in, 48–49; liberalism in, 45, 47; masculine crisis in, 53, 54; mechanical reproduction in, 46, 47, 50, 52; mechanization in, 49–50, 53, 64; misogyny in, 51; modernism of, 55; production-consumption cycle in, 49; publishing history of, 253n4; race-making in, 46; “razza di donna” in, 51; role of cinema in, 50–51; Rome in, 86; on ruling liberals, 53; scholarship on, 46; separation from nature in, 52; serial format of, 56; tempo of life in, 49–51; textual layers of, 47; violence in, 50–51, 55; xenophobia in, 51
queerness: challenge to dominant discourses, 217; futurity of, 221; modes of embodiment, 199; in Ossessione, 201, 214, 226. See also cinema, queer
race: boundaries of, 149; under capitalist-patriarchal-colonial order, 8, 11; enactment through class, 127; in Italian behavior, 34; Italian exceptionalism concerning, 149–58; Mussolini on, 13; seventeenth-century reinvention of, 23
racialization: of biopolitical warfare, 8; cinematic processes of, 16; of Italian geopolitics, 46–47; of Italian people, 9, 11–12; premature death and, 260n9; shame in, 111
Racial Laws, fascist, 43, 132, 138, 139, 153, 172
racial science, Italian, 42, 259n14
racism: affects of, 31; “antiracist,” 46; biopolitical, 11, 83, 245; of Italian Fascism, 81–84; in Italian historiography, 81; persistence of, 22; weaponization of, 31
racism, state, 24–25; affective mediation of, 18; disciplined temporality of, 219; Foucault on, 23–24, 31; as means of governance, 19; perception of rulers in, 100; in postunification Italy, 42–43; of proto-capitalist Europe, 23–24
radicalism, African American, 18
Raffaelli, Sergio, 36
Rancière, Jacques, 234
Rand, Ayn: We the Living, 204
Rava, Maurizio: “I popoli africani dinanzi allo schermo,” 201
reactionary cycles, global, 265n12
realism, cinematic, 15, 56, 232–33; achievements of, 237; affective affordances of, 15; antifascism of, 206; biopolitical register of, 121; Cinema’s, 224; differing iterations of, 15; effect of Ossessione on, 220; falsification of, 15; fictional lives in, 108; film theory on, 143–44; ideological operations of, 4; political malleability of, 200; racial affects of, 15
realism, fascist: gaze in, 171, 222; in Italian cinema, 15, 29, 90, 97, 171, 233; tenets of, 207
reality: fascist denial of, 14–15; liberation aesthetic of, 232; national, 29, 63
red biennium (Italy), defeat of, 22
reenchantment: of Italy, 192; as political strategy, 266n29
Reich, Jacqueline, 17, 193; “Mussolini at the Movies,” 3–4, 5; “Reading, Writing, and Rebellion,” 194; Re-viewing Fascism, 3; on schoolgirl comedies, 195
relationality, modern forms of, 57
remediation, 36–37; in Visconti, 201
Renga, Dana, 159
Renzi, Renzo: imprisonment of, 264n41
Republican Party, U.S.: on white identity, 135–36
resistance: Foucault on, 31; in Italian fascist cinema, 17–18, 229; in Italian neorealism, 247; by Italian women, 197; queer cinematic, 199
Riefenstahl, Leni: The Triumph of the Will, 77
Righelli, Gennaro: La canzone dell’amore, 62, 63
right, radical: resurgence of, x
Risorgimento, 12; cinema’s weaponization of, 43; Italian film’s birth under, 39–40; unified national space under, 9. See also Kingdom of Italy; nation-state, Italian
Robb, Tom, 136
Rodogno, David, 140
Roma città aperta (Rossellini), 230; absolution of Italians in, 246; ideology of, 227; reality in, 234, 235
Romanticism, view of community, 13
Rome: annexation (1870), 40; criminality tropes of, 86; EUR neighborhood, 87; Nazi occupation of, 224; underground of, 42; U.S. occupation of, 243
Romero, George: Land of the Dead, 99
Rosa, Alberto Asor, 55
Rose scarlatte (De Sica), 171–74, 182; De Benedetti’s work in, 172; disciplined spaces of, 182; escape from fascist biopolitics, 197; futurity in, 195; masculinity in, 190; mystery lover of, 173–74; power of writing in, 181; reenchanted Italy in, 192, 193; the unknown in, 184
Rossellini, Renzo: score for La nave bianca, 151, 157
Rossellini, Roberto, 15; audiovisual strategies of, 159; “democratic” films of, 155; disavowal of La nave bianca, 154–55; eco-cinema of, 92; fascist corpus of, 158–60; humanism of, 155, 156; ideological script of, 237; liberated cinema of, 232; neorealism of, 159; pity for fascists in, 159–60; postfascist cinema of, 159, 226–27; realism of, 176, 236; in redemption of postwar cinema, 231; themes of, 155. See also La nave bianca
Rossellini, Roberto, works: Il ruscello di Ripasottile, 262n16; Scalo merci, 224; Stromboli, 92; Il tacchino prepotente, 262n16; La vispa Teresa, 262n16. See also Fantasia sottomarina; Paisà; pilota ritorna, Un; Roma città aperta; L’uomo dalla croce
Rotaie (Camerini), 29, 114, 119–23; acceptance of work, 121; aesthetics of, 121, 123; cityscape of, 119; class/gender compliance in, 119; elites’ abjection in, 119–20, 120; German expressionism of, 123; Italian humanity in, 120; labor in, 121, 122; POV shots, 120–21; production/reproduction in, 120–21; realism of, 121; socioeconomic status in, 119; underclass bodies in, 120; working-class shame in, 119–20, 120
Rubin, Gayle, 129
Ruttmann, Walter, 15, 28; Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, 60; formalism of, 60; German propaganda films of, 77. See also Acciaio
Sacchi, Filippo, 124
Said, Edward: Orientalism, 16
Saint-Cyr, Renée, 173
Sakai, Naoki, 156
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975), x
Salò puppet state, surrender of, 243
Salvini, Matteo, 177
Santa Cecilia public conservatory, filmmaking courses, 86
Sartre, Jean-Paul: Being and Nothingness, 111
Savio, Francesco, 124
Savoy, House of: hegemony over Italy, 9; national rebirth program, 43. See also Kingdom of Italy
Scaligero, Massimo, 79
schadenfreude, cinematic, 179
Schmitt, Carl: Land and Sea, 139
Schneider, Jane, 9
Schoonover, Karl, 137; Brutal Vision, 242; on Italian national character, 242; on neorealism, 226, 233; Queer Cinema in the World, 199
Screen (journal), 4
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky: on politics of emotion, 110–11; on queerness, 217
“Se il film parlante abolirà il teatro?” (Pirandello), 67
Seknadje-Askénazi, Enrique, 143
self, embodied: escape from, 111
self, oppositional processes of, 116
self-realization, racial, 53
Serandrei, Mario: Giorni di gloria, 248
Sergi, Giuseppe, 64, 66; influence of, 254n26; on Mediterranean supremacy, 149; Origine e diffusione della stirpe mediterranea, 46–47, 52; racial anthropology of, 57, 254n26; racialized antiliberalism, 46
sex, political economy of, 129–30
sexual behavior, fascist anxiety over, 202
shame: in Camerini’s films, 110, 112, 115, 131; in De Sica’s films, 171; impact on identity, 110; operation of, 117; in racialization, 111; social dimension of, 111; weaponization of, 180
Sharpe, Christina, 240
Sicilians, as Italian popular heroes, 210, 211
Sicily: as alternate reality, 211; Cinema on, 224; liberation of, 224; in postwar cinema, 209–11; Visconti on, 210–11, 269n34
Sighele, Scipio: La mala vita a Roma, 41–42, 46, 86
signor Max, Il (Camerini), 29, 114–19; Blackshirts in, 117, 118; class in, 116–18; elites in, 117–19; shame in, 117; whiteness in, 117; white space in, 125
Silverman, Kaja, 27
Sloterdijk, Peter, 144
Smythe, SA, 158
social control: cultural imaginaries and, 20; invasive strategies of, 18
Soldati, Mario, 66, 209, 246; Piccolo mondo antico, 74. See also Acciaio
Sole! (Blasetti), 86, 88–92; Communism in, 163; distribution of, 92; ecofascism in, 90; Fascism in, 89–90; gate imagery of, 88, 123; homesteaders in, 90; influence of Soviet cinema, 89; as liberal film, 259n9; light/darkness in, 90–91; pathological subjects of, 90–91, 91; reception of, 92; reclamation in, 88–89, 91–92; verticality of, 89
Somalia, Italian occupation of, 10
Sontag, Susan, 78
South, Global: minoritized peoples of, 149
sovereignty, as optical illusion, 170
Spada, Marcello, 83; in Camerini’s films, 112, 113
spectatorship, agency in, 270n53, 270n54
Spielraum (field of action), 191–92
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, 241
squadristi cattolici (Catholic paramilitary squads), 164
Starace, Achille: death of, 243
state: appropriation of knowledge production, 31; authentic people of, 24–25; control of individuals, 7; counterdiscourses to, 21; incorporation of body into, 169; noncompliant modes of being, 25; relationality in, 24; social acceptability codes, 20; sociopolitical indocility in, 170; sociopolitical reproduction, 25; use of affective attachment, 20. See also nation-states; racism, state
state, biopolitical: intervention in liberalism, 11; socio-racial profile of, 8
state power: capitalism and, 20; propagation of subjectivity, 170; securitarian logics of, 170
steelworks, Italian: nationalization of, 60. See also Acciaio
Stephan, Maria, 172
Stewart-Steinberg, Suzanne, 11, 33–34; on reclamation projects, 87–88
Stiegler, Bernard, 53
Stone, Marla, 17; The Patron State, 62
stracittà movement, urban values of, 109
strapenese movement, traditional values of, 109
Strike, The (film, 1904), 40
subject: docile, 194; pathological, 90–91, 91; regulatory representations of, 116; unproductive, 124
subjectivity: Deleuze on, 26; state power’s propagation of, 170
Tavazzi, Alberto, 164
Teresa Venerdì (De Sica), 171; credits for, 172; De Benedetti’s work in, 172; disciplined spaces of, 182; escape from fascist biopolitics, 197; female gaze in, 184; gaze of control in, 195–96, 196; masculinity in, 190; performance in, 194; POV shots, 195; power of writing in, 181; redemptive flight in, 195–96; regenerative imagination in, 193
Terni (Umbria): acciaierie (steelworks) of, 60, 71, 74, 76; history of, 60; hydroelectric basin of, 71, 72; Marmore Falls of, 61, 71, 74, 75
Terra madre (Blasseti), 29, 92, 93–103; Christianity in, 94; chromatic strategy of, 99; city dwellers in, 94, 97; cowherds, 100–101; diegetic sound of, 93; donna-crisi figure, 94, 95, 99; elites in, 99, 101, 102; gendered workforce of, 103; heteronormativity of, 103; Italian landscape in, 93, 96–97; padrone in, 93–94, 96–101, 103; peasantry, 98–99, 102; peasant woman of, 95, 98, 103; razza in, 96, 99; rural labor in, 93, 99–101, 102; rural mass scene, 94, 97–98; shot-reverse-shots of, 94, 96; swamp reclamation, 103; visual rhetoric of, 118
theaters, Italian: class separation in, 38. See also movie theaters
Tilgher, Adriano, 255n36
Togliatti, Palmiro, 107
Tomkins, Silvan: on shame, 117
Tonini, Pietro: movie theaters of, 35
totalitarianism, European: importance of sea for, 139; national cinema in, 60
totalitarianism, fascist: bodies performing, 158; British hegemony and, 139; disciplined lives of, 145; experimental nature of, 62; neorealism and, 200; promises of, 80; rearticulation of sovereignty, 11
Toubiana, Serge, 20
Trains of America (documentary), 44
Trump, Donald: fascism of, 31; use of mockery, 177
Trump, Melania, 80
truth: in apparatus theory, 4; audiovisual force of, 26; body in, 25–26; force of ritual in, 25; racial order of, 208; state-sanctioned, 4; struggle over, 30; weaponization of, 1, 18–28
Übermenschen, Nazi, 79
L’Unione Cinematografica Educativa (LUCE) Institute: Blasetti on, 85; iconography of Mussolini, 3, 6, 100; newsreels of, 8, 89
L’Unione Cinematografica Educativa (LUCE) Institute, groundbreaking, 1–2, 3, 5–8; armed forces at, 6; askari at, 2, 6, 7; biopolitical warfare and, 8; cinematographic apparatus of, 8; DUX sign at, 6; Italian people at, 6
United States: ethno-nationalist resurgence in, 137; hegemony over Italy, 230, 234, 241–43, 270n2; mechanization of, 49; as racial quasi-fascist state, 19; right-wing resurgence in, x; state violence in, 18; tempo of life in, 49; victim mentality in, 136
uomini che mascalzoni . . ., Gli (Camerini), 123–34, 172, 181; the abject in, 123; binary structure of, 123; class in, 116, 118, 125; critical reception, 261n19; desubjugation of workers in, 126; disciplined spaces of, 182; escapism in, 126, 131; fast pace of, 124; labor versus enjoyment in, 131; mannequin imagery of, 127, 128, 131; POV shots, 126; proper/improper Italianity in, 123; sexism in, 127, 129–30; shoe imagery of, 124–25; skin tone in, 127, 128, 129; spectatorial pleasure in, 183; technologized bodies of, 131; unproductive subjects of, 124; white spaces of, 125
Uomini sul fondo (De Robertis), 29, 137, 143–49; A103 submarine in, 144–45; airlessness in, 145–46, 147; anticipation of neorealism, 150; bare lives in, 146; corpo-realism of, 150; as film d’atmosfera, 144; flesh/technology synchronism in, 145; heroic sacrifice in, 146–47; Italian bodies in, 144, 145–47, 150; Italian technology in, 145, 148; metonymic bodies, 147; montage of, 147; opening title, 147; postwar scholarship on, 137; POV shots, 145, 147; racial affect of, 138, 147; racial totality of, 145; sailor-actors of, 145, 147–48, 150; spectatorial body of, 147; subliminal pleasures in, 138; suffering bodies in, 147–48; survival in, 150
L’uomo dalla croce (Rossellini), 29, 138, 164–67; chaplain figure of, 164, 166, 167; Christian humanism of, 167; Communism in, 163, 164, 166; fascist Christianity of, 164; fascist redemption in, 166; Gravelli’s work in, 164; just/unjust violence in, 166; masculinity in, 165; national alibis in, 160; race war in, 167; racialized other in, 166, 167; religious microhistory of, 164; Russian campaign in, 159; salvation through Fascism in, 167; spectators’ interpretation of, 166; spiritualization of war in, 166; visual rhetoric of, 167
“Vaffanculo Day” (2007), 177
vampires, elites as, 99
Van Gogh, Vincent: A Pair of Shoes, 125
Vaser, Vittorio, 90
Vecchia guardia (Blasetti), 92, 103–8; authentic Italianity in, 104, 107; Blackshirts in, 105, 107; canonization of Fascism, 107; collectivity in, 106–7; Communism in, 104–5; ecofascism of, 107; education in, 105; fascist youth in, 104, 105, 106; landscape of, 106; liberal Italy in, 104; March on Rome, 107; militia in, 104, 105; opening title card, 107; resentment against elites in, 92; rural Italy in, 103; socioeconomic justice in, 105; strike in, 104; subject positions of, 107
Ventennio: cinematic figuration during, 14; as momentary interruption, x, 5; popular culture during, 2; Rossellini’s films from, 159–60. See also Italy, fascist
Venturi, Tacchi, 2
Verdi, Giuseppe: nationalism of, 221
Verdicchio, Pasquale, 9
Verga, Giovanni, 212; I Malavaoglia, 211; Sicilian novellas of, 209–10; Visconti on, 269n34
Vergano, Aldo, 86
victimhood: as affective mediation device, 136; comedians’ use of, 177; imaginary community of, 136; in Italian Fascism, 139, 151; Italian imperialism and, 140
Victor Emmanuel III (king of Italy), 156
Vigo, Jean: Zero for Conduct, 194
Villa, Roberto, 174
violence: just and unjust, 166; white American, 135
violence, fascist: in national life, 13, 82; as political technology, 11
violence, racial: in colonialism, 23; permanence of, 24
violence, state, 18; popular condonement of, 22
Visconti, Luchino, 246; in Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, 205; at Cinema, 205; eco-cinema of, 92; homosexuality of, 215, 222, 224; melodrama of, 171, 220; patterns of affect, 167; on realism, 206; reality in works of, 236; remediation in, 201; on Sicily, 210–11, 269n34; sociosexual imaginary of, 199; on state-controlled cinema, 211; on Verga, 269n34
Viscontin, Luchino, works: “Cadaveri,” 211; “Cinema antropomorfico,” 211; Morte a Venezia, 214; Rocco e i suoi Fratelli, 235; La terra trema, 92; “Tradizione e invenzione,” 211. See also Ossessione
visual culture, Italian: power systems in, 18
“vita create, La” (Pirandello), 56–58; cruel vitalism of, 57; support for Mussolini in, 60
vita ricomincia, La (Mattòli), 230, 243–46; admission of guilt in, 245; De Benedetti’s treatment of, 243, 246; forgetting of history in, 243; forgiveness in, 246; ruined Italy in, 243–44, 244; self-exoneration in, 245–46; spectatorial pleasure of, 245; success of, 245; truth/justice relationship in, 243
Vittori, Rossano, 72
von Nagy, Käthe, 115
vulnerability, white, 135–36, 139
Wagstaff, Christopher, 233
warfare, biopolitical, 31; of colonial-capitalism, 7–8; “Italian theory” on, 8; racialized assemblages of, 8, 27–28; social bellicosity preceding, 25
warfare, ideological, 4
water: in racial modernity, 170; in Western history, 169–70
Watson, William Van, 222
Weheliye, Alexander G., 81, 146; Habeas Viscus, 8
Welch, Rhiannon Noel: Vital Subjects, 9, 251n19
Wertmüller, Lina, x
whiteness: deconstruction of authority of, 188; of Italian ethno-nation, 248; negative portrayal of, 202; northern European, 113, 162; racialized Other and, 16; reproduction of, 16
whiteness, Italian, 12, 15, 149, 248; in Al Cinematografo, 38, 41, 44–45; Blackshirt, 29, 88, 92, 158, 248; elites’, 117; of Italian war machine, 150; majoritarian, 149
white supremacy: Blackshirts’, 83–84; in fascist cinema, 201; in Italian Africa, 202; in the United States, 136
Williams, Allison, 99
Wilson, Ruth Gilmore, 260n9; Golden Gulag, 83
women, Italian: as caregivers, 151; cinematic consumption, 151; donna-crisi, 94, 95, 99; laborers, 130; minoritization of, 184; model fascist, 134; resistance by, 191, 197
women, peasant, 95, 103; in fascist discourse, 98
working class, Italian: desubjugation of, 126; disciplined, 60, 71; racial profiling of, 127, 128, 129; role in modernity, 115. See also labor, Italian; peasants, Italian
World War I, submarines of, 144
World War II: Allied takeover of Italy, ix, 230; as culmination of colonial conflicts, 139; as humanitarian intervention, 138; Italian entry into, 204, 232
Wreckers of the Limited Express, The (film, 1906), 41
writing: in French feminism, 183; power of, 181–82; as technology of self, 183
Wynter, Sylvia: “Beyond the Word of Man,” 116
Zavattini, Cesare, 248; De Sica’s collaboration with, 171; on liberation from cinema, 236
Zegna, Michela, 85
Žižek, Slavoj, 5
Zoppetti, Cesare, 124