Since World War II, aesthetic impulses generated in Italy have swept through every film industry in the world, and in her book Mira Liehm analyses the roots in literature, philosophy, and contemporary Italian life which have contributed to this extraordinary vigor. An introductory chapter offers a unique overview of the Italian cinema before 1942. It is followed by a full and profound discussion of neorealism in its heyday, its difficult aftermath in the fifties, the glorious sixties, and finally by an analysis of the contemporary cinematic crisis. Mira Liehm has known personally many of the leading figures in Italian cinema, and her work is rich in insights into their lives and working methods. This impressive scholarly work immediately outclasses all other available Italian film histories. It will be essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the cinema.

Preface
First Encounters

I. Obsession
II. Lacrimae Rerum
III. Neorealism, Act II
IV. What Is Reality?
V. Neorealism is Like...
VI. Difficult Years
VII. The Rift
VIII. The Glorious Sixties
IX. Highlights of the Sixties
X. The Changing Image of the Movies
XI. The Dusk of the Leopards
XII. Under the Sign of Violence

Notes
Bibliography
Index

"Remarkably-researched and astutely-perceived...vividly describes the Italian film industry...has the intelligence and scope to trace the Big Ideas that link the New Italian Cinema with its post-war ancestors."—Films in Review

"An impressive work. . . . Aimed at the film scholar, it also provides the neophyte with an understanding of the forces that Liehm claims have been the stimulus for Italian filmmakers over the past 40 years. Even better, Liehm leaves us with the desire to view the films she discusses and experience for ourselves the tangible results of so many creative impulses."—San Francisco Chronicle