Paolo Sorrentino’s Cinema and Television

With a list of critically acclaimed and award-winning films, the Naples-born director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino has established himself as an auteur of world renown—arguably the most successful and significant contemporary Italian filmmaker. To date, he has written and directed nine films and won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe, among others. 

This is the first English-language collection dedicated to the prolific director, who has emerged as one of the most compelling figures in twenty-first-century European cinema. International contributors—from the UK, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Israel, Canada, and the US—offer original interpretations of Sorrentino’s work in film and television. In an invaluable contribution to the existing literature, they examine Sorrentino’s recurrent grand themes, offer new perspectives and cues for discussion, and challenge established notions about the filmmaker and his career.

“"A convenient, single volume comprising the best of contemporary scholarship on Sorrentino. . . . [It] provides a provocative, wide-ranging and thought-provoking overview of Sorrentino's originality and significance. . . . The book should be of great interest to anyone concerned with Italian cinema, contemporary Italian culture, or the state of global film and television today. Sorrentino has finally achieved the recognition he deserves within academia and I am sure this exciting new collection will only serve as a spur to further scholarship."”

'This is an extremely valuable contribution to Sorrentino scholarship that, especially when read in conjunction with Kilbourn’s monograph, provides a provocative, wide-ranging and thought-provoking overview of Sorrentino’s originality and significance. Moreover, it does not fail to engage with the more controversial and divisive aspects of his work, such as his treatment of gender (addressed in essays by Russell Kilbourn and Nicoletta Marini-Maio) and alleged privileging of style over content (addressed in essays by Lydia Tuan and Michela Barisonzi). The book should be of great interest to anyone concerned with Italian cinema, contemporary Italian culture, or the state of global film and television today. Sorrentino has finally achieved the recognition he deserves within academia and I am sure this exciting new collection will only serve as a spur to further scholarship.'

Annachiara Mariani is an assistant professor of Italian. She received her Laurea (BA-MA) in foreign languages and literatures from the Università di Bologna and her Ph.D in Italian from Rutgers University. Her research interests are in Italian cinema, National and Trans-National media studies, and Italian theatre. She has authored a book on the Grotesque Theatre and Pirandello (2013). She has also published numerous articles, essays, film reviews, book reviews on Italian Theatre, Cinema, and the interrelation between cinema and literature. She has recently published a special edition of the journal of Italian cinema and media studies on Sorrentino’s films and TV series. She is currently working on a book-length project on today’s portrayal of the Italian Renaissance through popular culture and television seriesFlavia Laviosa is senior lecturer in the Department of Italian Studies at Wellesley College. Her research interests are in Italian women filmmakers. She is the founder and editor in-chief of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies and the book series Trajectories. She has authored chapters in the volumes He Was My Father (Peter Lang, 2018) (edited by S. Gastaldi and D. Ward), The Italian Cinema Book (BFI, 2014) (edited by P. Bondanella), A New Italian Political Cinema? Emerging Themes (Troubadour, 2013) (edited by W. Hope) and Popular Italian Cinema and Politics in a Postwar Society (Bloomsbury, 2011) (edited by F. Brizio-Skov), and written articles published in the Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Studies in European Cinema, JOMEC, Rivista di Studi Italiani, Italica and Incontri: Rivista Europea di Studi Italiani. She has also guest-edited the Special Issue of SEC, ‘Cinematic Journeys of Italian Women Directors’ (8:2, 2011) and edited the volume Visions of Struggle in Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).Contact: Department of Italian Studies, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA.

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