The Animated Cinema of Bruno Bozzetto

Author

Emilia Gambardella, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Comparative Literature

Advisor

Giancarlo Lombardi

Committee Members

Jerry Carlson

Morena Corradi

Subject Categories

Comparative Literature | Film and Media Studies | Italian Language and Literature | Other Italian Language and Literature

Keywords

animation, Italian cinema, Bruno Bozzetto, film theory, Italian Studies, Film Studies

Abstract

The principal aim of this dissertation is to insert Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto into the established narrative of Italian cinema. Although in American and British Film Studies animation has enthusiastically been at the center of many important conversations for the last thirty years, animation has received scant attention within Italian Studies. As such, in the dissertation I discuss a selection of Bozzetto’s animations in relation and comparison to live-action Italian films of the same decades which have been discussed and written about extensively. My dissertation fills this gap in Italian cinema scholarship by drawing on interdisciplinary sources to locate Bozzetto firmly within both animation’s lineage and Italy’s cinematic lineage, while also revealing the ways Bozzetto uses the specific language of animation to deliver commentary on post-War Italian society and on issues of global concern. In addition to making the case that Bozzetto deserves to be considered alongside the ‘greats’ of Italian cinema, I argue also that animation, thanks to its ability to (re)present quite literally anything, holds great potential for delivering messages on the most important matters of our time.

Recommended Citation

Gambardella, Emilia, "The Animated Cinema of Bruno Bozzetto" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5746