Research: Early Italian Cinema, Visual Arts & Visual Culture

For decades I have given papers and published articles and chapters in volumes on Italian silent cinema, such as the Antiquity films, the divas, comedy, the forzuti and travel films. I always maintained an intramedial and transmedial perspective, relating e.g. the Antiquity films to 19th century art and its reproductions, the diva films to painting, photography and theater, the travel film to the Picturesque, and the forzuti and comedy to meta-filmic self-promotion. I have also looked at transnational relations, such as international comedy of the early 1910s, and the diaspora of the Italian strong men in Germany and France.

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My new book deals with early Italian Antiquity films and the ways they appropriated art and archaeology. Thanks to a Fellowship by NIAS I have been enabled to work exclusively on the manuscript in Fall of 2021. Fall 2022 I completed my research and writing. The book Quo vadis?, Cabiria, and the ‘Archaeologists’: Early Cinema’s Appropriation of Art and Archaeology has appeared October 2023 with the Turinese publisher Kaplan, as part of the series La favilla, la vampa, la cenere, edited by Silvio Alovisio and Luca Mazzei.

Book presentations in October-November have been given in: Pordenone (Giornate del Cinema Muto, 12/10), Turin (University of Turin, 17/10), Rome (Royal Dutch Institute, 20/10), Amsterdam (Eye Filmmuseum, 3/11), and Paris (Fondation Seydoux-Pathé, 24/11). Upcoming is London (University College of London, 19 April 2024).

Related to my book and in general my research on early Italian cinema and its ties with visual culture, is my involvement as Co-I in the British Arts and Humanities Research Council funded research project Museum of Dreams: Silent Antiquity Films in the British National Film Archive (October 2023-26), submitted by Prof. Maria Wyke (University College London), with myself (Arts & Culture, VU) and Bryony Dixon (BFI) as Co-I, and in collaboration with various European film archives. The project will establish a better understanding of both the modern reception of classical antiquity and the transnational history and cultural status of silent cinema. By focusing on the BFI holdings and comparing them with those surviving in other archives such as Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam), the project will situate the UK firmly within the global network that produced, distributed, exhibited, consumed, and curated the classical antiquity films of the early 20th century, and establish for those films an important educational legacy in the 21st century.

For previous presentations, look here.

Earlier related publications were:

‘The Creation of an Italian Star in Diaspora: Luciano Albertini’s Early Career in Germany (1921-1923)’, Immagine, 23, 2021 (released 2023), pp. 57-84. Part of special issue Modelli di mascolinità e divismo nel cinema muto internazionale, curated by Denis Lotti and Jacqueline Reich.
‘Italia Almirante e le arti: Relazioni pittoriche, scultoree e teatrali in Femmina, La statua di carne e L’ombra‘, in: Alessandro Faccioli, Elena Mosconi eds.,  Divine. Nuove prospettive sul cinema muto italiano (Milano: Mimesis, 2022), pp. 89-106.
‘The Pictorial Turn: Intervisuality and Recycling in Fabiola (Enrico Guazzoni, 1918)’, in: Melinda Blos-Jáni et.al. eds, Intermedial Encounters: Studies in Honour of Agnes Pethö/ Intermediális találkozások: Tanulmányok Pethő Ágnes tiszteletére (Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár: Scientia Kiadó, 2022), pp. 125-136.
‘Immagini spettacolari: Cabiria di Pastrone e le illustrazioni del pittore francese Rochegrosse per Salammbô di Flaubert’, in: Céline Gailleurd ed., L’oro di Atlantide. Il cinema muto italiano e le arti  (Torino: Kaplan, 2022), pp. 137-160.
Entries on Cenerentola and Il Giglio Nero (Italian & English), catalogue Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, 2022), pp. 233-237.
‘Images spectaculaires: Cabiria de Pastrone et les illustrations de Salammbô de Flaubert par le peintre Rochegrosse’, in: Céline Gailleurd ed., Le cinéma muet italien, à la croisée des arts (Paris: Les Presses du Réel, 2022), pp. 162-191.
‘Picturesque Pictures: Italian Early Non-Fiction within Modern Aesthetic Visions’, Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film & Media Studies , 19, 2021, pp. 49-65.
‘Der Unüberwindliche. Der italienische Sensationsdarsteller Luciano Albertini im Weimarer Kino’, Filmblatt, 66, Autumn 2018, pp. 17-33.
‘Lyda Borelli dalla scena allo schermo/ Lyda Borelli from Stage to Screen’, reprint of 2013 text, booklet DVD box Dive! Lyda Borelli – Francesca Bertini (Cineteca di Bologna 2018), pp. 25-28, 31-34.
‘The Beauty of the Forzuti: Irresistible Male Bodies On and Off Screen’, in: Marina Dahlquist, Doron Galili, Jan Olsson, Valentine Robert eds., Corporeality in Early Cinema: Viscera, Skin, and Physical Form (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018), pp. 146-155.
‘Muscoli e cervello. I film di Mario Guaita Ausonia tra avventura e crime story/Muscles and Brains: the Films of Mario Ausonia between Adventure and Crime’, in: Luca Mazzei and Paola Valentini eds., Giallo italiano: crime movie / occulto / conspiracy theory / gothic. Bianco e Nero, 587, 2017, pp. 18-29. With Micaela Veronesi.
‘Take Two: Lawrence Alma-Tadema and film’, Art Quarterly, Summer 2017, pp. 60-65.
‘Alma-Tadema e il Quo vadis? di Guazzoni’, in: Elisabetta Gagetti, Monika Wozniak eds.,  Quo vadis: la prima opera transmediale. Atti del convegno Roma 14-15 novembre 2016 (Rome: Accademia Polacca, 2017), pp. 99-116.

“The Second Life of Alma-Tadema“, in Elizabeth Prettejohn, Peter Trippi eds., Lawrence Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity (Munich: Prestel, 2016), pp. 187–99. Also Dutch and German edition. Dutch version: ‘Het tweede leven van Alma-Tadema’s schilderijen’, in: Elizabeth Prettejohn, Peter Trippi eds., Alma-Tadema. Klassieke verleiding (Leeuwarden/Munich/Zwolle: Fries Museum/Prestel/WBOOKS, 2016), pp. 186-199. German edition: Das zweite Leben des Lawrence Alma-Tadema”, in: Elizabeth Prettejohn, Peter Trippi eds., Alma-Tadema: klassische Verführung (Munich: Prestel, 2016), pp. 186-199.
‘Terug naar de klassieken’, See All This, 3, Autumn 2016, 44-47.
General article ‘Italian Muscle in Germany’ and lemmata on individual films for the programme ‘Italian Muscle in Germany’, catalogue 34th Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, October 2015, p. 79-90. In collaboration with Stefan Drossler and Oliver Hanley.
‘Of Artists and Models. Italian Silent Cinema between Narrative Convention and Artistic Practice’, in: Ágnes Pethő ed., The Cinema of Sensations (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), pp. 121-136. [limited access to e-book version]
‘Diva Intermedial. Lyda Borelli between Art, Photography, Theatre and Cinema’, in: Kaveh Askari et.al. eds., Performing New Media, 1890-1915 (New Barnet: John Libbey, 2014), pp. 22-33.
‘Sangue Bleu e i film italiani della Collezione Desmet/Sangue Bleu and the Italian films in the Desmet Collection”, booklet DVD Sangue Bleu (Bologna: Cineteca di Bologna, 2014), pp. 12-13, 24-26.
‘Quo Vadis? From Painting to Cinema and Everything in Between’, in Richard Abel ed., Early Cinema: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies (New York: Routledge, 2014), volume III, pp. 9-22.
‘Of Artists and Models. Italian Silent Cinema between Narrative Convention and Artistic Practice’, Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies 7, 2013, pp. 97-110.
‘All the Same or Strategies of Difference: Early Italian Comedy in International Perspective‘, in: Giorgio Bertellini ed., Italian Silent Cinema. A Reader (New Barnet: John Libbey, 2013), pp. 171-184. Reworked republicaton of article published in 2001.
‘Where can I find Italian silent cinema?‘, in: Giorgio Bertellini ed., Italian Silent Cinema. A Reader (New Barnet: John Libbey, 2013), pp. 317-323.
‘Lyda Borelli e la nascita del glamour. Dal teatro, via pittura e fotografia, al cinema’, in: Silvia Sinisi, Isabella Innamorati & Marco Pistoia eds., Attraversamenti. L’attore nel Novecento e l’interazione fra le arti (Roma: Bulzoni, 2010), pp. 69-96.
Entries on European film distribution, Italy, the Netherlands (with Ansje van Beusekom), the film companies Ambrosio, Cines and Itala, and personalities in the Italian and Dutch film world, in: Richard Abel ed., Encyclopedia of Early Cinema (Oxford/New York: Routledge, 2005).
‘All the Same or Strategies of Difference. Early Italian Comedy in International Perspective‘, in: Anna Antonini ed., Il film e i suoi multipli/Film and Its Multiples (Udine: Forum, 2003), pp. 465-480.

‘Gérôme en Quo vadis? Picturale invloeden in de film’, Jong Holland, XVII, 4, 2001, pp. 19-28.
Bildern (1999), Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis 1, 4, 2001, pp. 162-163.
‘Quo vadis? From Painting to Cinema and Everything in Between‘, in: Leonardo Quaresima, Laura Vichi eds., La decima musa. Il cinema e le altre arti/ The Tenth Muse. Cinema and other arts (Udine: Forum, 2001), pp. 281 – 296.
“Travelogues” italiani: un genere da riscoprire’, in: Michele Canosa (ed.), A nuova luce. Cinema muto italiano I/ Italian Silent Cinema I (Bologna: Clueb, 2000), pp. 63 – 73.
‘Un’ occhiata da più vicino. Riconsiderare il cinema italiano delle origini/ Take a Closer Look! Italian early cinema reconsidered’, Fotogenia 4/5, 1999, pp. 45-58, 287-293.
‘Das gestische Repertoire. Zur Körpersprache von Lyda Borelli’, KINtop 7, 1998, p. 69-83.
‘Un tesoro nascosto. I film Ambrosio nella collezione Desmet’, in: Paolo Bertetto, Gianni Rondolino eds., Cabiria e il suo tempo, 2 (Torino: Museo nazionale del cinema/Il Castoro, 1998), pp. 117-125.
‘La lunga vicenda del cinema italiano in Olanda’, in: Vittorio Martinelli ed., Cinema italiano in Europa 1907-1929 ( Roma: Associazione italiana di storia del cinema, 1993), pp. 47-74.
‘La vita cinematografica. Jean Desmet en de distributie en vertoning van de Italiaanse zwijgende film in Nederland‘,  Jaarboek Mediageschiedenis 5, 1993, pp. 39-64.
‘Il Fuoco or the Fatal Portrait: The XIXth Century in the Italian Silent Cinema’, Iris 14-15, Autumn 1992, pp. 55-66.
‘Rapsodia satanica‘ & ‘Malombra‘, in: Emmanuelle Toulet, Christian Belaygue eds., catalogue CinéMémoire I (Paris: CinéMémoire, 1991), pp. 55-56, 109-110.
‘Jean Desmet, distributore dei primi film italiani’, in: Sperduti nel buio. Il cinema muto italiano e il suo tempo 1905-1930 (Bologna: Cappelli, 1991), pp. 140-158.
‘Un capitolo ancora da scrivere della storia del cinema’, Cineteca VI, n. 8-9, November-December 1990, pp. 5-6.
Hartstocht en heldendom: de vroege Italiaanse speelfilm 1905-1945 (Amsterdam: Stichting Mecano,1988). Co-editor, with Nelly Voorhuis, and co-author of preface, pp. 6-9.