Italian Film Masters

The fascinating history of Italian cinema: silent historic epics, iconic melodramas, comedy, and the much-celebrated Italian Neorealist films of the post-war era.

Thursday, Nov. 9 at 6:30 pm
Complimentary pasta tasting; beverages will be sold at a cash bar.
$20 members, $30 non-members

Presented by Holly Van Buren, Wagner College professor of film history, media and television studies. Her lecture with film clips will cover the early history of Italian film, covering the silent historical epics (The Last Days of Pompeii, Cabiria), iconic Italian melodramas (featuring divas Lyda Borelli, Francesca Bertini), comedic genres including the telefoni bianchi (“white telephone”) films of the 1930s, and the much-celebrated Italian Neorealist films of the postwar era (Ossessione, Umberto D, Paisan, Shoeshine, etc). The end of the lecture will focus on two masterpieces of Italian Neorealism: Roberto Rosellini’s Rome, Open City, and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves.