Italian cinema currently finds itself in a transitional phase after a highly successful period in which it was associated with the work of directors such as Rossellini, Visconti, Fellini, and Pasolini, and with innovative styles of film-making, principally neorealism. This book explores the evolution of Italian cinema over the last twenty years, with particular reference to modern masterpieces such as Tornatore's Oscar-winning Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. The volume focuses on the work of some of the most prominent directors of recent times, combining an auteurist perspective with an incisive overview of the most important thematic and stylistic developments in modern Italian film-making. A broad range of theoretical approaches has been selected, embracing cognitive, aesthetic, psychoanalytical, and sociological perspectives. This approach has been adopted with a view to providing the most illuminating analyses of the radically diverse work of different directors, rather than attempting to impose a single critical perspective or theme upon films that range from social realism to horror. Significantly, these different approaches are complemented by detailed discussions of the technical arrangements of given film sequences, since another of the volume's aims is to encourage a greater familiarity with the effects of mise-en-scène, montage, sound, and camera movement. Italian cinema currently finds itself in a transitional phase after a highly successful period in which it was associated with the work of directors such as Rossellini, Visconti, Fellini, and Pasolini, and with innovative styles of film-making, principally neorealism. This book explores the evolution of Italian cinema over the last twenty years, with particular reference to modern masterpieces such as Tornatore¿s Oscar-winning Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. The volume focuses on the work of some of the most prominent directors of recent times, combining an auteurist perspective with an incisive overview of the most important thematic and stylistic developments in modern Italian film-making. A broad range of theoretical approaches has been selected, embracing cognitive, aesthetic, psychoanalytical, and sociological perspectives. This approach has been adopted with a view to providing the most illuminating analyses of the radically diverse work of different directors, rather than attempting to impose a single critical perspective or theme upon films that range from social realism to horror. Significantly, these different approaches are complemented by detailed discussions of the technical arrangements of given film sequences, since another of the volume¿s aims is to encourage a greater familiarity with the effects of mise-en-scène, montage, sound, and camera movement. Acknowledgements 7(2) Introduction 9(18) New Auteurs Screening the Autobiographical 27(26) Clodagh Brook Giuseppe Tornatore: Nostalgia; Emotion; Cognition 53(26) William Hope Nanni Moretti: Trauma, Hysteria, and Freedom 79(30) Fabio Vighi New Aesthetics Italian Horror Cinema: Between Art and Exploitation 109(22) Andy Willis Daniele Cipri and Franco Maresco: Uncompromising Visions -- Aesthetics of the Apocalypse 131(20) Ernest Hampson Representing the Female: Rural Idylls, Urban Nightmares 151(24) Pauline Small The Cinema of Giuseppe M. Gaudino and Edoardo Winspeare: Between Tradition and Experiment 175(26) Daniela La Penna New Social Realities Francesca Archibugi: Families and Life Apprenticeship 201(28) Flavia Laviosa The Mafia: New Cinematic Perspectives 229(22) Luana Babini Carlo Mazzacurati, Silvio Soldini, and Gianni Amelio: Highways, Side Roads, and Borderlines - the New Italian Road Movie 251(22) Laura Rascaroli Contributors 273(2) Index 275