Introduzione a: La grande abbuffata. Il cinema italiano e la spinta al consumo

hrough twelve exemplary case studies, this edited collection investigates the role played by Italian cinema in disseminating a new culture of consumption between 1950 and 1973. Owing to the continued centrality of film in the media experience of Italians, the cinema of the golden age of capitalism can be seen as a powerful commercial lever. While elsewhere the economic miracle coincided with the rise of television, in Italy the combination of public support for film production and political containment of broadcasting allowed the film industry to maintain a significant sphere of influence, not only as a vehicle of cultural content but also—thanks to the amplification of the popular press—as an interpreter of the country’s social and cultural transformations. Contributors: Agnese Bertolotti, Claudio Bisoni, Dorothea Burato, Laura Busetta, Marco Cucco, Gloria Dagnino, Angelo Pietro Desole, Federico Giordano, Anna Masecchia, Eugenia Paulicelli, Eleonora Sforzi, Federico Vitella, Martina Zanco.