Overview

"Francesco Rosi is one of the great realist artists of post-war Italian, indeed post-war world cinema. In this book, author Gaetana Marrone explores the rich visual language in which the Neapolitan filmmaker expresses the cultural icons that constitute his style and images. Over the years, Rosi has offered us films that trace an intricate path between the real and the fictive, the factual and the imagined. His films show an extraordinarily consistent formal balance while representing historical events as social emblems that examine, shape, and reflect the national self. They rely on a labyrinthine narrative structure, in which the sense of an enigma replaces the unidirectional path leading ineluctably to a designated end and solution. Rosi's logical investigations are conducted by an omniscient eye and translated into a cinematic approach that embraces the details of material reality with the panoramic perspective of a dispassionate observer. This book offers intertextual analyses within such fields as history, politics, literature, and photography, along with production information gleaned from Rosi's personal archives and interviews. It examines Rosi's creative use of film as document, and as spectacle). It is also a study of the specific cinematic techniques that characterize Rosi's work and that visually, compositionally, express his vision of history and the elusive ""truth"" of past and present social and political realities."

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9780190885670

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Reviews

I'm so heartened to see the publication of Marrone's book, a celebration and an investigation of the work of one of the true masters of cinema. -- Martin Scorsese In Gaetana Marrone's book the great Italian director, Francesco Rosi, finally gets the full-scale treatment his oeuvre deserves. Marrone's thoroughness is wonderful: she vividly presents Rosi's elaborate historical research, the composition of his scripts, the casting, the choice of sets, the cinematography, the nuances of direction, and even the music in each of his films. -- P. Adams Sitney, Princeton University For the first time, the cinema of Francesco Rosi witness, epic storyteller, social critic, historian, and anthropologist is revealed in all the originality of his style and richness of his themes, in the coherence of his ethical and political values, in his links to Neorealism and profound rootedness in the culture of Southern Italy. And last but not least, for Rosi's profound influence on international cinema from the 1960s on. For the author, Gaetana Marrone, this is the work of a lifetime. For the reader, this is an indispensable work for understanding Rosi's central place in contemporary cinema. -- Gian Piero Brunetta This is the book on Francesco Rosi we have been waiting for, one that blends biographical detail and critical analysis of the work of one of Italy's greatest film directors. Marrone draws upon extensive interviews and conversations with Rosi, access to his personal archives, and discussions with the filmmaker's colleagues and collaborators to provide a fascinating account of Rosi's political and philosophical approach to the cinema. -- Gary Crowdus, Editor-in Chief, Cineaste: America's Leading Magazine on the Art and Politics of the Cinema The films of Francesco Rosi instilled in me the desire to make movies. Marrone's book, rigorously focused on Rosi's original and uncompromising style, evokes and rekindles that old yearning. -- Giuseppe Tornatore Acute, insightful, and a wonderful and long overdue exploration, introduction and appreciation of one of the truly great film directors Francesco Rosi. A man with one of the great compositional eyes who told stories documenting cultural history and a witness to reality in all its complexity and duality. Working with him on his adaptation of Primo Levi's' 'La Tregua' was one of the great learning experiences of my life. It cemented our deep friendship and love for each other. -- John Turturro

"""I'm so heartened to see the publication of Marrone's book, a celebration and an investigation of the work of one of the true masters of cinema."" -- Martin Scorsese ""In Gaetana Marrone's book the great Italian director, Francesco Rosi, finally gets the full-scale treatment his oeuvre deserves. Marrone's thoroughness is wonderful: she vividly presents Rosi's elaborate historical research, the composition of his scripts, the casting, the choice of sets, the cinematography, the nuances of direction, and even the music in each of his films."" -- P. Adams Sitney, Princeton University ""For the first time, the cinema of Francesco Rosi witness, epic storyteller, social critic, historian, and anthropologist is revealed in all the originality of his style and richness of his themes, in the coherence of his ethical and political values, in his links to Neorealism and profound rootedness in the culture of Southern Italy. And last but not least, for Rosi's profound influence on international cinema from the 1960s on. For the author, Gaetana Marrone, this is the work of a lifetime. For the reader, this is an indispensable work for understanding Rosi's central place in contemporary cinema."" -- Gian Piero Brunetta ""This is the book on Francesco Rosi we have been waiting for, one that blends biographical detail and critical analysis of the work of one of Italy's greatest film directors. Marrone draws upon extensive interviews and conversations with Rosi, access to his personal archives, and discussions with the filmmaker's colleagues and collaborators to provide a fascinating account of Rosi's political and philosophical approach to the cinema."" -- Gary Crowdus, Editor-in Chief, Cineaste: America's Leading Magazine on the Art and Politics of the Cinema ""The films of Francesco Rosi instilled in me the desire to make movies. Marrone's book, rigorously focused on Rosi's original and uncompromising style, evokes and rekindles that old yearning."" -- Giuseppe Tornatore ""Acute, insightful, and a wonderful and long overdue exploration, introduction and appreciation of one of the truly great film directors Francesco Rosi. A man with one of the great compositional eyes who told stories documenting cultural history and a witness to reality in all its complexity and duality. Working with him on his adaptation of Primo Levi's' 'La Tregua' was one of the great learning experiences of my life. It cemented our deep friendship and love for each other."" -- John Turturro"

Author Information

Gaetana Marrone is Professor of Italian at Princeton University. Her books include New Landscapes in Contemporary Italian Cinema, The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani, and Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Marrone has also produced award winning films.

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