Overview

Rico 'Little Caesar' Bandello, Michael Corleone, and Tony Soprano are just some of the onscreen mafia figures that have fascinated audiences since cinema's inception. Portrayals of the Italian and Italian-American mafia, though, have differed markedly over time and across multiple cultures-from the Godfather trilogy to contemporary Italian films, and in works both by established producers like Martin Scorsese and emerging directors like Matteo Garrone. Mafia Movies encourages mafia aficionados to explore the rich variety of classics and rarities within the genre with provocative analyses of over forty films. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive exploration of the myth of the mafia onscreen, identifying key features and connections to styles such as film noir, thrillers, and even westerns. Mafia Movies also questions whether there are uniquely American or Italian ways of depicting the mafia, exploring how filmmakers from both countries have approached the subject in divergent ways.

Full Product Details

9780802096654

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Reviews

'For the growing number of students and scholars dealing with mafia issues, the collection edited by Dana Renga is an excellent new resource...it demystifies cliches, it consolidates the genre status of the mafia film, and proves itself to be an unavoidable reference for future studies in this intriguing field.' -- Nicoletta Pireddu Quaderni d'Italianistica; vol 32:02:2011

'For the growing number of students and scholars dealing with mafia issues, the collection edited by Dana Renga is an excellent new resource...it demystifies cliches, it consolidates the genre status of the mafia film, and proves itself to be an unavoidable reference for future studies in this intriguing field.' -- Nicoletta Pireddu

Author Information

Dana Renga is an associate professor of Italian at The Ohio State University. She is the author of Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium (2013) and Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian Television: Gomorrah and Beyond (2019) and has published extensively on Italian cinema and television.

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