La Strada

¨ 1954

¨ Directed by Federico Fellini

¨ Starring Richard Basehart (American), Giulietta Masina 9fellini’s wife), and Anthony Quinn

*musical motif- a melody that becomes associated with a character, event, or mood through repetition. In La Strada, we hear a haunting melody whenever there is movement or travel. Also each of the principal characters has a variation of the main melody and share a theme at times.

SUMMARY- Her very poor mother sells Gelsomina for a few coins to Zampano, a fairground stronman. She follows him on the road ("la strada") and helps him during his shows. Zampano ill-treats her. She meets "The Fool", a lighthearted jokester who makes a living on the high wire.. She feels like going with him, but he puts confusion in her mind by pointing out that perhaps Zampano is in fact in love with her (imdb)...

The Eclipse/L’ Eclisse

¨ 1962

¨ Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

¨ Starring Alain Delon and Monica Vitti

*Antonioni uses actors as part of the composition. Actors and objects are placed at certain areas of the screen for psychological or symbolic purposes. Ex.1 Man and woman are never together on the screen or shown simultaneously. Thus, even before they split, we know that their relationship is doomed. Ex.2 Sound of the fan in the background underscores the monotonous atmosphere existing in the lives of these two people. It also creates the three dimensionality in the frame by signifying space. 9 The air in the room).

*Antonioni uses absence of dialogue for psychological purposes so that viewers focus on something else (i.e. emotion) rather than on the actors.

SUMMARY- After spending a night arguing, Vittoria breaks off with her lover Riccardo. While joining her mother gambling at the Stock Exchange, she meets Piero, a young and handsome stockbroker. He is a seducer. She resists at first, but little to little let him do. She thinks to be in love with him... A film about the usual Antionioni's themes : love and impossible communication in the couple, loneliness (imdb).

7 Beauties/Pasqualino Settebellezze

¨ 1976

¨ Directed by Lina Wertmuler

¨ Starring Giancarlo Giannini and Elena Fiore

*features a strong, macho female character (the concentration camp commandant)

*features institutions of patriarchy and fascism

SUMMARY- Pasqualino, an Italian everyman, deserts the army during World War II. Germans capture him and send him to a prison camp, where he does just about anything to survive. In lengthy flashbacks, we see him and his family of seven unattractive sisters (the seven beauties), his accidental murder of one sister's lover, his confession and imprisonment, his calculated switch to an asylum, his rape of a patient, and his volunteering to be a soldier to escape confinement. To the chagrin of his obese German captor, his weak and cowardly character enables him to survive the war and return to Naples where he has a plan to survive the next world catastrophe (imdb).

Also viewed in class: Love & Anarchy directed by Wertmuller (1973) and also starring Giannini.

We viewed a clip in a bordello, where the lead male character falls in love with one of the prostitutes. Through a series of edits, Wertmueller establishes the relationship between Tunin and the prostitute while another prostitute, with whom he is supposed to be working on a plot to assassinate Mussolini, looks on. The sequence of shots shows that both prostitutes will fall in love with Tunin and that his love for them will doom his mission.