PRODUCERS AND PRODUCTION PRACTICES IN THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN CINEMA 1949-75

1949年至1975年间，意大利电影成为世界上主要的电影供应商之一。在大多数欧洲市场和几个欧洲以外的市场上，它的份额仅次于好莱坞。凭借其在主要节日上的众多奖项，它在艺术上享有信誉。它还提供了许多类型的电影。其成功的原因通常是：一批导演的创作天赋，战后意大利电影和美国电影之间建立的相互关系，欧洲联合制作的模式，高质量的中级作品和低成本类型的作品的存在，以及独特的明星体系的形成。然而，关于该行业的详细工作数量很少，也不系统。在意大利电影史上，制片人的角色很少被提及，主要关注导演、潮流和趋势、电影文本，更少提到演员。这个项目将从制作的角度探索意大利电影的历史。它将审查制片人在电影业中所扮演的角色，研究他们在复杂的国际合作情况下作为调解人和促进者的作用，评估他们与政府的关系、他们的商业战略、他们对电影的愿景及其付诸实践的情况，以及他们与导演、编剧和演员的合作。其目的是通过探索创意的真实前提、参数和条件，挑战电影作为艺术和产业之间的既定区别，探索个人概况和行为模式，探讨不同制作水平之间的联系，探索电影在多个市场的发行和放映，并重新思考“意大利”电影的“意大利性质”，从而为战后意大利电影提供全新的解释。在许多情况下，制片人提供了比导演或其他专业人员更大的连续性。它们在建立基础设施和人与人之间的合作模式以及促进多国合作和分配方面至关重要。由于他们的作用，意大利工业成为创新形式和灵活生产模式的实验室，吸引了来自许多国家的投资者、导演、技术人员和演员。它为其他民族产业的崛起树立了基准，并确定了跨国和超国家电影制作的模式。这个项目现在是及时的，主要有六个原因。首先，近年来，一些生产者、行业组织和其他人的个人文件被存放在公共档案馆，在大多数情况下，这些文件还没有被编目或研究。第二，在该项目的框架内，有可能确保将更多的文件转移到公共领域，并将其提供给公众进行咨询。第三，这段时期--可以被认为是意大利电影的黄金时代--幸存的制片人现在已经年事已高，因此收集他们的口头证词的时间有限。第四，学术氛围使得有关工业和金融的作用的问题可以以在意识形态上被认为是困难的方式来考虑(即被认为是不利于电影艺术发展的资本主义变形)；现在有一种围绕制作和联合制作问题的兴趣运动，这有利于新的研究。第五，有可能召集一批具备开展研究所需技能的学者。第六，意大利和英国之间有一个机构合作的机会，这可以带来学术上的巨大进步，促进未来学者更多地获得资源，并确保公众参与该项目的材料和结果。

Between 1949 and 1975 Italian cinema became one of the world's major suppliers of films. It was second only to Hollywood in the share it took of most European and several extra-European markets. With its numerous prizes at major festivals, it commanded artistic credibility. It also furnished numerous genre films. The reasons for its success are normally given as follows: the creative genius of a number of directors, the inter-relationship established between Italian cinema and American cinema in the postwar years, the pattern of European co-productions, the existence of quality middle-level productions, as well as low-budget genre ones, and the formation of a distinctive star system. However, the amount of detailed work on the industry is small and not systematic. The role of producers is rarely mentioned in histories of Italian film, which focus on directors, currents and tendencies, film texts and, more rarely, actors. This project will explore the history of Italian cinema from the point of view of production. It will examine the role played by producers in the film industry, study their function as mediators and facilitators in a complex situation of international collaborations, evaluate their relations with governments, their business strategies, their visions of cinema and the turning of these into practices, as well as their collaboration with directors, writers and actors. The intention is to provide a completely new interpretation of postwar Italian cinema by: exploring the real premises, parameters and conditions of creativity, challenging established distinctions between cinema as art and as industry, exploring individual profiles and modes of conduct, inquiring into the links between different levels of production, exploring the distribution and exhibition of cinema in a number of markets, and re-thinking the 'Italian-ness' of 'Italian' cinema. In many cases, producers provided greater continuity over time than directors or other professionals. They were crucial in establishing infrastructures and inter-personal patterns of collaboration, as well as facilitating multi-national collaborations and distribution. Due to their role, the Italian industry became a laboratory of innovative forms and flexible patterns of production that drew in investors, directors, technical personnel and actors from many countries. It set a benchmark for emergence of other national industries and determined patterns of multinational and supranational film production. This project is timely now for six main reasons. First, the personal papers of a number of producers, industry organisms and others have in recent years been deposited in public archives, where they have not yet in most cases been catalogued or studied. Second, there is the possibility, within the framework of the project, of securing the transfer of further papers into the public realm and of making these available for consultation. Third, the surviving producers of the period in question - which may be considered the golden age of Italian cinema - are now elderly and thus there is a limited time-frame in which their oral testimonies can be collected. Fourth, the climate of scholarship is such that questions concerning the role of industry and finance can be considered in ways that were difficult in a period when they were regarded ideologically (i.e. considered as capitalist deformations detrimental to the development of cinematic art); there is now a movement of interest around issues of production and co-production which is conducive to new research. Fifth, it is possible to assemble a group of scholars with the necessary skills to be able to conduct the research. Sixth, there is an opportunity for institutional collaboration between Italy and the UK which can bring about great advances in scholarship, in facilitating the greater availability of resources for future scholars, and in ensuring public engagement with the materials and results of the project.