Sicily on Screen

With its physical beauty and kaleidoscopic cultural background, Sicily has long been a source of inspiration for filmmakers.
Twelve new essays by international scholars—and additional writings from directors Roberta Torre, Giovanna Taviani, and Costanza Quatriglio—seek to offset the near-absence of scholarship focusing on the relationship between the Mediterranean island and cinema. Touching on class relations, immigration, gender and poverty, the essays examine how Sicily is depicted in fiction, satire and documentaries.
Situated between North and South, East and West, innovation and tradition, authenticity and displacement, Sicily acts as a microcosm of the world, a place to explore numerous narratives and develop intercultural dialogue. It is also the center of cinematographic discussions and events such as the Taormina Film Festival and the SalinaDocFest. The volume presents Sicily almost as a character and creator in its own right.

Giovanna Summerfield is a professor of Italian and French and associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. She is also a published poet and short-story writer.

Edited by Giovanna Summerfield
Foreword by Roberta Torre; Afterword by Costanza Quatriglio
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 290
Bibliographic Info: 11 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7648-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3872-0
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword: Sicily, Light Queen (Roberta Torre) 1

Introduction (Giovanna Summerfield) 3

Part I: Reporting on Sicily Through Fiction, Satire and Documentary

Sicily as a Space of Resistance Against Consumerism in Pasolini’s Teorema and Coppola’s The Godfather (Francesco Chianese) 13

The Spirit of Place in Andrea Camilleri’s The Shape of Water (Anthony N. Fragola) 37

Landscapes of Mafia and Nostalgia on Italian TV (Elgin K. Eckert) 59

A Satirical Gaze on Sicily: Ficarra and Picone’s L’ora legale (Veronica Vegna) 81

Cinico TV or Trouble in Hell (Giacomo Tinelli and Fabio Vighi) 100

Beyond Neorealism: Sicily in Vittorio De Seta’s Documentaries (Etami Borjan) 118

On the Quixotic Routes of the SalinaDocFest: The Birth of a Festival on an Island (Giovanna Taviani) 139

Part II: Framing Sicily Through the Gaze and Story of the Other

“Othering” Sicily in Cavalleria rusticana and the Godfather

Trilogy: From Short Story, to Stage, to Screen (Enza De Francisci) 145

Enclaves of Whiteness: Disquieting Presences and Domesticated

Territories in the Sicilian Archipelago (Marcello Messina) 161

Interpreting Crialese’s Terraferma: Border Zones, African

Diaspora and Italian Foreignness (Anna Ciamparella) 183

Of Miracles and Madonnas: Roberta Torre’s Women on the Verge

in I Baci mai dati (Claudia Karagoz) 200

Filming a Woman’s Life: Maria Occhipinti, Giuliana Saladino

and Two ­Re-Elaborations of Sicilian Impegno (Maria Rizzarelli and Serena Todesco) 216

“Meglio bottana che mezzo masculo”: Lesbianism, ­Cross-Dressing and Women’s Claims in Maiorca’s Viola di mare (Anna Lisa Somma) 238

Conclusion: Sicily, the Key to Everything: Seeking and Finding

in L’Avventura and Il bell’Antonio (Giovanna Summerfield) 257

Afterword (Costanza Quatriglio) 273

About the Contributors 275

Index 279