Italian Film in the Shadow of Auschwitz (Toronto Italian Studies)

"In addition to Roberto Benigni's internationally acclaimed Life is Beautiful (1997), there have appeared a number of other Italian films that deal with the Holocaust, many of which have not been available to foreign audiences. Millicent Marcus's Italian Film in the Shadow of Auschwitz looks at this development, attributing the new acceptance not only to international influences, but also to a domestic audience that is increasingly willing to face its collective demons and a cultural industry ready to produce its own forms of historic testimony. Throughout the book, Marcus brings a variety of critical perspectives to bear on the question of how Italian filmmakers are now confronting the Holocaust, especially in light of the sparse output of Holocaust films produced in Italy from 1945 to the early 1990s. What emerges is a look at how film is being used to address a profoundly disturbing chapter in the history of humankind."--book jacket.