La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo FilmScarecrow Press, 2 oct. 2006 - 206 pages With the exception of die-hard aficionados of European or Italian horror cinema, most people may not have heard of giallo cinema or have seen many films in this subgenre of horror. Most academic film studies tend to ignore horror cinema in general and the giallo specifically. Critics often deride these films, which reveal more about the reviewers' own prejudices than any problem with the works themselves. As a counter to such biases, Mikel J. Koven argues for an alternative approach to studying these films, by approaching them as vernacular cinema—distinct from "popular cinema." According to Koven, to look at a film from a vernacular perspective removes the assumptions about what constitutes a "good" film and how a particular film is in some way "artistic." In La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film, Koven explores the history and evolution of this aspect of cinema, and places these films within the context of Italian popular filmmaking. He addresses various themes, motifs, and tropes in these films: their use of space, the murders, the role of the detective, the identity of the killer, issues of belief, excess, and the set-piece. In addition to being the first academic study of the giallo film in English, this book surveys more than fifty films of this subgenre. In addition to filmmakers like Mario Bava and Dario Argento, Koven also looks at the films of Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Pupi Avati, Umberto Lenzi, and others. In all, the works of twenty-five different filmmakers are considered in this book. Also explored are the inter-relationships between these films: how one influences others, how certain filmmakers take ideas and build off of them, and how those ideas are further transformed by other filmmakers. Koven also explores the impact of the giallo on the later North American slasher genre. |
Table des matières
1 | |
19 | |
Space and Place in Italian Giallo Cinema The Ambivalence of Modernity | 45 |
Murder and Other Sexual Perversions | 61 |
Watching the Detectives Amateur Detectives and the Giallo as Detective Cinema | 77 |
The Killers Identity | 97 |
Weird Science of the Most Egregious Kind The Ambivalence of Belief in the Giallo Film ... | 111 |
A Perverse Sublime Excess and the Set Piece in the Giallo | 123 |
The Giallo as Cinema of Poetry | 141 |
From Giallo to Slasher | 159 |
Filmography | 173 |
179 | |
187 | |
About the Author | 195 |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film Mikel J. Koven Affichage d'extraits - 2006 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
Aldo Lado's amateur detective ambivalence Bava Bay of Blood Bido's Black Lace Blood and Black Bloodstained Shadow Bloody Iris camera Cawelti chapter characters cinema of poetry context crime Crystal Plumage culture Dallamano's Dario Argento death detective fiction diegetic discourse discussion Ernesto Gastaldi example extreme close-ups Fifth Cord film's filmic filmmakers filone Final Girl flâneur Four Flies free indirect genre giallo cinema giallo film giallo killers Helga horror cinema horror film House with Laughing investigation Italian cinema Italian horror Italy Kill kind legend Lucio Fulci Lucio Fulci's Maciara Mario Bava's modernity Monthly Film Bulletin murder mystery narrative noted novel oral Pasolini perspective plot police poliziotto popular cinema Pyjama Girl role Screenplay sequence Sergio serial killer set pieces sexual slasher film slasher movies spaghetti western Stefano Stendhal Syndrome Stephen Thrower story tend terza visione audience theater Torture a Duckling tradition vernacular audiences vernacular cinema violence visual watching York Ripper