From vernacular art to the auteur moment: Tonino Guerra as a poet, writer and scriptwriter in the 1940s and 1950s

Abstract

This article will investigate aspects of a little studied but key figure in Italian cinema, Tonino Guerra, focusing on his debut as a film screenwriter. The article employs a comparative approach, relating the first poetic and narrative works of Guerra of the 1940s to his first steps as a film scriptwriter of the 1950s, with his fruitful collaborations with directors such as Aglauco Casadio, Giuseppe De Santis and Michelangelo Antonioni. I rely on unpublished materials such as Guerra’s private writings and correspondence (in particular, with his friend and future colleague Federico Fellini) and then analyse the critical reception of the first cinematographic works of Guerra by film magazines active in the 1950s. My readings and analyses will be directed towards establishing the importance of Guerra in post-war Italian society and culture, particularly as he gravitated towards work in the cinema, and the role of that work in the complex transition from neorealism to auteur cinema.