Cultural Metamorphoses in Contemporary Italian Cinema

Cultural Metamorphoses in Contemporary Italian Cinema explores four different areas of study in contemporary Italian cinema: the migrants’ social struggle, the decline of the middle class, the isolation of the elderly, and gender inequality. This book focuses on four films produced between 2007 and 2013, specifically Io sono Li (Shun Li and the Poet, 2011), Giorni e nuvole (Days and Clouds, 2007), Pranzo di ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch, 2008), and Viaggio sola (A Five Star Life, 2013), examining a slice of contemporary Italian cinema to highlight specific socio-economic changes within the country over the past decade. Italian filmmakers Andrea Segre, Silvio Soldini, Gianni Di Gregorio, and Maria Sole Tognazzi concentrate on themes that refer to "metamorphoses" to exemplify several Italian societal changes deeply affected by economic challenges and strongly rooted in male-dominant ideology. These Italian filmmakers reevaluate cultural traditions and societal roles by depicting unconventional narratives and identities in their films and giving "voice to the voiceless."

Roberta Di Carmine is Professor of Film Studies and Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Film Minor at Western Illinois University. Raised and educated in Pescara, Italy, she received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in foreign languages and literatures from West Virginia University. Her essays on film studies have appeared in Wide Screen, Dealing with Diversity, The Councilor: The Journal of the Illinois Council for the Social Studies, and A Companion to Film Comedy, among others. In 2011, she published Italy Meets Africa: Colonial Discourses in Italian Cinema.