Il ‘gioco di telefono’: The posthuman and cellular technology in Paolo Genovese’s Perfect Strangers

Abstract

This article offers new perspectives on the telephone in Italian cinema, specifically in the movement from the human to the posthuman vis-à-vis visual representation. Telecommunication has maintained a unique place in Italian cinema throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and provides insight into the anxiety of both the socio-economic status and of the human subject itself. From Roberto Rossellini’s The Human Voice to Paolo Genovese’s Perfect Strangers, the telephone acts as a key protagonist articulating the crisis of human subjectivity with respect to ever-increasing technological influence. Not only is the telephone an ‘actor’ in the Italian film tradition, but its function as both a means and an arbitrator of communication exerts control over the course of human action. As both a nonhuman object and physical/mental influencer, the telephone facilitates the transition from the human to the posthuman, informing our understanding of nonhuman technological agency in our daily lives.