48 nine suc cin ct essays by well-known film cntlcs and hi- VIRIDIANA. toria ns dealing primarily with current trends in film m aking. This book dwells particularly on anti-Fascist films, In his preface, the editor notes with relief that Italian BUt1uel's anti-clericalism, Eisenstein, Sordi's portrayal of the directors stopped m akin g bitter neorea listic films in 1948 proletariat squashed by the Church and the Christian Demo- because of box-office apathy. These direc tors took refuge crats, and the most avowedly Communist of the young during the 5Os in rosy escapist comedies, usually built Italian directors . aro und Sophia Loren, Mastroianni, and a ha yloft. PANE, AMORE E FANT ASIA is the prototype of this genre, and As with most Italian books on film, this one has a few of these films ever arriv ed in the U. S. Tod ay, direc tors politic al axe to grind ; in this case, the axe is Communist. have all left this type of film behind and are turnin g out The fact that a country's film s and film m akers are con- wor k that grapples w ith the soc ial and political problems of cerned with more than m erely creating escapist dreams is the da y. By thus em barkin g on what editor Spinazzola terms admittedly a healthy one, but one does tire of having film s the \"second Italian neorea lism, \" the industry has saved itself judged by their political, rather th an ar tistic , content. For from the danger of becoming a \"third rate imitator of the exa mple, is the constant showing of Herbert Biberman's Hollywood dream facto ry. \" H e points out also that the SALT OF THE EARTH at Italian film socie ties really Italians have always shied away from the ava nt- garde in justifiable on an artistic basis? film s, possibly because of their sense of tradition, and that French films such as MARIENBAD, TIREZ SUR LE THEATRES OF WAR PIANISTE and UNE A USSI LONGUE ABSENCE we re coolly received by both critics and public in Italy. It is to T wo m emb ers of Tallahassee CORE ( Con gress of Racial be hoped, he writes, that in the future Italian direc tors will Equality) we re recently arrested for \"criminal tres pass\" and venture into the realm of the ava nt- garde , this being the \"resisting arrest\" w hen the)' sought admission to the Fl orida surest antido te for the relentless \"standardization of the Th eatre there. Bond for Pat ricia St efJhens Due and J ulius culture industry.\" H amilton was set at $1500. Georges Sadoul disc usses the French cmema In 196 1, exam inin g in turn the contributions of the \" Cahiers group,\" In making th e arrests, Dieut enant Cogoins twisted the arlll s the \" friends of R esn ais,\" the \"cinema of truth \" of Jean of th e two CORE 11L em bers to w rench the tickets from th eir R ouch, and the old guard. He concludes that while nothing hands. Th e manager had refus ed to honor the tic kets and as monumental as HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR appeared off ered money back. Th e two tick ets had been fJUrchased by du ring 196 1, he considers this \" the most important film a white CORE member. produced in E urope bet ween 1956 and 1961. \" It was never- theless a good year, with films like MARIENBAD, JULES I n H ouston, a W est Indian and a W est African student ET JIM, and UNE A USSI LONGUE A BSENCE. were refu sed admission to L oew's Th eatre. Gillon W ilso n of Jamaica and Amara Mo se ra y of Sierra L eone are students at Other articles include: Spinazzola's anal ysis of the recent T exas Sout hem University. Th e students have protested to spate of films concerning the \"war of liberation\" - the th eir respective ambassadors and H ouston CORE has protested partisan activity in Ital y in 1943 -44; VitO Pandolfi's dril y to th e Stat e D epartmen t. amusi ng 'Ero ticism in the Italian Film ,' with its account of ho w, after years of officiall y pure heroines during the Fascist I n Baltim ore, a total of $90,200 was set for 1 5 1 d efendants regime, the ladies exploded in the opposite direction; Tom- charged with trespassing and diso rdeTly conduct at the Nor th- m aso Chiaretti's exa mination of the New American Cinema woo d Th eatre. A ll but one of th e anti-seg regation demonstra- plishments; Guido Aristarco's accusation that a large number ters were fr om Morgan Stat e Co ll ege . Th e arrests brought to plishfents; Guido Arist arco's acc usa tion that a large number 2 18 the number of M organ College sttldents tak en into custody of war films are in reality \" Pseudopacifictic\"; brief inter- sin ce th e recent d emollstral'io ns began. views with the decade's yo unger directors - Peter Brook, Henri Colpi, Jiri Weiss, Lionel Rogosin, Damiani, de Seta, Baltimore's Mayor Goodman eX flressed the wish that th e Olmi, Moril, et al; an essay, 'Theatre and Poetry in the works problem could be solve d \"without an y furth er public embar- of Eisenstein ' by Sergio Antonielli; an incisive study of Italy's rassm ent to anyone.\" Th e pick eting has been under way off number one box-office st ar, comic Alberto Sordi, who some- and on fo r more than eight years. ho w m ana ges to caricature de vas t atingl y the average Italian and all his weakn esses, and yet offend nobod y; a brief run- LlONEX KING AGAIN down on the economy of the Italian film industry; and an essay on But1uel, includ ing twenty-four stills from I N DEPENDENT FILM IMPORTERS & DISTRIB U- TORS OF AMERICA, I NC . ( IFID A) announces the ac cept- ance of an application for m emb ership by LIONEX FILMS, I NC., N ew York importers and distributors of for eign films. R epresenting th e new m ember on IFID A's Board will be ELlO ROMANO, President of LlONEX.
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