Love, Corruption, & Pursuit of the Oscar: Three Revolutionary Academy Nominated Italian Films From 1969/70

Dr. Peter Weller & Jordan Ledy

The Second World War leveled a fascist, then partisan Italy. Using real locations, a film movement emerged, now called Neorealism. However, we might just call the movement Realism, as Italy’s film, in the country’s confused void in post-war ethic, was the first to jump forth into social narratives of self-search within an economic blitz of poverty and pulchritude. Liberation freed depiction of gender and politics; After neorealism, the 60s and 70s generated a hard look at individual moral and social liability. This webinar will explore the radical shifts in Italian cinema during the late 1960s through the lens of three provocative OSCAR nominated films: Luchino Visconti's "The Damned,” Elio Petri’s “Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion,” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist.”