Monicellis Contribution to Italian Cinema - Essay Example

Firstly, it will focus on Monicelli’s anti-hero characters and examine how they contribute to the effect of social satire present in the films. It will track to development of this character and its shifting role from the late 1950s through to the early 1980s. Finally, it will reflect upon how these films reflect the rapidly changing Italian society of this period and how this reflection of modern society plays out through time and across borders.The Commedia all’italiana has its roots in the Commedia dell’Arte.

This was a popular form of theatre which flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and which drew its inspiration from a wide range of sources and incorporated widely recognised social norms of the day into its performance. In Italy, this saw the combining of the oral tradition with the developing script-based theatre which had developed after the advent of printing. It was, therefore, a rich blend of literature and popular culture, uniting the piazza and the theatre. This meant that it was a more flexible form of theatre than that which revolved purely around a script.

As Henke (2002: 1) explains, ‘at the heart of the Commedia dell’Arte was the structural tension between the linear, well-constructed plot based on a literary model and the centrifugal improvisations of the stand-up performer’. This type of theatre, therefore, already bore the hallmarks of modern comedy due to its spirit of improvisation. Spontaneity was at the heart of Commedia dell’Arte and it is this aspect which will be transmitted down to the Commedia all’italiana, albeit in a modified form.

The character structure of the Commedia dell’Arte has also had an influence on later manifestations of Italian comedy.