Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Sergio.
Masculinity
and
Italian
Cinema:
Sexual
Politics,
Social
Conflict
and
Male
Crisis
in
the
1970s.
Edinburgh
University
Press,
2014
(pp.
165
+
x)
In
his
book,
Sergio
Rigoletto
investigates
the
complex
and
articulated
idea
of
masculinity
represented
in
film
in
the
1970s
when
the
patriarchal
tradition
was
mostly
intensely
questioned
in
Italy.
In
those
years,
the
problematic
outlook
on
sexuality
and
the
acknowledgement
of
the
political
dimension
of
sex
promoted
by
the
feminist
movement
also
affected
how
films
portrayed
male
characters.
Men
in
crisis
are
the
object
of
the
first
chapter
(Male
Crisis:
Between
Apocalypse
and
Nostalgia;
pp.
14-44)
in
films
like
Marco
Ferreris
Lultima
donna
(1977)
and
Ciao
maschio
(1978),
Salvatore
Samperis
Malizia
(1973),
and
Fellinis
La
citt
delle
donne
(1982).
In
Ferreris
films,
the
young
male
characters
differ
from
the
models
of
masculinity
handed
over
by
the
patriarchal
tradition
and
long
for
a
pre-Oedipal
intimacy
with
their
empowered
female
partners
(to
the
advantage
of
the
latter);
but
their
male
bodies
urges
are
obstacles
to
it.
Between
empowered
women
and
bruised
men
there
can
be
no
relationship;
the
only
solution
is
castration
(or
destruction
anyway).
The
fancied
reconciliation
with
the
feminine
may
otherwise
go
through
the
image
of
the
nurturing
mother
(pregnant
Ornella
Muti
in
Ferreris
Il
futuro
donna).
Eroticization
of
maternal
love
through
the
mother
proxy
is
therefore
the
backbone
of
Malizia,
a
story
of
the
1950s,
where
the
tame,
inoffensive,
and
non-confrontational
stepmother
is
the
object
of
nostalgia.
Similar
nostalgia
pervades
Fellinis
City
of
Women.
The
male
gaze
is
still
recognizable
in
Snaporaz
/
Marcello,
but
also
powerfully
destabilized
by
the
confrontational
women
around
him.
The
Oedipal
confrontation
between
generations,
one
of
the
main
aspects
of
the
whole
youth
movement
of
1968
and
its
relationship
to
the
nations
Fascist
past,
is
the
object
of
the
second
chapter
(Contesting
National
Memory:
Male
Dilemmas
and
Oedipal
Scenarios
pp.
45-70).
In
Bernardo
Bertoluccis
two
films
of
1970,
The
Spiders
Stratagem
and
The
Conformist,
the
Oedipal
conflict
can
be
an
effective
probe
to
understand
what
is
still
left
unsaid
about
Fascism,
Rigoletto
contends.
In
the
first
one,
Athos
Magnani
eventually
makes
his
fathers
fame
(and
scheme)
crumble
from
the
inside
and,
at
least
onscreen,
creates
the
conditions
for
other
formerly
silenced
subjects
(women)
to
emerge.
The
two
opposite
masculinities
of
father
and
son
(impersonated
by
the
same
actor,
Giulio
Brogi)
represent
the
opposite
poles
of
repression
and
liberation
in
the
history
of
Italy
between
the
1930s
and
the
1970s.
In
The
Conformist,
a
similar
dialectic
is
resumed
in
one
character,
Marcello
Clerici,
who
embraces
repression
by
trying
to
conform
to
the
heterosexual
model
imposed
by
Fascism,
but
cannot
fully
disavow
his
homosexual
desire,
which
comes
out
at
crucial
points
of
the
story.
Fascist
heteronormativity
intertwines
the
ideological
constructions
of
both
gender
(Judith
Butler)
and
nation
(Benedict
Anderson),
supported
by
the
illusions
and
undermined
by
the
conflicts
that
The
Conformist
fully
represents.
The
interrelated
aspects
of
gender
and
genre
(the
success
of
the
latter
is
often
due
to
the
expectations
on
the
former)
is
examined
in
the
third
chapter
(Undoing
Genre,
Undoing
Masculinity;
pp.
71-100).
The
overturn
of
the
heterosexual
dominating
male
finds
its
tragic
version
in
Elio
Petris
Investigation
of
a
Citizen
Above
Suspicion,
where
the
omnipotent
detective
reveals
his
regressive
and
childish
violence,
and
its
comic
one
in
Wertmllers
The
Seduction
of
Mim,
where
the
male
role
of
the
seducer
is
debunked
by
a
jumble
of
subversions
of
decency
(bodies,
jokes,
situations,
etc.)
brought
to
the
extremes
in
a
carnival
of
Bakhtinian
laughter.
Heterosexuality
also
faces
its
redefinition
when
confronted
directly
with
homosexuality,
as
it
is
the
case
with
Stenos
La
patata
bollente
(1979)
and
Ettore
Scolas
Una
giornata
particolare
(1979).
In
the
former,
the
protagonist,
a
leftist
and
nonetheless
culturally
homophobic
workman,
is
led
to
redefine
and
renegotiate
his
heterosexual
identity
after
meeting
and
developing
a
strong
bond
of
friendship
with
a
gay
man
that
initially
did
not
appear
to
be
so
to
him,
since
this
man
lacks
the
effeminate
expected
(which
certainly
reassesses
the
depiction
of
male
homosexuality
in
film
comedy).
Similar
renegotiations
occur
with
the
well
established
heterosexual
couple
Mastroianni-
Loren
enacting
the
encounter
between
a
Fascist
family
wife
and
mother
of
the
lower
classes
and
a
gay
anti-Fascist
learned
radio
announcer.
Once
more,
gender
and
politics
are
intertwined,
and
only
a
perspective
from
the
late
1970s,
after
the
strong
alliance
between
Italian
feminism
and
the
gay
liberation
movements,
could
allow
the
alliance
between
two
oppressed
sexual
subjects
(100)
in
Fascist
Rome
on
the
day
of
Hitlers
visit.
In
the
fourth
chapter
(Pier
Paolo
Pasolinis
Erotic
Imagery
and
the
Significance
of
the
Male
Body
pp.
101-125)
Rigoletto
contends
that,
by
eroticizing
the
male
body
(probably
even
when
it
is
vexed,
as
in
The
120
Days),
Pasolini
subverts
the
patriarchal
gaze
and
establishes
an
oppositional
system
and
a
dissident
erotic
imagery
(105)
Protracted
takes
and
lack
of
suture
in
the
shot-reverse
shot
pattern
expose
both
the
male
body
as
recipient
of
desire
and
a
subjective
gaze
that
had
been
repressed
before
(and
makes
the
audience
confront
their
own
sadistic
voyeurism,
in
the
case
of
The
120
Days).
In
Teorema,
the
male
body
becomes
the
haunting
ghost
of
homosexual
desire,
pervading
the
cameras
subjective
gaze.
In
Decameron,
The
Canterbury
Tales,
and
The
Arabian
Nights
this
very
gaze
has
to
confront
also
the
debunking
of
the
audiences
priapic
imagery
in
favor
or
a
more
realistic
and
liberatory
look
at
sexuality
in
bodies.
The
last
chapter
(Male
Subjectivity
and
the
Legacy
of
1968:
Nanni
Morettis
Ecce
Bombo
126-143)
examines
Morettis
use
of
irony
in
relating
to
the
present
and
revisiting
the
recent
past,
professing
sheer
intolerance
to
all
forms
of
empty
rhetoric,
but
also
deep
attachment
(however
with
no
nostalgia)
to
the
political
enthusiasm
of
1968.
This
irony
is
also
aimed
at
the
self,
the
encumbering
male
self
in
Ecce
bombo
that
coincides
with
the
image
of
the
protagonist-director:
Michele,
sternly
revolting
against
the
patriarchal
model,
but
at
the
same
time
unable
to
veer
completely
from
it,
and
therefore
resorting
to
irony
as
the
ultimate
weapon
of
protection
for
(and
from)
his
own
self.
A
solid,
well-informed
and
well-documented
volume
on
gender
studies
in
film,
Sergio
Rigolettos
book
is
an
important
contribution
to
the
understanding
of
Italian
film
in
the
political
and
cultural
context
of
the
1970s.
Andrea
Malaguti
University
of
Massachusetts
Amherst