Homosexuality and Italian Cinema

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 1-9

3. Silence

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 11-45

4. Enjoying the Darkness

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 47-73

5. Undressing the Other

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 75-96

6. Luchinidi and Pasolinidi

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 97-142

7. Love in the Time of Panic

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 143-173

8. Sexual Revolution, Italian Style

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 175-190

9. Pornography of Death

   • Mauro Giori

   Pages 191-204

10. The Only Good Thing

    • Mauro Giori

    Pages 205-230

11. Homophiles and Gays Go to the Movies

    • Mauro Giori

    Pages 231-246

12. Conclusion: Martyrdom and Pleasure

    • Mauro Giori

    Pages 247-252

13. Back Matter

    Pages 253-272

    PDF

This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.

• Masculinity
• Lesbianism
• Cinecittà
• Body
• Sex
• Gender

“The book sounds like it will adopt a historicist approach that reads Italian films in terms of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ images of homosexuality. … One of the strengths of this highly readable, often witty book is precisely the author’s flexibility of approach. … Giori’s book is a valuable contribution to a growing body of work in Queer Italian Studies.” (John Champagne, gender / sexuality / Italy, Vol. 6, 2019) “In this wonderfully researched, lucidly organised book, Mauro Giori does not so much take us beyond the internationally renowned gay cinema of Visconti and Pasolini as place this in the extraordinarily rich, elusive and thrilling cinema of its time. His book is more than a fascinating overview of homosexuality in Italian cinema in a period exciting equally for the richness of Italian cinema and the emergence of gay identities. It is also a new kind of gay film history, weaving together film texts with production and censorship, gossip and scandal, festivals, criticism and cinemagoing, all beautifully contextualised in relation to the politics and culture of the times. This is a model of historical research and a vibrant account of an astonishing moment in queer culture.” (Richard Dyer, Professor of Film Studies, King’s College London, UK)

• University of Milan, Milan, Italy

  Mauro Giori

Mauro Giori is Assistant Professor at Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. His most recent books include Scandalo e banalità (2012) and Nell’ombra di Hitchcock (2015).

Policies and ethics