Armed Conflict in Italian Historical Films of the Fascist and Post-WWII Era (1937–1954)

Resumen

The chapter seeks to restore to critical visibility in classical reception studies a neglected subgenre of Italian cinema: sound historical films set in Roman antiquity and were produced in the late interwar and early post-WWII period. This genre has been overshadowed by two internationally renowned genres: the pre-WWI silent Kolossal films and the peplum films (late 1950s through early 1960s). In particular, the chapter focuses on recreations of armed conflict in Scipione l’africano (1937, dir. Carmine Gallone), Fabiola (1949, dir. Alessandro Blasetti), Spartaco, gladiatore della Tracia (1953, dir. Riccardo Freda), and Attila (1954, dir. Pietro Francisci). Whereas the first case study uses warfare as a means to equate Fascist Italy with the glory of Republican Rome, the other three films use the classical past as a critical lens through which to comment on human suffering and material damage experienced by Italy’s civilian population during World War II, as well as on the ongoing hardships of the early postwar era. These films revive armed conflict in antiquity through images of destruction of towns and villages, persecutions of minorities, looting, reprisals, violence, death, and caravans of refugees fleeing the horrors of war and devastation. The chapter argues that although Italian cinema of this period turns to the distant past for inspiration, it continues to be concerned with modern Italians dressed in an ancient Roman garment and to address contemporary issues with which the domestic audience can fully identify.