Homosexuality and Italian Cinema

This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.

Mauro Giori is Assistant Professor at Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. His most recent books include Scandalo e banalità (2012) and Nell'ombra di Hitchcock (2015).

1. Introduction.- 2. Silence.- 3. Enjoying the Darkness.- 4. Undressing the Other.- 5. Luchinidi and Pasolinidi.- 6. Love in the Time of Panic.- 7. Sexual Revolution, Italian Style.- 8. Pornography of Death.- 9. The Only Good Thing.- 10. Homophiles and Gays Go to the Movies.- 11. Conclusion: Martyrdom and Pleasure.