Diva
Subtitle: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema
Contributors: Guy Maddin (Foreword)
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: March 15, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780292716612
Subjects: Film & Video - History & Criticism; Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism; Performing Arts; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Cinema/Film: Book
Description: "Animated by a luminous goddess at its center, the diva film provided a forum for denouncing social evils and exploring new models of behavior among the sexes...Dalle Vacche offers the first authoritative study of this important film genre of the cinema that preceded the First World War...Contrasting the Italian diva with the Hollywood vamp Theda Bara and the famous Danish star Asta Nielsen, Dalle Vacche shows how the diva oscillates between articulating Henri Bergson's vibrant life-force and representing the suffering figure of the Catholic mater dolorosa." -- Cover.