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propensity towards a calculated, visual self-consciousness in the framing and mise-en-scene of sexual situations in his films, a tendency recurring in work such as The Sheltering Sky and The Dreamers. Central to the first sequence is an intense kiss between Laura and Primo, followed by a tender moment during which Laura confesses that she rarely has sexual intimacy with Giovanni because they attach little importance to it; besides, they are always busy and together with fellow terrorists. In the second sequence, Laura's restlessness and sexual disquiet at spending long periods of time with Primo eventually culminates in her removing her jumper to expose her breasts and release her tension, Laura confessing that with Giovanni she never expresses her femininity. Her words reflect the concept that an ascetic lifestyle is necessary in order to dedicate oneself to a 'superior' mission. This theme emerges in Alberto Moravia's 1971 novel lo e lui/Him and me, which, although full of sarcastic wit, warns against the terrorists' abstract intellectualization, implying that at its end there can be only death (Moravia, 1990: 387). The novel recounts the experiences of Riccardo, a screenwriter who frequents a terrorist couple, Maurizio and Flavia, planning to make a film about their group, and it features similarities with Tlie Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man. First, there is a strong attitudinal contrast between the characters; like Primo, Riccardo is attracted to life's pleasures such as food and sex, whereas Maurizio and Flavia mirror Giovanni and Laura in being always in control because they are detached from worldly indulgences. Another similarity consists in the use of almost identical phrasing to describe the terrorists' sex life or lack of it. Maurizio declares that the couple attach little importance to sex, but Flavia responds to Riccardo's sexual approaches with an attitude that reveals her curiosity and repressed excitement (Moravia, 1990: 306-307). The two sequences, in the film and in Moravia's novel, question the supposed higher morality and asceticism of the terrorists by presenting their behaviour as a form of rational denial (Giovanni/Maurizio) and a repression (Laura/Flavia) of human impulses which leads to a 112
dangerous estrangement from the real world. Political and generational contrasts However, the question of sexual expression has a further significance as it is another example of Primo's total ignorance about his son's personality and the aspirations he harbours. This lack of knowledge is systematically revealed by the narrative, and as the scale of his ignorance is exposed, Primo becomes aware of the estrangement that has developed between Giovanni and himself, which, in conceptual terms, he extends to their respective generations.(3) In this light, Bertolucci's decision to create clashes between the categories of 'the idealistic capitalist' and 'the terrorist', and between father and son is significant, for it indicates the younger generation's resolve to disown both their individual and political fathers. The film's juxtaposition of the figures of 'the idealistic capitalist' and 'the father' embodies Bertolucci's political pessimism, emphasizing that the political rupture affecting Italian society was also generational, a phenomenon leaving little hope for the future since neither generational grouping intended to clarify their political ambiguities. This detection of a serious generational fissure turned out to be a prescient interpretation of the tumultuous events of those years, since it is confirmed by an autobiographical book written many years after The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man by a young protagonist at that time. Lucia Annunziata, today an influential journalist, was active in the mass political movement which rebelled against the PCI, although she never supported terrorism. The first chapter of her book is in fact entitled 'Parricide' and it begins with a stark declaration: 'In 1977 the Left family murdered their own father, the Communist Party. A murder that had been on the cards for some time', (Annunziata, 2007: 3) especially after the Communist Party's decision to join the Christian Democrats in government. Annunziata has collected testimonies posted on the internet by participants in the radical movements, and 113
Page 1 and 2:
Emotion and Cognition in the Films
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Contents Acknowledgements 1 Abstrac
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Acknowledgements I am very grateful
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INTRODUCTION Over the past five dec
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moods punctuated by emotional pheno
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comprehensible why a nation that de
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foreground a reception process in w
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LITERATURE REVIEW While this study
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film for 'jealous cinephiles or, mo
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together' (Ungari, 1982: 51). This
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Canby implicitly agrees with Cineas
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it is Last Tango in Paris, and in t
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e attributed to Paul's abolition of
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Petri, who - in 1972 - talking abou
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twofold aim of offering viewers sop
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Maraini, D. (1973) 'Who were you?',
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In discussing different narrative t
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outcomes. The viewer and character
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information to which the character
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emotional state that the individual
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opera houses in Before the Revoluti
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manipulation, Bordwell analyses the
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narrative schema clarifies how we o
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to the point of drawing the spectat
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for granted, in a 'slightly hazardo
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passive emotionalism' (Sterritt, 19
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Godard's approach from Bertolucci's
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characters being stimulated into ta
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apolitical art' in La Chinoise (p.
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SECTION 1; Pessimism and Melancholi
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La commare secca/The Grim Reaper: A
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the film. Several of the suspects a
Page 65 and 66: to reduce realism in favour of an a
Page 67 and 68: giant publicity poster for the aper
Page 69 and 70: mark out the sequence as significan
Page 71 and 72: emphasizes his youth and simple nat
Page 73 and 74: The camera movement and the frame c
Page 75 and 76: Smith, G. M. (1999) 'Local Emotions
Page 77 and 78: of respectability. Inspired by Cesa
Page 79 and 80: film is/was viewed, the goal orient
Page 81 and 82: viewers identify complicated intert
Page 83 and 84: diegetic sound, since, except for t
Page 85 and 86: audiovisual construction of the ope
Page 87 and 88: evocative representations of landsc
Page 89 and 90: Another example of this phenomenon
Page 91 and 92: La stratesia del raeno/The Spider's
Page 93 and 94: director launching 'a critique from
Page 95 and 96: possible to understand 'how the mod
Page 97 and 98: The peak of this integration is rea
Page 99 and 100: phase of his inquiries becomes clou
Page 101 and 102: Bertolucci praises Storaro's sensit
Page 103 and 104: on their shoulders the head of the
Page 105 and 106: The emotional quality of the musica
Page 107 and 108: Notes References Regarding the fail
Page 109 and 110: La trasedia di un uomo ridicolo / T
Page 111 and 112: the socio-political composition of
Page 113 and 114: emerge in Bocca's reconstruction of
Page 115: Elitism, ascetism and emotional rep
Page 119 and 120: abandons any attempt to understand
Page 121 and 122: with Adelfo and Laura, Primo is sur
Page 123 and 124: spatio-temporal attachment to Primo
Page 125 and 126: manages to expand the flimsy substa
Page 127 and 128: Moravia, A. (1971) lo e lui, (1990)
Page 129 and 130: established in Tango. Yet the analy
Page 131 and 132: evidently designed to push the boun
Page 133 and 134: inging to contemporary Italian soci
Page 135 and 136: said he was inspired by the Third C
Page 137 and 138: creation of Expressionist theatre w
Page 139 and 140: The Godardian scheme Partner's debt
Page 141 and 142: scene of Clara's murder by the doub
Page 143 and 144: scene, since objects indexed by the
Page 145 and 146: conventional art, the injustices of
Page 147 and 148: Bertolucci, B. (1967) 'Versus Godar
Page 149 and 150: compositions; the outcome is a dens
Page 151 and 152: Like Pirandello's protagonists, Pau
Page 153 and 154: Winston and Julia establish a lovin
Page 155 and 156: the character might be perceived po
Page 157 and 158: Another scene that creates a tense
Page 159 and 160: that the quotient of sexuality will
Page 161 and 162: from peculiar angles, sometimes thr
Page 163 and 164: also cue a sense of cold unresponsi
Page 165 and 166: 2. 'Holy family, church of good cit
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easoned, 'great movies of the past,
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it towards the images being splashe
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when, in voiceover, he recollects:
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to one of the character's parents a
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Sexuality and shifts of subjectivit
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nudity, commodified on to celluloid
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notion that 'Decadence cultivates a
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engaging. Unfortunately the core of
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Section Three: Between History and
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II conformista/The Conformist: The
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to the female protagonists Severine
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constitute an example of the femme
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despises, ranging from Fascist offi
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the closed doors, his sense of soli
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lying on. Bearing in mind the manne
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Bertolucci seemed aware of the film
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illuminated as if to imply the brig
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hues of bluish-grey colouring are d
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a narrative focus means that the de
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Notes 1. They Live by Night (1948)
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1985: 73) should be contextualized
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The film's cognitive structure and
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daily life elicits nostalgia for a
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that periodically distances viewers
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followers), sensitive (she relates
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part of the film depicting the peas
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engagement will again change from e
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leadership, which is arguably assum
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References Bachmann, G. (1973) 'Eve
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The success of The Last Emperor ena
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L 'ultimo imperatore/The Last Emper
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out; the red of a notice on the wal
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The intellectual implications of th
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the Forbidden City. This, combined
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Japanese. His personality fits the
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the belief that whereas language ma
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In addition, the presence of a hist
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(2009) is one recent, successful ex
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Gaut, B. (1999) 'Identification and
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working class people depicted in th
Page 247 and 248:
strengthening viewers' alignment wi
Page 249 and 250:
experience of being out of clock ti
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where the contemplation of this inf
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infinite. In his discussion of sour
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camera's 'symbiotic fusion' with th
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criticism of contemporary Western i
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is conveyed by Port's bleak awarene
Page 261 and 262:
Piccolo Buddha /Little Buddha: A Jo
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concludes that all three children a
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intensity created by stylized light
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of a children's book, takes on a pr
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Jesus throughout Siddhartha's progr
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human feelings and desires. This in
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diminishing because of Western soci
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In all three films it is possible t
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the film's dramatic pivot - appears
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different stylistic registers as th
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esolve it; and a predominantly unre
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the two characters. The failure to
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even understanding from viewers and
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illusion. In search of new scandals
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That this sequence was written, pro
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of Caterina discovering Joe's drug
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on different types of meat. The bar
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was considered to be Bertolucci's r
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Hope, W. (2006) Giuseppe Tornatore,
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of their 'elder sisters'. In a broa
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she slowly changes position. Both s
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evolve (M. Smith, 1995: 84-85). The
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any allegiance towards the characte
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the 'elder sister' is also unsatisf
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omantic fulfilment. The author as o
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striking garden whose colours natur
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life revitalized. Diane rediscovers
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L 'assedio I Besieged: A Cognitive
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on the dusty road, while the priest
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elongings, and his silent, secretiv
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individuals like Shandurai in Italy
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other' as opposed to the individual
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(Loshitsky, 2010: 90-93) via argume
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create different artistic effects,
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The use of different film speeds an
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unfolded by the narrative until tha
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CONCLUSION This project's aim has b
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had much to teach him, and his reso
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and confusing experience for mainst
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within Italian cinema has not been
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Oneiric: The depiction of dream-lik
Page 343 and 344:
Bertolucci, B. (2002) 'Bertolucci i
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Grodal, T. (1999) 'Emotions, Cognit
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Orwell, G. (1949) Nineteen Eighty-F
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Willett, J. (ed.) (1992) Brecht on
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Cinematography: Giovanni Narzisi; P
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Editing: Gabriella Cristiani; Music
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SELECT FILMOGRAPHY A bout de souffl
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Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa, 1951. Rat
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