Beyond the Latin Lover: Marcello Mastroianni, Masculinity, and Italian Cinema - Softcover

Reich, Jacqueline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253216443 ISBN 13: 9780253216441

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Marcello Mastroianni is considered by many to be the epitome of the Latin lover, the consummate symbol of Italian masculinity. In Beyond the Latin Lover, Jacqueline Reich unmasks the reality behind the myth. In her investigation of many of Mastroianni’s most famous characters in Italian cinema, she reveals that beneath the image of hyper-masculinity lies the figure of the inetto, the Italian schlemiel at odds with and out of place in a rapidly changing world. Diverse roles throughout his career―the impotent man, the cuckold, and the unruly woman’s victim, among others―present an anti-hero caught in traditional but increasingly unsteady modes of masculinity. Far from being a study of just one Italian film star, however, Reich’s work demonstrates that Mastroianni’s inetto is a reflection of the unstable political, social, and sexual climate of post-war Italy and its constantly shifting gender roles.

About this title

About the Author:

Jacqueline Reich, Associate Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is co-editor of Re-viewing Fascism (IUP, 2002).

From Publishers Weekly:

Among his 40 films, Marcello Mastroianni played a homosexual, a cuckolded husband, a pregnant man and, as he said, "wretches, where sex didn’t even enter the picture." Yet, as demonstrated in this fascinating study of his work, the film icon never shook the Don Giovanni image of his star turn in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. It is the iconography of this virile Italian stereotype, the "Latin lover," that Reich puts under scrutiny here, and she provides an entertaining analysis of the evolution, manufacture and commodification of this supposed hypermasculinity. Grounding her observations of the actor’s many cinematic identities in an analysis of post-fascist Italy’s transformation into an industrialized country, Reich points out that Mastroianni actually spent most of his career sending up the notion of "bella figura" (or masculine perfection), choosing, rather, to play the part of the "inetto" (or comic foil). His choice, she argues, reflects Italy’s mid-century struggle for economic success and political consensus. A delightful section on Mastroianni’s work with leading lady Sophia Loren explains how the voluptuous actress not only playfully antagonized him in La fortuna di esere donna (Lucky to Be a Woman) and Matrimonio all’italiana (Marriage... Italian Style), but, in doing so, redefined Mastroianni’s on-screen masculinity by opposing it with a new image of the "unruly woman." While rather dense and academic, the book offers an engaging examination of how social conditioning informs gender identity. Even more captivating, however, is its insightful look into the dynamic career of one of film’s enduring international icons, as both a lover and a loser. 41 photos.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0253216443
• ISBN 13: 9780253216441
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248