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2023 | Book

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Italian Americans in Film

Establishing and Challenging Italian American Identities

Editors: Daniele Fioretti, Fulvio Orsitto

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Italian and Italian American Studies

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book examines how Italian Americans have been represented in cinema, from the depiction of Italian migration in New Orleans in the 1890s (Vendetta) to the transition from first- to second-generation immigrants (Ask the Dust), and from the establishment of the stereotype of the Italian American gangster (Little Caesar, Scarface) to its re-definition (Mean Streets), along with a peculiar depiction of Italian American masculinity (Marty, Raging Bull). For many years, Italian migration studies in the United States have commented on the way cinema contributed to the creation of an identifiable Italian American identity. More recently, scholars have recognized the existence of a more nuanced plurality of Italian American identities that reflects social and historical elements, class backgrounds, and the relationship with other ethnic minorities. The second part of the book challenges the most common stereotypes of Italian Americanness: food (Big Night) and Mafia, deconstructing the criminal tropes that have contributed to shaping the perception of Italian-American mafiosi in The Funeral, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, and the first two chapters of the Godfather trilogy. At the crossroads of the fields of Italian Culture, Italian American Culture, Film Studies, and Migration Studies, Italian Americans in Film is written not only for undergraduate and graduate students but also for scholars who teach courses on Italian American Cinema and Visual Culture.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
The chapters gathered in this book aim to give the reader an overview of Italian American cinema and media culture. Now that more than a century has passed from the release of Reginald Barker’s The Italian, it has become clear that what is at stake in Italian American cinema is a quest for identity, namely an identity that does not necessarily adhere to the one inherited by the Italian ancestors and does not completely identify with the mainstream American culture. For many years, Italian American culture inhabited a sort of liminal space, placed at the intersection between Italian and American cultures; hence the debate on what is the difference between defining oneself as Italian American or American Italian, or American of Italian descent. Moreover, in the last decades, it has become clear that it is necessary to rethink a model only centered on the duality between Italian and American identities, hyphenated or not. Numerous decades of assimilation and intermarriage with other ethnic groups have radically changed Italian Americanness in the United States. In the attempt to render the complexity of such a variegated framework, this volume offers a series of short monographic chapters that discuss not only the most obvious topics commonly related to Italian American culture, such as Mafia, food, and family, but also immigration, discrimination, stereotypes, assimilation, generational conflicts, gender, religiosity, and ecocriticism.
Daniele Fioretti, Fulvio Orsitto

Establishing Italian American Identities

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. ‘I Don’t Do Business with Dagoes’: Anti-Italian Discrimination in Nicholas Meyer’s Vendetta
Abstract
The chapter examines the movie Vendetta (1999) directed by Nicholas Meyer, an HBO movie based on a true story: the lynching of eleven Italian immigrants accused of having killed the police chief David Hennessy in New Orleans in 1891. The film is an accurate reconstruction of the events that follows Richard Gambino’s book Vendetta. The True Story of the Largest Lynching in American History (1977). The chapter argues that the director follows the conventions of the American “legal thriller” genre to show that the Italian defendants were innocent, and also suggests—through a very skillful use of cinematic techniques—that the murder and the lynching were orchestrated by the New Orleans’ ruling class, worried about the rise in status of immigrants that were originally attracted in Louisiana only to replace the slaves after the emancipation. In this sense, the economic success of the Italian American businessman Joseph Macheca was a threat to their supremacy.
Daniele Fioretti
Chapter 3. Ask the ‘Dust Jacket’. Robert Towne’s Film Adaptation of John Fante’s Ask the Dust
Abstract
This chapter begins with a discussion of the film Ask the Dust in terms of cinematic hybridity (being at once a novel adaptation and a transgeneric film, with many references to genres such as noir and melodrama) and with background information on both the literary source and its author John Fante, and on the film director (and screenplay writer) Robert Towne. Afterward, the chapter focuses on the two main protagonists of the narrative: Arturo Bandini (who must be considered Fante’s alter-ego) and Camilla Lopez. The former is seen struggling with his Italian Americanness. On the one hand, he wears with great pride his Italian last name and is obstinately loyal to it—he wants to keep it as it, without anglicizing it (not even when he is asked to do so by his love interest). On the other hand, he is also ready and willing to play what the authors call the ‘assimilation game’. Yet, the only way he knows how to play it is by inflicting on other minority members the same verbal abuses he suffered as the son of Italian immigrants. Hence Camilla—acting effectively as the protagonist’s ‘ethnic mirror’—is crucial in making him embark on a journey of self-discovery that will culminate, at the end of the film, with an open-hearted apology to her that demonstrates how Bandini has turned from wiseacre to an honest writer, and how he has finally been able to accept his Italian Americanness.
Claudia Peralta, Fulvio Orsitto
Chapter 4. Setting the Italian American Gangster in Stone: Little Caesar and Scarface
Abstract
When did cinema and popular culture start identifying Italian Americans as gangsters? The chapter takes into consideration the movies that started this trend, Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1931) and Howard Hawk’s Scarface (1932). The article claims that part of the success of the movies can be explained by the ample freedom of pre-code Hollywood in representing and—up to a certain extent—glorifying crime and violence. Sound cinema was also relatively new at that time and therefore gunshots, car chases and police sirens had a bigger impact on audiences still used to silent movies. The protagonists of both these films were inspired by the figure of Al Capone; the chapter analyzes the difference between the two, underlining how Rico Bandello in Little Caesar is a rather flat character, while Tony Camonte in Scaraface represents a much more complex and nuanced gangster. However, both helped establishing the image of the Italian American gangster as a tragic hero, paving the way to movies like The Godfather and Goodfellas.
Philip Balma
Chapter 5. Nice Guys Finish Last? Delbert Mann’s Marty
Abstract
The chapter discusses the film Marty (1955) directed by Delbert Mann focusing on the shift in the representation of Italian American characters in post-WW2 cinema, with reference to other films like Give Us this Day (1849) and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956). The chapter argues that, with the passage from the first to the second generation, mainstream Americans started to acknowledge the contribution of many hardworking Italian Americans. The surprising success of a movie like Marty, focused on the life of a good-natured butcher who is looking for a wife (Academy Award for Best Film and Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival), may be interpreted as a sign that many, not only Italian Americans, could relate to the struggles of a character who is respectful with his family while, at the same time, is attempting to build his own life. The chapter underlines how Marty is representative of the struggle of second generation Italian Americans who struggled to balance Americanization and respect of traditional family values.
Gloria Pastorino
Chapter 6. The Italian American Prizefighter: Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull
Abstract
This chapter analyzes Scorsese’s portrayal of Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, highlighting the director’s craft in balancing realism and expressive stylization, along with his attention to ethnic themes. The exploration of the boxer’s Italian American cultural background intersects Scorsese’s memories of the Italian American community in New York City and the description of La Motta’s ring experience stimulates a discourse on the ethnic concerns associated with the boxing world and on the public perception of Italian American prizefighters. Moreover, the relevant presence of African American boxers among Jake’s opponents alludes to the racial categorization of prizefighters and the juxtaposition between white and black athletes that occurred as African Americans assumed greater proportions in professional boxing. The exposition of Jake La Motta’s body is also discussed in terms of ritualistic gestures that call to mind Catholic practices, as is the case in many other films directed by Scorsese. Finally, in her conclusion, the author stresses that if the director has been able to find himself in Jake, that if he has been able to ‘see’ thanks to his character, it is because the portrayal of La Motta has offered him a vehicle to represent and explore his own ethnicity.
Irene Lottini
Chapter 7. Mean Streets. A Mirror Construction of Reality
Abstract
This chapter while referring to (and building upon) the most popular and conventional analyses of Mean Streets—which tend to interpret it mostly through ethnic and religious lenses—discusses Scorsese’s movie in light of its symbolic references and its cinematic storytelling strategies. In so doing, this chapter touches upon this film’s mise-en-scène, its metacinematic quotations, and the variety of cinematic tools employed (ranging from voice-overs to the mixing of different media and the occasional transition from the diegetic to the extradiegetic level). Although the Italian American ethnic lens is what gave Scorsese the uniqueness of his gaze, and even though religion is one of the most important keys to reading and understanding most of his movies, this study focuses more on the multiplicity of this director’s generic discourses and his cinematic style. The repeated usage of reflective surfaces such as mirrors (and windows)—arguably one of Mean Streets’ most fascinating symbolic acts—is also discussed at length. Moreover, since the film’s protagonist is the only character going through these ‘reflective’ moments, this chapter also compares him with the mirroring archetype represented by the Narcissus myth.
Fulvio Orsitto

Challenging Italian American Identities (and Their Representations)

Frontmatter
Chapter 8. Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral: Taking Aim at the Stereotype
Abstract
This chapter while referring to (and building upon) the most popular and conventional analyses of Mean Streets—which tend to interpret it mostly through ethnic and religious lenses—discusses Scorsese’s movie in light of its symbolic references and its cinematic storytelling strategies. In so doing, this chapter touches upon this film’s mise-en-scène, its metacinematic quotations, and the variety of cinematic tools employed (ranging from voice-overs to the mixing of different media and the occasional transition from the diegetic to the extradiegetic level). Although the Italian-American ethnic lens is what gave Scorsese the uniqueness of his gaze, and even though religion is one of the most important keys to reading and understanding most of his movies, this study focuses more on the multiplicity of this director’s generic discourses and his cinematic style. The repeated usage of reflective surfaces such as mirrors (and windows)—arguably one of Mean Streets’ most fascinating symbolic acts—is also discussed at length. Moreover, since the film’s protagonist is the only character going through these ‘reflective’ moments, this chapter also compares him with the mirroring archetype represented by the Narcissus myth.
Luca Barattoni
Chapter 9. Good Food is Close to God: Religious Overtones of the Culinary Arts in Big Night
Abstract
This chapter examines the movie Big Night not only as a comedy/drama focused on foodways but also as a movie that discusses and dramatizes the topic of cultural assimilation. The two Italian brothers and restaurant owners who are the protagonists of the movie, Primo and Secondo, are confronted with the problem of finding a compromise with Italian traditional food culture and the expectations of American customers. In this sense, the underlying theme of the movie is the loss of cultural authenticity that diminishes the knowledge deriving from traditional culinary expertise. However, this chapter also moves beyond these topics to focus on the religious undertones of the story, examining food as a symbol of the sanctity of life. Starting from the quote “Eating good food is to be close to God”, the author conducts an analysis of Big Night making use of biblical figures and situations. Consequently, Primo is seen as a Christ figure and Secondo as a St. Peter figure; the waiter Cristiano functions as a Christian Everyman and Pascal, the competitor who betrays the two brothers, as Satan. This approach is also corroborated by many quotations from the Scriptures. In this reading, the dinner that takes place during the ‘big night’ portrays the fundamental role of commensality as a moment of bonding with one’s fellows and one’s God.
Felice Italo Beneduce
Chapter 10. The Eclipse of the Godfather’s Garden: From the Agromafia to the Money Mafia
Abstract
The chapter analyzes the first two movies of the Godfather trilogy from an ecocritical perspective. This original vantage point allows to examine the differences between the two godfathers (Vito and Michael Corleone) not so much in terms of tradition vs. Americanization but focusing on the transition from agromafia—Mafia involvement in the food sector—to money mafia, marked by its collusion with financial capitalism. Vito’s trajectory from the fields of Sicily to the garden of his suburban mansion in Long Island involves an expansion of the Corleone family’s carbon footprint and an emphasis on conspicuous consumption, which mirrors the accelerating pace of consumer culture and resource use in the Western world after WWII. In this sense, if the death of Vito in his tomato garden symbolizes the shift from agromafia to the Nevada-based money mafia, the final sequence of The Godfather Part II, in which Michael sists alone on the shores of Lake Tahoe can be read as a comment on the anthropocentric hubris of conquering and controlling the environment.
Elena Past
Chapter 11. GoodFellas. When the ‘Kid from Little Italy’ Meets the ‘Oklahoma Kid’
Abstract
This chapter focuses on GoodFellas, discussing Martin Scorsese’s conscious attempt to re-create in some of his films what he saw through his window during the most voyeuristic phase of his childhood. Sharing with the audience his first-hand experience not only allows this filmmaker to portray Italian Americanness in an unprecedented realistic way, but often spills over some of his films’ protagonists, turning them into voyeurs as well. As a consequence, this mirroring effect (Scorsese showing his audience his film version of what he saw as a kid), often becomes a double-mirroring effect, because some of his movies’ protagonists represent the director himself. In Mean Streets (discussed in another chapter), the protagonist conducts a symbolic journey within himself through a series of mirrors, but never manages to accomplish a journey beyond himself, remaining stuck within his neighborhood’s insularity. By contrast, GoodFellas’ protagonist goes from an initial voyeuristic phase to a very active second phase, during which he manages to cross the threshold metaphorically represented by his window and, by so doing, leaves his domestic milieu and moves to the space inhabited by the ‘goodfellas’, ultimately becoming one of them.
Fulvio Orsitto
Chapter 12. Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco between Classic Hollywood and the New Gangster
Abstract
This chapter analyzes Donnie Brasco, stressing how this film is positioned at a crucial intersection in the cinematic representation of the mafioso/gangster. Filmed in the late 1990s and released after an unsuspecting success like Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs scrambled and reset the gangster genre (the same genre the Godfather saga had canonized twenty years earlier), Donnie Brasco is situated between the old, established representation of the Hollywood mafioso, and the pastiche that will definitively rework it in the twenty-first century – that is to say, between the somber gravitas of the Corleone saga and the glitzy charm of Goodfellas, right into the moral crisis and psychological conflicts of the Tarantino gangsters and, a few years later, Tony and Carmela Soprano. In the author’s words, the “de-romanticization of the mafioso, the complex psychological dilemmas connected to the rethinking of Italian-American identity as a multiplicity of points of view, are all themes that this film explores, helping to re-shape the image of the wise guy into his ‘modern’ configuration.” By keeping a distance from the classic gangster film, Donnie Brasco does not, however, give up the visual imagery of Coppola and Scorsese’s Italian mafia types and, in particular, a meticulous exploration of the codes that constitute acceptable masculine conduct within the Italian mob, offering an intriguing study of masculinity and male relations within the Italian mob.
Sabrina Ovan
Chapter 13. Documentary and Italian American Identity: Time and Exposure in Alfred Guzzetti’s Family Films
Abstract
This chapter discusses expository documentary and personal documentary approaches to representing Italian American experience on film by comparing the PBS series The Italian Americans (2014) to the family films of Alfred Guzzetti. In an expository documentary like The Italian Americans, the spoken word conveys information about and framing for drama and trauma that purports to function as the story of a people, in this case for a mass audience; curiosity drives personal documentaries like Guzzetti’s Family Portrait Sittings (1975) and Time Exposure (2012), which focus on everyday life, work, love, and values of a single family with nuance and depth. Even though none of Guzzetti’s documentaries explicitly aim to represent Italian Americanness, Italian American culture infuses the films, which probe the subtle ways in which family, media, and environment shape identity. I argue that, even though—or perhaps especially because—the films center only on one family, Guzzetti’s documentaries reflect politics and historical events with a sharper, deeper level of analysis than the ones that aim to tell the story of millions by focusing on the worst traumas any group member has endured.
Andy Rice
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Italian Americans in Film
Editors
Daniele Fioretti
Fulvio Orsitto
Copyright Year
2023
Electronic ISBN
978-3-031-06465-4
Print ISBN
978-3-031-06464-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06465-4