September 2020 Academic & Specialist Anthem Press

Antonio Pietrangeli, The Director of Women: Feminism and Film Theory in Postwar Italian Cinema Emma Katherine Van Ness


Hardback | Sep 2020 | Anthem Press | 9781785273179 | 270pp | 228x152mm | RFB | AUD$125.00, NZD$190.00

A re-examination of the films of Antonio Pietrangeli from a feminist perspective

One of the founding fathers of neorealism in the postwar period in Italy, Antonio Pietrangeli went on to focus his lens upon the female subject. Eight of his ten full-length films feature female protagonists. This study seeks to better understand both his achievements and his failings as a feminist auteur as well as analyse his films by applying new critical and theoretical approaches. Pietrangeli's representations of women struggling with questions of identity was a revolutionary act in the 1950s and 1960s. The book makes a case why we should recuperate these films today since the standards for representing women in film continue to fall behind the reality of women's lives off-screen.