STREETWALKING ON A RUINED MAP

Emphasizing the importance of cultural theory for film history Giuliana Bruno enriches our understanding of early Italian film as she guides us on a series of inferential walks through Italian culture in the first decades of this century This innovative approachthe interweaving of examples of cinema with architecture art history medical discourse photography and literatureaddresses the challenge posed by feminism to film study while calling attention to marginalized artists An object of this critical remapping is Elvira Notari 18751946 Italys first and most prolific woman filmmaker whose documentarystyle work on street life in Naples a forerunner of neorealism was popularly acclaimed in Italy and the United States until its suppression during the Fascist regime Since only fragments of Notaris films exist today Bruno illuminates the filmmakers contributions to early Italian cinematography by evoking the cultural terrain in which she operated What emerges is an intertextual montage of urban film culture highlighting a womans view on love violence poverty desire and death This panorama ranges from the citys exteriors to the bodys interiors Reclaiming an alternative history of womens filmmaking and reception Bruno draws a cultural history that persuasively argues for a spatial corporal interpretation of film language