Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

Vasco Rossi. Zucchero continued to develop a personal style from within a blues

tradition from ‘Donne’ (Women, 1984), to the 1987 album Blue’s which thrust him into

international stardom. On the model of Bruce Springsteen, Luciano Ligabue wrote songs

in which the Emilia Romagna region figured as a sort of Italian far-west with storylines

that mixed on-the-road culture, racing cars, wine and love.

The 1990s saw a continuation of the popularity of many of the established names,

although two of the most renowned of the older generation, Lucio Battisti and De Andrè,

died in the latter part of the decade. There also emerged a new generation of songwriters,

balanced between aspirations to love and acknowledgement of harsh reality, the most

significant of these being Samuele Bersani, Massimo Di Cataldo, Biagio Antonacci and

Daniele Silvestri.

Further reading

Borgna, G. (1992) Storia della canzone italiana (History of Italian Song), Milan: Mondadori.

Castaldo, G. (1994) La terra promessa. Quarant’anni di cultura rock (1954–1994) (The Promised

Land: Forty Years of Rock Culture 1954–1994), Milan: Feltrinelli.

De Andrè, F. and Gennari A. (1996) Un destino ridicolo (A Ridiculous Destiny), Turin: Einaudi.

Gentile, E. (1990) Guida critica ai cantautori italiani (Critical Guide to Italian Singer-songwriters),

Milan: Gammalibri.

Jachia, P. (1998) La canzone d’autore italiana 1958–1997 (Italian authored songs 1958–1997),

Milan: Feltrinelli.

Rizzi, C. (1993) Enciclopedia del rock italiano (Encyclopedia of Italian Rock), Milan: Arcana.

RICCARDO VENTRELLA

Canzonissima

From its inception Italian state television (RAI) dedicated its Saturday evening to a

variety show which for over fifteen years was called Canzonissima and which in later

years became Fantastico.

The basic idea of Canzonissima, i.e. a big budget show linked to the New Year lottery,

drew on ideas from Broadway and the Hollywood musical, but it also incorporated the

Italian revue tradition. Presented by Enzo Tortora, Johnny Dorelli or Pippo Baudo

(amongst others), the show always included a careful mix of international stars, Italian

singers, comics and imitators as well as one or two soubrettes and a scantily-dressed

corps de ballet. Song and dance, rapid-fire gags and pure escapism were the show’s stock

in trade, the aim being to offer something that would please everyone, without distinction

of class, region or education. Nevertheless the show did have its controversial moments

as, for example, in 1962 when the relatively light satire of Dario Fo and Franca Rame

caused a veritable scandal, resulting in the couple being banished from the RAI for many

years.

Entries A–Z 131



Further reading

Veltroni, W. (1992) I programmi che hanno cambiato l’Italia (The Programmes that Changed

Italy), Milan: Feltrinelli (see pp. 37–46, ‘Canzonissima’ and pp. 90–8 ‘Fantastico’).

STEPHEN GUNDLE

Capriolo, Paola

1962, Milano

Novelist, short story writer and translator

A philosopher by training, in her narratives Capriolo investigates the relationship

between myth and reality, exploring the notion of reality as an inaccessible absolute

which nevertheless can be glimpsed in the artificial structures and forms people use to

define their lives. These issues give shape to her first collection of short stories La grande

Eulalia (The Great Eulalia) (1988), winner of the Giuseppe Berto Prize, her novel Il

nocchiere (The Helmsman) (1989), winner of the Rapallo and Campiello Prizes and the

collection of fables, La ragazza della stella d’oro (The Girl of the Golden Star).

Capriole’s inquiry into the nature of reality and art also informs her revision of Puccini’s

romantic opera Tosca, Vissi d’amore (Floria Tosca). As well as writing fiction, Capriolo

contributes to Il Corriere della sera and works as a translator.

Further reading

Wood, S. (1995) Italian Women’s Writing 1860–1994, London: Athlone Press.

VIRGINIA PICCHIETTI

Caproni, Giorgio

b. 7 January 1912, Leghorn; d. 22 January 1990, Rome

Poet, novelist and journalist

Trained as a violinist, Caproni abandoned his instrument to become a school teacher and

writer. After the War, having fought in the Resistance, Caproni returned to teaching and

wrote for L’Unità and Avanti!. Whilst his early poetry betrays the influence of Giuseppe

Ungaretti and Umberto Saba, his postwar collections are closer to the traditional metres

and hermetic themes of Mario Luzi. Especially important are, in the 1950s, Il Passaggio

di Enea (Aeneas’ Passage), where Caproni depicts the struggle of human beings to

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 132

understand the rapidly changing modern world, and the collection of short stories Il gelo

della mattina (Morning Frost), heavily influenced by the destruction of the Second World

War. Caproni’s later poetry is pervaded by a sense of isolation and solitude, only

occasionally mediated by consoling memory.

Further reading

Caproni, G. (1998) L’opera in versi (Complete Poems), Milan: Mondadori (a comprehensive

collection of Caproni’s poetry with selected bibliography).

——(1992) The Wall of the Earth: 1964–1975, trans. P. Verdicchio, Montreal: Guernica (selected

poems in English).

VALERIO FERME

Capucci, Roberto

b. 2 December 1930, Rome

Fashion designer

Capucci began his career as an assistant to Italian fashion designer Emilio Schuberth,

before opening his own business in Rome in 1950, followed by a Paris studio between

1962–8. Known as one of Italy’s most creative haute couturiers, he has consistently

rejected adherence to fashionable change, and has tended to present only occasional small

collections to his select and devoted clientele. His approach has been essentially

architectural and sculptural, involving a particular commitment to volume, line, texture

and colour, in relation to the human body. Capucci has also stressed the importance of

natural forms in his search for proportion and unity. This extraordinary approach to

design can be seen most clearly in his celebrated grand evening dresses, where

dramatically coloured silks are juxtaposed to emphasize curvilinear effects.

Further reading

Collin, R.O. (1999) ‘Italy: A Tale of Two Police Forces’, History Today 49(9):27–33.

GINO MOLITERNO

Cardinale, Claudia

b. 15 April 1939, Tunis (Tunisia)

Film-actress

Born and raised in Tunisia but destined to become one of the most renowned actresses of

Italian postwar cinema, Gardinale moved to Rome in 1958 and enrolled in the acting

school of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. In the same year, she made her

first Italian film, Mario Monicelli’s I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street). In 1960,

she earned fame thanks to her performance in Francesco Maselli’s I delfini (The

Dolphins), a film produced by Franco Cristaldi, by then her husband and one of the most

audacious producers of his generation.

In the 1960s, Cardinale’s collaborations with Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini

confirmed her star status and resulted in some of Italian cinema’s most celebrated

moments, as Otto e mezzo (8½) and Il gattopardo (The Leopard) illustrate.

In the latter part of her career, her maturity particularly suited the strong women she

often portrayed, as in Comencini’s La storia (The History) or in Sous les pieds des

femmes (Under the Feet of Women), a 1997 film by Algerian female director Rachida

Krim.

DOROTHÉE BONNIGAL.

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 134

Carli, Guido

b. 1914, Brescia; d. 1993, Rome

Economist

A central banker with political ambitions, Carli was governor of the Banco d’Italia from

1960 to 1975, thus holding strategic office during both the happiest period of the

economic miracle and the worst years of high inflation and increasing unemployment. A

figure of high international standing, Carli was managing director of the European

Payment Union during the 1950s and later played a major role in the G-10 Group, aimed

at fostering international monetary cooperation among the main Western countries. Both

a lucid analyst of the weaknesses of Italian capitalism and a firm supporter of the market

economy, he was keen to reform the Italian financial system and to reshape it according

to the Anglo-Saxon market-oriented model. Paradoxically, however, he ended up leaving

his successors an extremely rigid banking system, mainly based on bureaucratic

command and market segmentation. After leaving the Bank of Italy, he became chairman

of Confindustria (the employers’ association) in 1976–80, was elected as a DC senator in

1983 and crowned his outstanding career as Minister of the Treasury in 1989–92.

STEFANO BATTILOSSI

Carrà, Raffaella

b. 18 June 1943, Bellaria, Rimini

Entertainer and television presenter

Singer, dancer, actress and presenter, Carrà (real name Raffaella Pelloni) appeared in

films and on television from the early 1960s. With her trademark platinum blond hair—

cut in a helmet style which remained unchanged for thirty years—she became one of the

most popular faces on Italian television in the 1980s. Although ridiculed for its banality

(‘how many beans do you think are in the jar, signora?’), her lunchtime phone-in show

Pronto, Raffaella? successfully exploited RAI-TV’s monopoly on live broadcasting and

won back the housewife audience from Canale Cinque. A vivacious, down-to-earth

personality whose low-voltage sex appeal perfectly matched the requirements of Italian

public television, she was seen as an archetype by almost every woman in entertainment

broadcasting. Following the success of her evening show, Buonasera Raffaella, she was

recruited by Berlusconi in 1987 in his ratings war with the RAI. As in other cases, the

transfer did not meet expectations. After a period in exile in Spain, Carrà returned to

RAI-TV in the mid-1990s to host Carramba!, a shamelessly emotional show reuniting

long-separated friends and families.

Entries A–Z 135



Futher reading

Calabrese, O. (1985) ‘Raffaella Carrà’ in G. Ascoli et al, Perche lei? (Why her?), Bari: Laterza.

STEPHEN GUNDLE

Casabella

A journal of architecture and related arts, Casabella (House Beautiful) was founded in

Milan in 1928. By 1933 Casabella had become an established polemical vehicle for

Italian ‘Rationalist’ architecture under the editorial direction of Giuseppe Pagano and

Edoardo Persico. Suppressed by the Fascists in 1943, the journal only resumed

continuous publication in 1953 under the influential editorship of Ernesto N. Rogers. Re-

titled Casabella continuità (Casabella-continuity), it now sought to promote a contextual

approach to design that emphasized pre-existing local conditions of building, site and

culture. To help articulate this position, Rogers assembled a group of younger architects

who would soon become significant in their own right: Giancarlo De Carlo, Aldo Rossi,

Gae Aulenti, Marco Zanuso, and Vittorio Gregotti. Among the subsequent editors of

Casabella perhaps the most influential has been Gregotti.

See also: architectural and design magazines

Further reading

‘Casabella 1928–1978’ (1978) Casabella October/ November, 440/441.

KEITH EVAN GREEN

Cassa per il Mezzogiorno

The Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Southern Development Fund) was created in August 1950

as both a specific government response to a series of violent protests by farmers in the

South demanding agrarian reform and as a decisive measure for finally resolving the

Southern Question by ending the economic and social backwardness of the South and

the islands. Originally projected to last 10 years, it was extended several times until July

1984 when it was officially closed and some of its functions were taken over by the

Fondo nazionale per lo sviluppo del Mezzogiorno (National Fund for the Development of

the South), itself terminated in 1993.

During the Fund’s thirty-five-year history an enormous amount of money was spent

(some credible estimates put it at around 200,000 billion lira) but although there were

undoubted improvements in the South’s infrastructure in terms of roads, land reclamation

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 136

and water supply, it is generally agreed that the Fund’s aims to industrialize the South

and to bring it to the level of economic productivity of the North failed miserably.

The fears originally expressed by the Socialists and Communists who opposed the law

instituting the Fund on the grounds that it would sideline agrarian reform and serve

‘other’ interests than those of the southern poor proved well-founded since the Fund

effectively became a huge reservoir of resources which could be traded by politicians of

the governing parties in return for votes and general political support.

See also: agriculture; clientelism; peasants

GINO MOLITERNO

Cassola, Carlo

b. 17 March 1917, Rome; d. 29 January 1987, Montecarlo di Lucca

Novelist and journalist

Cassola’s experience with the partizan movement during the Second World War was

perhaps the primary thematic influence on his work, as many of his novels explore the

lives of those in the Resistance. The novels Fausto e Anna (Fausto and Anna) (1952) and

La ragazza di Bube (translated as Bebo’s Girl) (1960) reflect Cassola’s belief that the

Resistance failed to achieve completely its moral and political goals. Indeed in La

ragazza di Bube, his best-known and most popular novel, and for which he received the

Strega prize, the young partizan, Bube, becomes involved in a murder, and it is his

girlfriend who embodies the virtues of the movement. Cassola returned to his earlier

experiments with existential writings in the 1961 novel Un cuore arido (An Arid Heart),

which traces in its quotidian details the gradual shrivelling of one woman’s soul. A

convinced environmentalist and anti-nuclear activist in later years, Cassola’s last novels

focus on topics such as the threat of nuclear holocaust, animal protection and

antimilitarism.

Further reading

Moss, H.K. (1977) ‘The Existentialism of Carlo Cassola’, Italica 54:381–98.

LAURA A. SALSINI

Castellaneta, Carlo

b. 8 February 1930, Milan

Entries A–Z 137



Novelist, short story writer and journalist

In his numerous fictional works Castellaneta explores social and class issues arising from

personal experiences, his family and his work as editor and director of the journal Storia

Illustrata (Illustrated History). In novels such as Viaggio col padre (Voyage with My

Father) (1958) and L’età del desidero (The Age of Desire) (1990), he deals with themes

from his family background while in the novel Una lunga rabbia (A Long Rage) (1991),

he examines his own work experiences. He also explores passionate love in novels such

as Passione d’amore (Passion of Love) (1987) and the emotions more generally in his

guide Dizionario dei sentimenti (Dictionary of Feelings) (1980). From his many years as

a reporter and his editorial work for Storia illustrata, Castellaneta developed a narrative

style that privileges a journalistic observation of his times. Love of his native city and an

attention to social issues shape the collections of essays Storia di Milano (History of

Milan) (1975) and La mia Milano (My Milan) (1998).

VIRGINIA PICCHIETTI

Castellani, Renato

b. 4 September 1913, Finale Ligure; d. 28 December 1985, Rome

Film director

Castellani’s debut feature, Un colpo di pistola (A Pistol Shot), was released in 1941; but

it was only after the Second World War that he made the ‘trilogy of the poor people’ for

which he will be remembered: Sotto il sole di Roma (Under the Sun of Rome) (1948), È

primavera (Springtime) (1949) and his most successful work, Due soldi di speranza

(Two Cents’ Worth of Hope) (1951). Like other neorealist directors, Castellani used

authentic settings and non-professional actors, but his moralistic insistence on happy

endings caused Giuseppe De Santis to label him a ‘calligraphist’, an uncommitted

formalist (see also neorealism). While Castellani’s skills remain undisputed, he has been

branded a ‘pink neorealist’, whose films, even the prison drama Nella città l’inferno (And

the Wild, Wild Women) (1959), have more in common with the Italian-style comedies of

the late 1950s than with the early films of Rossellini and De Sica.

Further reading

Trasatti, S. (1984) Renato Castellani, Florence: La Nuova Italia.

DAVE WATSON

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 138

Castiglioni, Achille

b. 16 February 1918, Milan

Architect and designer

The younger brother of the designers Luigi and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Achille

Castiglioni set up a design practice with Pier Giacomo in 1945. They played an important

role in the postwar Italian design movement, working primarily on exhibition and product

design. Together, they created the ‘Turbino’ desk lamp, produced by Arredoluce in 1949,

the ‘Spalter’ vacuum cleaner produced by Rem in 1956, and the ‘Arco’ lamp produced in

1962. Following his brother’s death in 1968, Achille went on to work on oil and vinegar

flasks for Alessi (1980) and the ‘Gibigiana’ light for Flos in 1980. He remains one of

Italy’s leading designers and continues to work in Milan in a modest studio.

Further reading

Gregotti, V. (1984) Achille Castiglioni, Milan: Electa.

PENNY SPARKE

Castiglioni, Pier Giacomo

b. 22 April 1913, Milan; d. 27 November 1968, Milan

Exhibition and product designer

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni worked first with his elder brother Livio before the Second

World War, and then subsequently with his younger brother Achille. In 1938, Livio and

Pier Giacomo Castiglioni opened a design studio with Luigi Caccia Dominione. Together

they designed the first Italian bakelite radio (Model 547), just before the studio was

closed in 1940. Following the war, Pier Giacomo joined forces with Achille and together

they worked on exhibitions and products from 1945 onwards. Their work of the 1940s

and 1950s rates among the best Italian design from the period, including the ‘Turbino’

desk lamp produced by Arredoluce in 1949, the ‘Spalter’ vacuum cleaner produced by

Rem in 1956 and the ‘Arco’ lamp of 1962. Working alone, Pier Giacomo designed the

‘Mezzandro’ stool for Zanotta in 1957, based on Marcel Duchamp’s idea of the ‘ready-

made’. It was not produced until 1971, after his death.

Further reading

Pica, A. (1969) ‘Piergiacomo Castiglioni’, Domus, 470, January, 1–2.

PENNY SPARKE

Castri, Massimo

b. 25 May 1943, Cortona, Arezzo

Director

Strongly influenced by both Artaud and Brecht, on whom he published a study in 1973,

Castri began as an actor but soon abandoned acting in favour of directing. Driven by an

intense ideological commitment, in his early productions he aggressively deconstructed

texts, using a psychoanalytical approach to bring their latent contents to the surface.

Exemplary in this sense was the Pirandellian triptych Vestire gli ignudi (Clothe the

Naked), La vita che ti diedi (The Life I Gave You) and Così è (se vi pare) (Right You

Are! If You Think So), produced between 1976 and 1979, as well as his series of Ibsen

plays. The results were dark, brooding spectacles, sometimes bizarre ironic pastiches, as

in his approaches to Euripidean tragedy. In his later work he became more restrained,

abandoning the accumulation of signs and intellectual metaphors in performance as well

as moving into the mainstream of publicly financed spaces which allowed him more time

and resources to prepare shows. In the later period he relied more on the intensity of

actors and the disquieting spaces created by scenographer, Massimo Balò, as in the

Goldoni cycle which went from I rusteghi (The Rustics) in 1992 to La trilogia della

villeggiatura (The Holiday Trilogy) of 1996.

Further reading

Innamorati, I. (1993) Massimo Castri e il suo teatro (Massimo Castri and His Theatre), Rome:

Bulzoni.

PAOLO PUPPA

Catholic Action

The sole surviving non-fascist organization under Mussolini’s regime, thanks to Article

43 of the Concordat of 1929, Catholic Action became the most powerful, lay ‘long arm’

of the Church in the immediate postwar period. From its inception, the fundamental and

stated purpose of Catholic Action remained to ensure the permeation of civil society by

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 140