Charles L. Leavitt IV

BOTD: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pasolini Ranked A list of 13 films compiled on Letterboxd, including Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Theorem (1968), Love Meetings (1964) and Oedipus Rex (1967).

Pier Paolo Pasolini was born on this day 104 years ago. boxd.it/NIx1w

Gianfranco Rosi's Pompei: Below the Clouds exudes a style that accentuates the rich gradients, textures, and legends of Naples’ near-mythical world.

Read our Critic's Pick review as the documentary opens in U.S. theaters: thefilmstage.com/nyff-review-...

If I were still a college teacher, I would do a film studies seminar called "Persistence of Neorealism," that would give a foundation in the Italian classics and then spread out to consider the dispersal and continuance of the aesthetic and themes in movies up to the presence

1/9. First time watch of the pulpy, noirish, neorealist Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949). No idea why it’s taken me so long - probably the most enjoyable film I’ve watched this year. If you haven’t seen it, see 🧵 for a few reasons why you should.

New book by @selenadaly.bsky.social :

Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2025)

www.cambridge.org/core/books/e...

‘The time of monsters’: everyone is quoting Gramsci – but what did he actually say? Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote

To be cited in The #Guardian alongside the pantheon of “#Gramsci scholars.” Done.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Giuseppe De Santis's 1949 classic “Bitter Rice” brought sex appeal and genre thrills to neorealism. Its new 4K restoration opens Friday at @filmforumnyc.bsky.social:

One of Italian cinema's fiercest voices, Elio Petri (BOTD, 1929-1982) fused political satire and genre filmmaking into something urgent and unsettling.

Our releases include THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN, A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY and WE STILL KILL THE OLD WAY.

“Without Pity” (1948) is the Italian stars Carla Del Poggio as a woman who witnesses the shooting of John Kitzmiller, a U.S. serviceman. Shady people surround them as they try to escape their desperate situations. Produced by Carlo Ponti for Lux Film. #FilmNoir #neorealism #italiannoir

An Archive of Italian Graphic Design “Archivio Grafica Italiana is the first online archive dedicated to the entire Italian graphic design heritage.” (via sidebar)

“Archivio Grafica Italiana is the first online archive dedicated to the entire Italian graphic design heritage.” [kottke.org]

I'm now on Bluesky!

Filmmaker Federico Fellini, wearing a white hat, looking into a movie camera

#filmsky #moviesky #neorealism

“There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.”

Filmmaker, Federico Fellini #BOTD

Federico Fellini, born today in 1920 #botd

Italian studies students retrace travels of renowned writers in weeklong trip to Rome, Florence, and Naples Eighteenth-century German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote that, “only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.” A group of Un...

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote that “only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.”

Students in the Italian studies course The Literature of the Journey to Italy discovered that to be true.

Read about the class's fully-funded literary odyssey through Italy: https://bit.ly/4pPDysw

Introduction Abstract. This chapter establishes the framework for examining the overlooked encounter between British soldiers and Italian civilians during the Allied oc

Have a look at the Introduction of my 'Encounters in Wartime Italy: A Social History of Invasion, Liberation, and Occupation' (OUP 2025)!! This is now available for free until 18 February 2026: academic.oup.com/book/61479/c...

And the book is still 30% off with code AUFLY30!!

Thank you, OUP!

A moving tribute to Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves from Jafar Panahi. “It was when I saw this film that I knew what I wanted to pursue, what type of films I was after. It opened my path to social cinema.”

“Miracle at St. Anna” (2008) good movie.

Italian Neorealism - University of Toronto Press This book seeks to redefine, recontextualize, and reassess Italian neorealism – an artistic movement characterized by stories set among the poor and working class – through innovative close readings and comparative analysis.

This would pair perfectly with that sleek, dynamic profile:
utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....

SILVANA The vegan Silvana slingback kitten heel in Denim is handcrafted in Italy. Green kitten heel Luxury footwear without the footprint. Sustainable Luxury, Certified Vegan and Carbon Neutral. Proudly the f...

Or maybe you'd like the Silvana, a slingback shoe with a classic silhouette inspired by Silvana Mangano, an iconic Italian actress from the Golden Age of Italian neorealism in the post-war era.
aeranewyork.com/products/sil...

Italian Neorealism - University of Toronto Press

If that sounds appealing than do I have the Christmas present for you!
utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....

Inside Max Mara’s 75th Anniversary Collection Inspired by Italian Film Icons Max Mara’s 75th anniversary collection channels Italian Neorealism’s everyday elegance.

"Max Mara’s 75th anniversary collection channels Italian Neorealism’s everyday elegance."
www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/max-...

What do you MEAN you're leaving Bicycle Thieves off your top 10 Italian Neorealism films list ?!?

Noirvember: Another Headache - IMMORTAL SCIENCE “Well, I guess I am a rather interesting man — refined, intelligent. But that stomach, that stomach! (Baron Cefalù)” You never know what caprice will keep you away from a...

It's Black Friday on IMMORTAL SCIENCE, and they don't come much blacker than DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE, a cunning 1961 Italian picture that combines broad comedy, crime drama, and neorealism in a way that sometimes scans as a Coen Bros film lost in time. Only two days of Noirvember left!

Woke up because I was hot and my back hurt and ended up watching some Rossellini (The Machine to Kill Bad People). Going back to sleep now, but I was just curious how many of y'all also prefer Italian Neorealism to French New Wave?

Hello Bluesky! We’re Shameless + CultFilms, one feed for everything from Italian cult mayhem to restored world-cinema classics 🎥

Giallo, neorealism, Eurocrime, arthouse… all under one roof.
Glad to be here, more soon.

Agostino degli Espinosa shaped Italian memory of the Allied occupation. I explore his doubts about Italy’s postwar future, which appear in the margins of his influential history, and emerge fully in his fiction. The critical re-evaluation of his work sheds light on Italy’s divided memories of WWII.

Pleased that my article on Agostino degli Espinosa and the Allied occupation of Italy has come out in the journal @modernitaly.bsky.social. Thanks to @efghilmno.bsky.social for co-editing the special issue in which it will be published.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

We Can Make an Impact. Save Modern Languages courses at the University of Leicester

Please sign this petition to save modern languages courses at the University of Leicester.

And JINGLE ALL THE WAY is just a remake of BICYCLE THIEVES with a super-happy Hollywood ending!