Cesare Zavattini: Selected Writings

Media-Kombination

2021
Bloomsbury Academic USA
978-1-5013-1718-7 (ISBN)

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Volume 1 makes available for the first time in English thirty-nine scenarios and two treatments. Each text is preceded by an introduction, providing an essential frame of reference to make these writings entirely accessible to the reader. While nearly all these texts belong to the post-war period, including the stories for major post-war classics, there are also seven pre-war raccontini, the narrative source of Zavattini’s Modernist magical realism, several fictional interviews and faux reportage, tinged with irony aimed at Hollywood, complemented by several pre-war scenarios. The book also features scenarios for Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima, Alessandro Blasetti’s First Communion, De Sica’s The Roof and texts encompassing Zavattini’s ethnographic vision, from the redactions of Italia mia, interviews for Un paese, illustrated with Paul Strand’s photographs, to the scenarios for investigative documentaries, including Why?, The Mysteries of Rome, The Guinea Pig, the Free Newsreel Revolution, and the lucid Before, During After, tackling Aldo Moro’s assassination by the Red Brigades. The book includes Zavattini’s last word on cinema and society, the testamentary satire La veritàaaa (1982), written, directed and acted by Zavattini himself.

Each text is preceded by an introduction, providing an essential frame of reference to make these writings entirely accessible to the reader.

Volume 2 brings to the fore Zavattini’s ever-evolving internal dialogue between diary writer, screenwriter, narrative writer, and political activist. Essential to trace the origin of Zavattini’s ideas on cinema and understand his theorization of Neo-realism is the inclusion of a selection of the filmmaker’s pre-war writings. Most of the book provides a substantial anthology of texts translated from Neorealismo ecc. (1979), comprising Zavattini’s major essays, conference papers, unpublished production papers, interviews, and vital excerpts from his correspondence and published cinematic diary.

Through translation and detailed cultural and contextual commentary, translator and editor David Brancaleone traces not only Zavattini’s theory of the screen, but also his experimentation in new film practices, including the flash-film (film lampo), the inquiry film (film inchiesta), cinema as encounter (cinema d'incontro), the diary film (film diario), the confessional film (film-confessione), and the grass-roots community film (cinema insieme or cinema di tanti per tanti).

Each text is preceded by an introduction, providing an essential frame of reference to make these writings entirely accessible to the reader.

David Brancaleone is Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland, where he teaches history and theory of art, film, photography and visual culture. An art history graduate from La Sapienza, Rome, he gained an MA in Italian Studies at University College London, UK and, in 2002, his doctorate at the Warburg Institute, University of London, UK. In 2019, he published the two-volume Zavattini, il Neo-realismo e il Nuovo Cinema latino-americano which reconstructs and documents Zavattini’s cultural interventions in Latin America and his specific contribution to the global dimension of Neo-realism in the latter half of the twentieth century. This publication provided the critical and contextual basis for the curation of a major retrospective exhibition, ‘Zavattini oltre i confini’, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2019.

Volume One
Introduction to Volume 1
Part one Pre-war
1 Stories from the Comic Trilogy (1931–41)
2 Chronicles from Hollywood (1927–33)
3 Scenario: The Nervous Tic Clinic (1936)
4 Miss Great Celebrity Signatures: Letter to Giuseppe Amato, 1 July 1938
5 Scenario: Miss Great Celebrity Signatures (1938)
6 Scenario: Everyone Should Have a Rocking Horse (1938)
7 Scenario: Five Poor Men in a Motorcar (1939)
8 Scenario: Totò the Good (1940)
Part two Post-war
9 Scenario: Italy 1944 (1944)
10 Scenario: Sciuscià (1945)
11 Sciuscià: Letter to Massimo Ferrara, 6 July 1981
12 Scenario: Bicycle Thieves (1948)
13 ‘What We Want’ (1950)
14 Scenario: The Great Deception (1948)
15 The Great Deception: Letter to Géza von Radváni, 9 March 1950
16 Scenario: First Communion (1949)
17 First Communion: Correspondence
18 Scenario: Bellissima (1950–1)
19 ‘The origins of Umberto D.’ (1951)
20 Umberto D. in Zavattini’s diary (1948-51)
21 Scenario: Umberto D. (1951)
22 Treatment: Umberto D. (1951)
23 Screenplay (extract): Umberto D. Umberto’s Lodgings. The Kitchen. Dawn (1951)
24 Zavattini, Miracle in Milan, La Voce Repubblicana, 7 July 1951
25 Scenario: Miracle in Milan (1950)
26 Scenario: Italia mia (1951–2)
27 Un paese. Portrait of an Italian Village (1955)
28 The Story of Catherine: ANSA Press Comuniqué (1952)
29 Scenario: The Story of Catherine (1952)
30 Love in the City: Voice-over and dialogue excerpt (1953)
31 The Story of Catherine: Interview (1962)
32 Scenario: A Child’s Funeral (1954)
33 Scenario: The Roof (1955)
34 Scenario: México mío (1955–8)
35 Scenario: Short Love Story (1958)
36 Correspondence with Carlos Velo (1955–8)
37 Scenario: Diary of a Woman (1959)
38 Scenario: Revolución en Cuba (1960)
39 Scenario: Anti-racist Film (1960)
40 Fernando Birri, Letter to Zavattini, 9 March 1957
41 Scenario: The Little Dictator (1960)
42 Treatment: The Little Dictator (1960)
43 Scenario: Colour versus Colour (1960)
44 Scenario: Censorship 1960
45 Scenario: The Newsreel for Peace (1962)
46 Scenario: The Guinea Pig (1962)
47 Scenario: The Mysteries of Rome (1962)
48 Scenario: Assault on Television (1962)
49 Scenario: Why? (1963)
50 Scenario: Free Newsreels (1967)
51 Scenario: The Seven Cervi Brothers (1968)
52 Scenario: Revolution (1969)
53 Adapting The Children of Sánchez (1971)
54 Scenario: Italia mia tv version (1974–6)
55 Scenario: Aldo Moro, Before, During, After (1978)
56 Scenario: The Truuuuth (1981)
57 Transmission test: Telesubito (1983)

Volume Two
Introduction to Volume 2
Part one Pre-war
1 ‘The Directors’ Gift’, from The Hollywood Chronicles (1933)
2 ‘The Frustrations of a Young Scriptwriter’ (1936)
3 Letters to filmmakers, Il Settebello (1938–9)
4 ‘The Best Dreams’ (1940)
5 ‘Notebook’ (1940–1)
6 Radio EIAR Interview (1942)
7 ‘One Minute of Cinema’ (1942)
8 The Imola Conference (1942)
9 ‘The Importance of the Script’ (1942–3)
Part two Post-war
10 Radio interview: Fascism and post-war Italy (1983)
11 ‘Poetry, Italian Cinema’s only Business’ (1945)
12 ‘Three Questions’ (1946)
13 ‘Italy Wants to Know’ (1947)
14 ‘I’m an Optimist’ (1949)
15 ‘Is Cinema going to Die?’ (1949)
16 Perugia Conference: ‘Cinema and Modern Man’ (1949)
17 Letter to Father Morlion (1949)
18 ‘Scrap Scripts’ (1950)
19 ‘Italian Cinema Tomorrow’ (1950)
20 ‘Taking Issue with the Present’ (1951)
21 Interview: ‘Cinema, Zavattini and Reality’ (1951)
22 ‘Some Ideas on the Cinema’ (1952)
23 ‘What Is a Flash Film’ (1952)
24 Flash Film: ‘A Development of Neo-realism’ (1952)
25 Enzo Muzii attacks Zavattini: ‘Adult Realism’ (1953)
26 ‘Theses on Neo-realism’ (1953)
27 The Story of Catherine in Zavattini’s diary (1952)
28 Voice-over: Love in the City and an excerpt of dialogue (1953)
29 Shadowing (1953)
30 Parma Conference: ‘Neo-realism as I see it’ (1953)
31 Zavattini’s first trip to Cuba in his diary (1953)
32 The Havana Conference (1953)
33 Milan Conference (1954)
34 Neo-realism as ethics (1954)
35 Transcendence in Zavattini’s diary (1954)
36 Neo-realism and Italia mia. Correspondence (1952–8)
37 Un paese. Portrait of an Italian Village. Correspondence (1952–3)
38 Zavattini, ‘Strand the Photographer, 13 April 1953’
39 Zavattini, Introduction to Cinema Nuovo photographic stories (1955)
40 Alfredo Guevara, ‘Cuba’, Cinema Nuovo, no. 51, 1955
41 Guevara, letter to Zavattini, 2 April 1955
42 José Massip to Zavattini, 26 April 1955
43 Guevara, letter to Zavattini, 4 May 1955
44 Zavattini, letter to Guevara, 12 May 1955
45 ‘Letter from Cuba’ (1955)
46 Paris Conference: ‘Useful Cinema’ (1956)
47 ‘The Economic Conference of Cinema’ (1956)
48 ‘The Loneliness of Zavattini’ (1958)
49 Zavattini, letter to Guevara, 2 January 1959
50 Fernando Bernal, letter to Zavattini, 29 May 1959
51 Guevara, letter to Zavattini, 29 September 1959
52 Zavattini, letter to Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1 November 1959
53 ‘How to Write a Screenplay’ (1959)
54 icaic Conference, 15 January 1960
55 Zavattini, letter to Gaetano Afeltra, 15 February 1960
56 Zavattini, letter to Valentino Bompiani, 7 March 1960
57 Cuban filmmakers on Zavattini, Cine cubano (1960)
58 Héctor García Mesa and Eduardo Manet, Cine cubano (1960)
59 ‘Debating with the Opponents of Commitment’ (1960)
60 Zavattini, letter to Lino Miccichè, 2 November 1977
61 Zavattini, letter to Benito Alazraki, 30 October 1954
62 Prologue and Epilogue: El Neorrealismo cinematografico italiano (1955)
63 Mexican Bellas Artes Conference, 24 August 1955
64 Interview: ‘Three films by Zavattini in Mexico’, 5 September 1955
65 Zavattini, letter to Alvaro Beltrani, 20 October 1955
66 Carlos Velo, letter to Zavattini, 7 November 1955
67 Zavattini, letter to Felipe Carrera, 29 January 1956
68 Zavattini, letter to Velo, 5 October 1958
69 Elio Petri, letter to Zavattini, 1 April 1962
70 ‘An Act of Courage’ (1960) and ‘On Censorship’ (1960)
71 Zavattini and television (1961)
72 The Newspaper for Peace (1961)
73 Interview: The confession film (1961)
74 The confession film: Correspondence (1962)
75 Interview: The Mysteries of Rome (1962–3)
76 ‘The Newsreel for Peace’ (1962)
77 The Why? project (1963)
78 Rinascita round table (1965)
79 ‘First Conversation’ (1966)
80 Interview: ‘Four Questions Addressed to Filmmakers’ (1967)
81 Zavattini, ‘Why I am not resigning from anac’ (1968)
82 ‘Free Newsreels’ (1968)
83 Zavattini, letter to Luigi Chiarini (1968)
84 ANAC Press Conference, Venice Film Festival (1968)
85 ‘The Cine-camera as a Weapon’ (1969)
86 ‘Pesaro Film Festival and Free Newsreels’ (1969)
87 Political film (1970)
88 ‘The Free Newsreel of the Proletariat’ (1971)
89 ‘Time and Cinema’ (1975)
90 Grassroots interventions (1976)
91 Screenwriting (1977)
92 The Truuuuth (La veritàaaa) (1978–81)
Bibliography
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	9.9.2021
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Gewicht	1726 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
ISBN-10	1-5013-1718-0 / 1501317180
ISBN-13	978-1-5013-1718-7 / 9781501317187
Zustand	Neuware