Giddy up! We’re now full steam ahead to the magical films of Italian cinema in the 60s and 70s. Films that not only greatly changed Italian cinema, but after being played in art house theaters in the United States, helped to take down the archaic and backwards Hays Code. Hollywood, and the world, would never be the same.
Before we dive into these films, I wanted to write a brief piece on the influence of Catholicism in Italian Cinema, as well as highlight a director whose film takes religion head on, and is included in my list; the GOAT Federico Fellini.
The portrayal of Catholicism in Italian film fluctuated greatly from the 40s/50s to the 60s/70s in accordance with the change in personal views of everyday people. Fellini was one of the auteurs who illustrated this shift in attitudes in his films.
As mentioned in Angeli’s paper, the incredibly influential film theorist and critic as well as founder of Cahiers du Cinema, Andre Bazin believed that film could offer the viewer a transcendental experience. However, Bazin (a Catholic himself) argued that films that prominently featured the ornamental and exterior aspects of religion cause them to be religiously insignificant. It is when films work against these affinities, such as focusing on deepening internal beliefs, that they are successful. Bazin notes that films focused on religion in the 40s and 50s honed in on the spectacular aspects of Christianity such as the Stations of the Cross instead of the “less grand” but deeply impactful aspects of christianity (such as going to church, praying, etc) as demonstrated in the Italian film The Heaven Over the Marshes (which tbh does not sound very enjoyable).
Fellini did not adhere to Bazin’s ideas of a “good religious film” because he didn’t set out to make religion, specifically Catholicism, look good (ba dum tiss). Like some of his peers in Italy Fellini often used his films to criticize the Catholic church as evident in his portrayal of the Cardinals and Priests in 8 ½ (let us not forget the school punishment scene, woof). His criticism of the church became increasingly more overt in the 60s. In fact he upset the church so much that, as stated in Maeder’s “Federico Fellini: from catholicism to the collective unconscious”, Roman Catholic censors officially banned the film. To add a big Holy Cherry on top of this sundae (or sunday?) There were even protestors at the screenings of some of his films.
Fellini never shied away from addressing his conflicting feelings toward Catholicism in his films, in fact a majority of his films grapple with it in some way. Like many ex/recovering former catholics cough cough Fellini found the church and its teachings to be inescapable. He said in reference to being Catholic in Italy; “It’s difficult biologically and geographically not to be a Catholic in Italy. It’s like a creature born beneath the sea – how can it not be a fish?”
So instead of escaping them, he tossed them into a creative blender in addition to his fascination with the supernatural and unconscious and created an enchanting language of filmmaking all his own.
Meet Federico Fellini:
Fellini was born in 1920 on the Adriatic coast and went from caricaturist to film writer (he wrote Rome, Open City) then finally to director. Fellini is regarded as one of the most decorated directors in film history and even has an adjective coined after him (Felliniesque). His combination of carnivalesque scenery with incisive social critique has made a mark on film forever (thank the heavens). Despite the semi autobiographical character Guido in 8 1/2 being a total ladies man, Fellini was married to his wife and frequent collaborator, Italian film actress, Giulietta Masina from 1943 until his death in 1993.
On to watching the films to see how the various directors handle society’s relationship to religion as well as their personal conflicts (or lack thereof) with it.
Sources:
Catholicism in Italian cinema in the age of ‘the new
secularisation’ (1958-1978)
Angeli, S.
Silvia Angeli
https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/e8c14742203a45f33bfac02c766064581d30bdb5183f093bc1d5238a79cef445/6725106/Angeli_%20Silvia_thesis.pdf
Cinema and Theology, Andre Bazin; https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1763&context=jrf
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5375
Federico Fellini: from catholicism to the collective unconscious
Mäder, Marie-Therese
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/129171/1/ZORA129171.pdf