Conference

Italian Cinema(s) Abroad Conference

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Panel: Italian Cinema in North America: Micro and Macro-Histories. Chair: Giuliano Migliori (The Ohio State University).

Competing or Collaborating? A Case Study of Postwar Relationships between Hollywood and Cinecittà through the Kiralfy Archive
by Erik Scaltriti

In the post-WWII era, Italian movie theaters were “invaded” by Hollywood productions, by “the full range of armament then available, from western to melodramas, from comedies to adventure and epic pictures” (Gian Piero Brunetta). Complicating this debated vision, the unexplored Kiralfy archive provides a primary source that challenges this idea of invasion. Conserved at The Ohio State Library, this small archive contains several micro-histories narrated by the personal files of Alexander Kiralfy, a white-collar worker of the Account and Statistic Department of Paramount International Film in New York. For example, the programs of the Thalia Summer Film Festival provide us a picture of Italian films circulation in New York, in the 1950s and the 1960s. I argue that the post-WWII era does not represent a period of commercial war between American and Italian film industries. Instead, it marks a new stage of the unbalanced cooperation between Hollywood and Cinecittà.

Conference at The Ohio State University - March 2019
Conference at The Ohio State University – March 2019

38th Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures 2018

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Panel Cinematic Representations of Sexuality, Marginalized Identities, and Migration. Moderator: T.E. Arce (University of Cincinnati). 4/6/2018.

The hybridity of Migration in Italian Contemporary Cinema: Crialese’s “Once We Were Strangers” (1997) and Rosi’s “Fire at Sea” (2016).
by Erik Scaltriti

Emanuele Crialese’s cinematography refuses the closures of genre or gender by its narratives which unfold between fantasy, open-ended narratives, and the reality of clashes and relationships. The academic investigation has largely addressed the major works of the Italian director, producing a rich literature of journal articles and book chapters. However, less critical attention has been paid to his debut film Once We Were Strangers (1997).

In this paper, I compare Crialese’s use of realist/imaginary strains to Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare, 2016). I argue that Crialese and Rosi do not step outside the Italian cinema tradition but develop their original narratives interweaving national and global perspectives. Blurring film genre’s borders, they both explore the nature of the Western gaze through hybrid representations of migration phenomena.