Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2020

To date, adolescents have occupied prominent positions in all three of Alice Rohrwacher’s feature films – from her debut Corpo celeste (Heavenly Bodies) (2011a), to the critically acclaimed Le meraviglie (The Wonders) (2014) and, finally, to her latest work Lazzaro felice (Happy as Lazzaro) (2018). Being neither children nor adults, teenagers inhabit a biologically and ideologically ambiguous position within society, a precarious collocation that has often been referred to as ‘liminal’. In her films, Rohrwacher enhances her characters’ inherent liminality by (dis-)placing them, both physically and metaphorically, at the margins of society. However, it is their spatial and social exclusion and their position of subordination to power that allows them to identify alternative behaviours that oppose the dominant ideology within their social environments. Making use of the notions of marginality and liminality, this article explores the implications of the director’s employment of adolescent characters to critique Italian mainstream society.

This article provides an analysis of the TV series Tutto può succedere (‘Anything could happen’) (RAI 1, 2015–18), the Italian adaptation of the American format Parenthood (NBC, 2010–15). Assuming that every form of reproduction from an original text is always a ‘new story’, the main objective is to examine the narrative efficacy of the Italian adaptation both in terms of stylistic and expressive forms and cultural identity of the product. Through a qualitative analysis of the texts, I highlight the founding elements of the new story as compared to the original: a stronger enhancement of the family’s unity, an approach to everyday reality more in a private perspective and a cultural reworking of the female characters. I argue that Tutto può succedere is an effective adaptation, since it succeeds in giving the story a specific Italian identity (the value of family and motherhood), and in taking from Parenthood innovative forms of storytelling with respect to the Italian narrative tradition.

This article employs a quantitative content analysis of news stories (N=600) to compare how six websites of Italian national newspapers of different political orientations framed Roma people during the campaign for the 2018 Italian general election and in the six months following the formation of the government coalition between the far-right Northern League party and the Five Star Movement. Drawing from framing theory and, in particular, looking at diagnostic and prognostic frames and sources interviewed and quoted, the article shows that when talking about the Roma community, a clear ideological divide between right-wing and progressive newspapers emerged. In a trend that follows the shifting Italian political landscape, news outlets that are historically considered as centrist gave prominence almost exclusively to stories about the removal of Roma camps, evictions and arrests while neglecting the coverage of programmes that would support and help the Roma community.

In our contribution to a Special Section dedicated to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome (CSC) (Centre for Experimental Cinematography), we acknowledge the achievements of the school’s graduates in directing from 2004 to 2019. In particular, we provide a detailed list of the thesis films, short feature and animation films, as well as some long feature films, which have been selected for the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals, and have been nominated for and have been awarded national and international prizes such as the David di Donatello, the Silver Ribbon and the Golden Globe.

Review of: Il brand Gomorra: Dal romanzo alla serie TV, Giuliana Benvenuti (2018)

Bologna: Il Mulino, 208 pp.,

ISBN 978-8-81527-433-5, p/bk, €19.00

Review of: L’età dello schermo panoramico: Il cinema italiano e la rivoluzione widescreen, Federico Vitella (2018)

Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 214 pp.,

ISBN 978-8-84675-445-5, p/bk, €20.00

Review of: Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992–2012, Gaoheng Zhang (2019)

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 296 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-44263-043-7, h/bk, $70.00