This book examines how Italian Americans have been represented in cinema, from the depiction of Italian migration in New Orleans in the 1890s (Vendetta) to the transition from first- to second-generation immigrants (Ask the Dust), and from the establishment of the stereotype of the Italian American gangster (Little Caesar, Scarface) to its re-definition (Mean Streets), along with a peculiar depiction of Italian American masculinity (Marty, Raging Bull). For many years, Italian migration studies in the United States have commented on the way cinema contributed to the creation of an identifiable Italian American identity. More recently, scholars have recognized the existence of a more nuanced plurality of Italian American identities that reflects social and historical elements, class backgrounds, and the relationship with other ethnic minorities. The second part of the book challenges the most common stereotypes of Italian Americanness: food (Big Night) and Mafia, deconstructing the criminal tropes that have contributed to shaping the perception of Italian-American mafiosi in The Funeral, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, and the first two chapters of the Godfather trilogy. At the crossroads of the fields of Italian Culture, Italian American Culture, Film Studies, and Migration Studies, Italian Americans in Film is written not only for undergraduate and graduate students but also for scholars who teach courses on Italian American Cinema and Visual Culture.
Author(s): Daniele Fioretti, Fulvio Orsitto
Series: Italian and Italian American Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 299
City: Cham
Foreword
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Works Cited
Films and TV Shows Cited
Part I: Establishing Italian American Identities
Chapter 2: ‘I Don’t Do Business with Dagoes’: Anti-Italian Discrimination in Nicholas Meyer’s Vendetta
Works Cited
Chapter 3: Ask the ‘Dust Jacket’. Robert Towne’s Film Adaptation of John Fante’s Ask the Dust
John Fante: Writer and Screenwriter.
Robert Towne: Screenwriter and Director.
Arturo Bandini: “Lover of Man and Beast Alike”.
Camilla Lopez: A Mirror for Ethnic Rediscovery.
Conclusion
Works Cited
Films and TV Series Cited
Chapter 4: Setting the Italian American Gangster in Stone: Little Caesar and Scarface
An Historical Perspective, Pre-Code Groundbreakers
Remakes, Homages, and Reflections in Contemporary Culture
Works Cited
Films and TV Series Cited
Chapter 5: Nice Guys Finish Last? Delbert Mann’s Marty
Works Cited
Films and TV Series Cited
Chapter 6: The Italian American Prizefighter: Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull
Ethnic New York City
‘The Brawler’
Return to New York City
Works Cited
Films Cited
Chapter 7: Mean Streets. A Mirror Construction of Reality
Martin Scorsese: The Trifecta, the Mise-en-Abyme, and the Construction-en-Abyme
Charlie Cappa: Mirrors, Windows, and the Narcissus’ Myth
Mirrors
Windows
The Narcissus Myth.
Conclusion
Works Cited
Films and TV Series Cited
Part II: Challenging Italian American Identities (and Their Representations)
Chapter 8: Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral: Taking Aim at the Stereotype
The Funeral in Perspective
Historical Context
A Tragedy of Moralism: Mafia and Its Imagined Communities
Conclusion
Works Cited
Films Cited
Chapter 9: Good Food is Close to God: Religious Overtones of the Culinary Arts in Big Night
Primo
Pascal
Secondo
Cristiano
Gabriella
Works Cited
Chapter 10: The Eclipse of the Godfather’s Garden: From the Agromafia to the Money Mafia
Oranges and Olive Oil / Agromafia
The Garden State / Suburban Mafia
Westward Expansion / Money Mafia
Conclusions
Works Cited
Films Cited
Chapter 11: GoodFellas. When the ‘Kid from Little Italy’ Meets the ‘Oklahoma Kid’
The ‘Kid from Little Italy’ and His Cinematic Universe.
Windows, Symbolism, and Stylistic Devices
Windows
Symbolism and Stylistic Devices
Conclusion
Works Cited
Films Cited
Chapter 12: Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco between Classic Hollywood and the New Gangster
Works Cited
Films and TV Series Cited
Chapter 13: Documentary and Italian American Identity: Time and Exposure in Alfred Guzzetti’s Family Films
Making Time Exposure (2012)
The New World of Film Is the Known World: Filming Family Portrait Sittings in the 1970s
Conclusion: A Personal Time Exposure
Works Cited
Films Cited
Index
