Review of: Italian Ecocinema Beyond the Human , Elena Past (2019) Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 222 pp., ISBN 978-0-25303-948-4, p/bk, USD 34.00
Review of: Donne nella storia dei media: Autrici, artiste, influencer, tra ribalta e retroscena , Paola Panarese, Anna Lucia Natale (eds) (2024) Milan: Franco Angeli, 230 pp., ISBN 978-8-83516-339-8, p/bk, GBP 32.00
Review of: Intermedia in Italy: From Futurism to Digital Convergence , Clodagh Brook, Florian Mussgnug and Giuliana Pieri (2024) Oxford: Legenda, 233 pp., ISBN 978-1-83954-088-2, h/bk, GBP 95.00
In this interview, which was conducted in January 2025, Valerio Ruiz reflects on Elvira Notari’s pioneering role in silent Italian cinema. Ruiz’s new documentary film, Elvira Notari (2024), celebrates Italy’s first woman director, as well as her Neapolitan social–cultural scene. Notari (1875–1946) founded Dora Film as a family enterprise and produced, wrote and acted in over one hundred films embedded in Naples’s urban landscape. Her realist melodramas and documentary shorts evoke the everyday life of the plebeian characters of the city’s vicoli (‘alleyways’) and of Italian immigrants in New York. Ruiz’s docu-film, which premiered on RAI Storia on 4 October 2024 in the series ‘Donne di Campania’ (‘Women of Campania’), formally resembles archaeological restoration, relying on interviews intercut with the surviving clips to reconstruct Elvira’s career. A number of individuals lead us through a journey of discovery of Notari’s cinematic Neapolitan realm. Most central are actress Iaia Forte and film critic Giuliana Bruno.
Review of: La diva madre: Saggi su maternità e divismo nel cinema italiano , Maria Elena D’Amelio (2024) Milano: Meltemi, 145 pp., ISBN 979-1-25615-055-7, p/bk, GBP 14.00
