Modernity and consumer culture in Visconti's early films

Bibliographic Data

ID12536469
AuthorsRossana Capitano (University of Warwick, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume29
Issue1
Pages18-37
Publication date2023-10-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Italy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1353-2944 • E-ISSN: 1469-9877
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/mit.2023.49
OpenAlexW4388199000
LanguageEN
References cited21

Luchino Visconti is widely recognised as a high-culture director. However, in his films of the period 1943–63 there was a firm engagement with consumer culture and modernity in terms of themes, characters and references. This article explores this often overlooked dimension in Visconti's films by analysing a number of key sequences and moments that relate directly to consumption, consumer culture, leisure, modernity, Americanisation and youth culture. The analysis shows how these representations related to the ongoing changes in Italian postwar society and to incoming Americanisation in particular. My research is informed by the work of Gary Cross, Victoria De Grazia and Emanuela Scarpellini on consumer culture and contextualises how Visconti's referencing of consumer culture and modernity was received by the PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano or Italian Communist Party)

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Business · Consumer Culture · Consumption (sociology · Modernity · Political science · Sociology · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

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