2000 – 2020

When I decided to undertake a journey through Italian cinema, it was mainly because this is happening less and less frequently and because it is increasingly regarded as an incurably “sick patient”. There is no doubt that, in recent years, foreign film production has very often surpassed Italian production both industrially and qualitatively, but not talking about the problem is certainly not a healthy approach either: on the contrary, great attention must be devoted to analysing it if one wishes to envisage a solution. So, what better way to understand the causes of the “illness” and seek a way out than to embark on a journey through Italian film production over the last twenty years. The path undertaken, however, does not aim to be “positivist” a priori, but simply a way to reflect on what has been done well, in order to enhance it and start again precisely from there: a journey among the ruins that seeks to gather positive and constructive points for reflection in the name of a rebirth and reconstruction that seem increasingly distant and difficult, searching for the novelty of certain films that have crossed these two decades of transition, often surrounded by a terrifying silence. There is no doubt that, over the last twenty years, Italian cinema has been undergoing major processes of change, both from a qualitative and an industrial point of view, and, at the same time, that it has once again begun to gain international critical acclaim, achieving several successes at festivals such as Cannes and Berlin. But how has this been possible? Which processes and trends have brought Italian cinema back into the spotlight at these venues after such a long time?

In the first chapter, the cinematic identity of these twenty years will be explored, starting from the more industrial aspect, then moving on to the relationship it has established with other media, and concluding with the identification of the filmmakers who have driven the aforementioned processes and, in particular, of a key moment for this generation, before ending with an analysis of the theoretical foundations on which its cinema is based.

In the second and third chapters, an attempt will be made to explain the two different approaches to form and content that have been dominant over this period of time, seeking to define them precisely and then analysing which films best exemplify these approaches and which filmmakers have adopted these modus operandi.

The fourth chapter is entirely devoted to the notion of genre, with a brief digression on the historical importance of this definition for Italian cinema, before moving on to how it has been used, hybridised or rediscovered over the last two decades; particular attention will be devoted to documentary cinema, discussing the reasons behind its rediscovery as well as the various experiments carried out with this specific type of language. Finally, the focus will shift to identifying an entirely new genre that has emerged spontaneously from the distinctive characteristics of these new generations of filmmakers, examining both its auteur-oriented and its more commercial forms.

The final chapter broadens the discussion with a digression entirely devoted to the prospects facing global cinema in such a turbulent era, in which society is constantly evolving and subject to a series of phenomena (social and otherwise) that originated long ago but have been accelerated by a pandemic that is bringing to fruition issues that had already been developing for some time.