Abstract EN:

The history of Italian cinema, in the wake of the second world war, was intimately linked to italy's political scene. This close relationship is the result of the political commitment of Italy's neo-realistic cinema to resistance to fascism during the war. In the years following the war, italian cinema maintained close connections to the emerging political arena, expressing views on italian society in its entirety. As a result, gaining control over the movie industry became a major political stake for the successive christian-democrat governments. The difficult political and social context, however, favoured a rapprochement between the major left wing parties, including the italian communist party, and italian cinema. Italian cinema was thrusted into the epicentre of the political debates that have troubled the country in the following decades. Italian cinema has been the witness, and the actor, of some of the most prominent episodes of italian history: the political and social struggles of the 1950s, the economic expansion of the 1960s, and the moral crisis that has been described as the "years of lead". This latter period has been marked by "black" terrorism and "red" terrorism that occurred during the rampant economic crisis of the 1980s.