Moving Stills: Portraiture and Superficial Ties in Two Visconti Films
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Fotocinema.2013.v0i7.5925Abstract
Este ensayo se centra en dos películas dirigidas por Luchino Visconti, La terra trema (1948) y Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) estudiadas bajo la lente de discursos sobre la Cuestión Meridional (la subyugación del sur por el norte propia del proceso de consolidación nacional italiana). Analizo dos cuestiones concomitantes: la configuración de lazos de parentesco y cuerpos sociales meridionales mediante retratos fotográficos; y la relación de éstos últimos con imágenes en movimiento y narrativa fílmica. Consecuentemente en mi análisis estilístico pongo en duda afirmaciones de realismo documental en ambas películas consideradas paradigmas del cine neorrealista, resaltando en ellas el uso sistemático de convenciones melodramáticas. Subrayo el carácter sinestésico del melodrama, que toca al espectador mientras éste mira la pantalla. Visconti sistemáticamente presenta relaciones sinestésicas y emocionales entre tomas, fotos e imágenes para transmitir su propia solución a la Cuestión Meridional.Palabras clave: Neorrealismo; Melodrama; Luchino Visconti; La cuestión meridional; Estudios italianos
Abstract
This essay focuses on two films directed by Luchino Visconti, La terra trema (1948) and Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) under the light of Southern Question discourses–the subjugation of the South to the North inscribed in the process leading to Italian national affirmation. I address two related issues: the fabrication of southern kinship and social bodies via portraiture, and the latter’s relationship to moving images and filmic narrative. Consequently, analyzing film style I question claims of documentary realism in these films, paradigms of neorealist filmmaking, by foregrounding their systematic use of melodramatic conventions. I stress the synesthetic side to melodrama. Spectators look at the screen while in their turn are touched by its moving images. Visconti systematically presents once and again this synesthetic emotional relationship between shots, photographs, and pictures to forward his solution to the Southern Question.
Key words: Neorealism; Melodrama; Luchino Visconti; Southern Question; Italian StudiesDownloads
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