Fanon, Violence and Rebellion in Italian Cinema

Abstract

This essay deals initially with the influence of Frantz Fanon's ideas among filmmakers like Giuseppe Bennati, Valerio Zurlini (Italy) and Glauber Rocha (Brazil), and subsequently focuses in particular on the work of the Italian director Valentino Orsini (1927–2001), friend and collaborator of the Taviani brothers, both a filmmaker and a faculty member at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, Italy. Orsini's work has not received the same attention as Gillo Pontecorvo's, but his films insistently engaged with issues like political violence, decolonization and partisan resistance. His commentaries, published in the most important Italian film journals, profoundly reflected on the role of artists and intellectuals in public life and national and international politics. The essay concentrates particularly on three films directed by Orsini: I dannati della terra (1969), inspired directly by Frantz Fanon, Corbari (1970) and Uomini e no (1981).