Diva: Defiance And Passion In Early Italian Cinema With Dvd

Description:
As scientific discoveries and technological advances radically modernized Europe around the turn of the twentieth century, artists of all types began questioning what it means to be human in an increasingly mechanistic world. Animated by a luminous goddess at its centre, the diva film provided a forum for denouncing social evils and exploring new models of behaviour among the sexes. These melodramas of courtship, seduction, marriage, betrayal, abandonment, child custody, and public reputation, to mention only a few themes, offered women a vision of - if not always a realistic hope for - emancipation and self-discovery.In 'Diva', Angela Dalle Vacche offers the first authoritative study of this important 'film' genre of the cinema that preceded the Great War of 1914-1918. She analyzes some seventy films, as well as the work of actresses such as Francesca Bertini, Lyda Borelli, and Pina Menichelli, to establish what the diva film contributed to the modernist development of the 'new woman'. Contrasting the Italian diva with the Hollywood vamp Theda Bara and the famous Danish star Asta Nielsen, Dalle Vacche shows how the diva oscillates between articulating Henri Bergson's vibrant life-force (elan vital) and representing the suffering figure of the Catholic mater dolorosa.Taking readers on a fascinating tour that includes the Ballets Russes, orientalism, art nouveau, Futurism, fashion, prostitution, stunt women in the circus, aviation, anti-Semitism, colonialism, and censorship, Diva sheds important new light on the eccentric implantation of modernity in Italy, as well as on how, before World War I, the filmic image was associated with the powers of the occult and not with the Freudian unconscious, as has been argued until now.

Review:
'Diva is an impressive study on an important and fascinating topic. Those interested in European cultural studies, feminism, World War I, theater history, and early twentieth-century nationalism--to name a few areas--will find this book of value.' Charles Musser, Professor of Film Studies and Theater Studies, Yale University

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments: The Geography of a Book; Foreword by Guy Maddin; Introduction: Mater DolorosaTheory and Technology1. The Shape of Time: Elan Vital and Memento Mori; 2. Laocoon's Filmstrip: Classicism, Marxism, Vitalism; 3. Orientalism: Ballets Russes, Occultism, Canudo; 4. Wings of Desire: Aviation, Fashion, Circus StuntsHistory and Analysis5. Acting: Prostitution, Vertigo, Close-up; 6. Modern Woman: Minor Stars and the Short Film; 7. Tropes: Obsessions and Traumas of a Genre; 8. Nino Oxilia: Blue Blood and Satanic RhapsodyConclusion: Beyond the Femme Fatale; Portraits: Biographical Profiles of Actresses; Time Line: Cultural Events and the Diva Film; Archival Locations and Filmography