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La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film
Author(s): Mikel J. Koven (Author)
- Publisher: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
- Publication Date: 2 Oct. 2006
- Language: English
- Print length: 210 pages
- ISBN-10: 0810858703
- ISBN-13: 9780810858701
Book Description
In
La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film, Koven explores the history and evolution of this aspect of cinema, and places these films within the context of Italian popular filmmaking. He addresses various themes, motifs, and tropes in these films: their use of space, the murders, the role of the detective, the identity of the killer, issues of belief, excess, and the set-piece.In addition to being the first academic study of the
giallo film in English, this book surveys more than fifty films of this subgenre. In addition to filmmakers like Mario Bava and Dario Argento, Koven also looks at the films of Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Pupi Avati, Umberto Lenzi, and others. In all, the works of twenty-five different filmmakers are considered in this book. Also explored are the inter-relationships between these films: how one influences others, how certain filmmakers take ideas and build off of them, and how those ideas are further transformed by other filmmakers. Koven also explores the impact of the giallo on the later North American slasher genre.Editorial Reviews
Review
…an interesting study of Giallo…a very detailed analysis of the main themes of the genre…
La Dolce Morte is an informed and engaging examination of neglected and marginalized films that purposely provokes readers to re-examine biases against the giallo.
…this is a serious contribution to film studies. It opens a side of Italian cinema that is rarely studied. Recommended.
…a carefully constructed presentation and discussion of one of the most important phenomena in modern cinema.
“Giallo,” Italian for “yellow,” is applied to a vernacular film genre (e.g., Sergio Martino”s Torso, 1973) based on mystery novels with bright yellow covers that an Italian publisher has been producing since the 1920s. In the context of psychodynamics and Italian audiences, Koven (film and television studies, U. of Wales, Aberystwyth) explores themes including the outsider, sexually-driven murder, the amateur detective”s role, and a view of these films from Pasolini”s theory of a “cinema of poetry.” He concludes that gialli, like other horror cinema, reflect modernity”s ambivalence toward both traditional folk beliefs and science.
Koven”s study is highly detailed and wide ranging. Koven clearly adores his chosen subject and explores it with an eye to accessibility―he often writes wittily but always lucidly―and these are reasons why the book is so engaging.
Koven”s well-organized catalog of the subgenre”s characteristics makes his book a valuable reference tool as well as an incisive critical study.
About the Author
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