Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies - Volume 3, Issue 3, 2015

Despite the general emphasis on the positive implications of digital disruption in terms of freedom, democratization, disintermediation and cultural diversity, the digital impact on film production and distribution is more complex and nuanced, and maybe less disruptive, than what we would be inclined to believe. With respect to the effects of digital media on the film industry this article aims to provide an insight into film circulation in the digital environment, and into the multiple ways in which the Internet can affect and especially undermine the traditional system of film distribution. Based on this general framework, the article also aims to map the main features of contemporary Italian online distribution ecology, with particular reference to the quality of access to film culture and to the copyright issue. The article is structured into six sections. The first three sections provide a general contextualization and address in particular the relationships between the Internet and the window release system (Section 1), the question of piracy (Section 2), the changes in gatekeeping mechanisms and patterns of demand, and the issue of access (Section 3). The remaining three sections focus on the Italian context: Section 4 presents the main theoretical categories used to map contemporary Italian online film distribution; Section 5 discusses the main features of the map; finally, Section 6 provides an insight into the current legal framework and scope of the new Italian ‘Regulation about copyright protection in electronic communication networks’, ratified by AGCOM in December 2013.

This article analyses the global rise of the Italian animated franchise the Winx Club (2004–) within the flows and contra-flows of entertainment content crossing the globe. A brain child of the entrepreneur Iginio Straffi, the Winx Club started out as a television series broadcasted in the Italian media landscape, and became a successful global entertainment franchise, distributed and licensed all over the world. The article situates this phenomenon in the evolving body of literature and scholarly conversations on media targeting children, their dynamics, industry practices, consequences and ramifications. In particular, the Winx Club appears to blend into the endless flow of images crossing national and cultural borders without providing images and specific cultural references drawn from the rich Italian cultural heritage, but trying instead to capture and fulfil the demand for entertainment of international children audiences proposing storylines not rooted in any specific culture, while being stylistically inspired by Japanese anime. This feature, combined with the application of successful business models practised for decades by the global leaders in the media industry, the US media conglomerates, appears to reveal the key to explicate the roots of the success of the Winx Club phenomenon in the competitive global media landscape targeting kids.

This article responds to current critiques about the myths of digital democracy drawing on the case study of the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle/5 Star Movement (5SM) lead by comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo. We argue that the political success of the 5SM was largely dependent on a process of technological fetishism of the Net as an autonomous political agent. We also contend that this process has enabled the party leaders to build an ideology of the movement and represent the 5SM as a grassroots movement based on horizontal networks, participatory democracy, and characterized by the absence of leadership. Conversely, we claim that the digital rhetoric of horizontality, lack of leadership and spontaneity of the party is used to mask, facilitate and reinforce the authority of Beppe Grillo as political leader, thus forging a new type of authoritarianism that is supported and legitimated through the everyday construction of digital discourse.

This article assesses the relationship between the use of Facebook and the development of social movements by focusing on the case study of the Italian movement Popolo Viola/Purple People and its organizational structure. The findings of this study show how Facebook proved to be an efficient mobilizing structure for the social movement only on a short-term basis. After this initial success, the incompatibility between the commercial interests behind Facebook design and the ideology of Popolo Viola became manifest. Facebook failed to provide the movement with the necessary instruments in terms of a shared democratic management of its resources. The inability to manage Facebook pages and groups according to commonly agreed values promoted vertical power structures within the movement, contributing to a controversial management of the Facebook page and to internal divisions that hindered significantly the potential of the anti-Berlusconi protest.

This article looks at the process of construction of a national memory of the 2001 Genoa G8 Summit Conference in Italy through the analysis of the audio-visual documentation of the event and of the meanings and forms it has acquired over the years. I argue that the context of production of these documents and the prolonged conflict over their interpretation has made them a fundamental element for the public memory of the event. In fact, the specificities of this case make it comparable to other divisive historical events that have represented ‘difficult pasts’ or ‘cultural traumas’ for entire nations, and can therefore be analysed within the same theoretical framework. In particular, I examine the documentaries produced by Global Justice Movement activists in the wake of the two days of violence and riots that accompanied the works of the conference, and the first docudrama to be entirely dedicated to the event, Diaz. Don’t Clean Up This Blood (2012) by Daniele Vicari.

Neapolitan actor and director Massimo Troisi left behind an impressive body of work before his untimely death. Troisi’s final performance in Michael Radford’s Il Postino/The Postman (1994) was internationally acclaimed and earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 1996 Academy Awards. Still, Troisi’s films have received almost no attention from American film scholars and academics. The following article is thus an attempt to revive Troisi’s place in film history. Tracing the numerous influences presented in his films – from Commedia dell’Arte to the impact of Neapolitan actors Totò and Eduardo De Filippo – the article first contextualizes Troisi’s abundant, idiosyncratic use of dialect and gesture. This is followed by an examination of the impact of commedia all’italiana on the ideological orientation expressed by Troisi’s films. Ultimately, the concept of the comic ‘mask’ is used to define the uniquely Neapolitan, self-conscious personality Troisi crafted for his work as an actor and director.

Asian Cinema at the 71st Venice International Film Festival: Remapping the New (Venice, 27 August–6 September 2014)

The Controversial Relationship between Italian Film Authors and Film Festivals

Review of student films from the Scuola Nazionale and the University of Bologna, 2013

Experimentations in modern media into the twenty-first century and Bongiò’s Cilindro Raku: Numera Una and Backstage (Formazione Radial, 1AmuLtimediA 2007 – 10:34, and 14:30) – Bongiò; NUMERA Seconda and Backstage (1AmuLtimediA 2007 – HD 14:38, and 12:38) – Marcello Bongiò

Federico Fellini: Painting in Film, Painting on Film, Hava Aldouby (2013) Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 186 pp., ISBN: 9781442613270, p/bk, $29.95

Sergio Leone: Il cinema come favola politica, Christian Uva (2013) Rome: Edizioni fondazione ente dello spettacolo, 220 pp., ISBN: 9788885095694, p/bk, €12.90

The Transatlantic Gaze. Italian Cinema, American Film, Mary Ann McDonald Carolan (2014) 1st ed., Albany: State University of New York, 172 pp., ISBN: 9781438450254, h/bk, $75.00

The Dragon and the Dazzle: Models, Strategies, and Identities of Japanese Imagination. A European Perspective, Marco Pellitteri (2012) Latina: Tunué, 670 pp., ISBN: 978889613894, p/bk, € 28.00

Masculinity and Italian Cinema. Sexual Politics, Social Conflict and Male Crisis in the 1970s, Sergio Rigoletto (2014) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 165 pp., ISBN: 9780748654543, h/bk, £65.00

Inspiring Fellini: Literary Collaborations behind the Scenes, Federico Pacchioni (2014) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 256 pp., ISBN: 9781442612921, p/bk, $23.07