The cinema of Gabriele Salvatores: the discreet alienation of the bourgeoisie

Abstract

This article examines how, in the films Puerto Escondido (1992) and Nirvana (1997), Salvatores reworks the paranoid conspiracy thriller and science fiction genre to explore radical and unexpected shifts in the social position of the middle classes as they become vulnerable to the largely unregulated socio-economic determinants that shape society according to the interests of capital. Both films internalize the political and socio-economic upheaval that affected Italy from the late 1980s to the end of the century, and eviscerate appearance forms such as social status and commodities that constitute the insubstantial essence of contemporary life. They offer tantalizing glimpses of the scale of the interlinking political and economic system that clashes with the values and social position of the films' protagonists, unexpectedly turning on them and devastating their existences. The article forms part of an increasing body of scholarship which examines the ways in which films can disclose class anxieties if analyzed in the context of the socio-historical conditions of their production.