Multiculturalism in Contemporary Italian Film

Since the turn of the century, Italian cinema has emphasized multiculturalism in response to Italy’s growing immigration. This emphasis is much like Hollywood’s contemporary, “token” portrayal of minority groups through which the following occur:

• Regardless of exposure, the groups are still seen as having levels of exoticism rather than familiarity.
• This exoticism is largely due to the subtle perpetuation of stereotypes.
• Stereotypes replace more complex, realistic characters.

To detail Italian cinema’s focus on multiculturalism further, contemporary directors have followed this trend in order to re-think what it means to be an Italian citizen. They have also done this to perpetuate a new kind of national cinema in contrast to the 1990s immigration cinema and other’s film.

Multiculturalism in the new national cinema is aimed at diminishing the otherness of minority groups. However, this does not mean that the spiral of silence is no more. While multiculturalism puts more faces on the screen, the characters present are not necessarily flush, complex personalities; instead, their presences are connotated with exoticism and are portrayed through stereotypes.

Marco Ponti’s 2004 film A/R Andata + Ritorno provides a case study of this through his character Tolstoj. Tolstoj is one of the most pronounced ethnic characters in the movie, but his voice repeatedly lends itself to uttering foreign words of wisdom. This foreignness falls directly in line with Edward Said’s conceptions of Orientalism.

According to Said, the foreigner is exotic and therefore is the other. The stereotype of the other is meant to be a device through which the viewing party can understand the foreigner. In new Italian cinema, the immigrant is stereotyped in order to be better understood. However, this is not a simple meaning-making process. An overly simplistic, often one-sided, representation is cultivated, and it is usually framed to reinforce hegemony.

This kind of representation has long been seen in Hollywood films as well. Taking the recent blockbuster wave as an example, an increasing number of man vs. "other" movies have been produced. Remember Man of Steel, Oz the Great and Powerful, World War Z, and Captain Phillips (to name a few)? Each exalts the heterosexual, white man as the hero who vanquishes the unknown enemy. This gives power to whiteness and those who fall under hegemonic masculinity.

These movies also highlight how political controversy can be portrayed in abstract ways. The U.S. is at war and is paranoid of terrorism, so its culture more readily consumes texts that deal with vanquishing the outside enemy. Similarly, Italy is dealing with immigration, so its cultural products try to connect the audience with that controversy. Furthermore, although Italy and the U.S. have maintained positive relations since 1944, a hypothetical quarrel between the two would also generate cultural products with immediacy. Still, cultural products tell stories that are just as stereotyped as characters. A film's framing of people, places, and situations cannot completely escape cultural contexts.

Sources:

• "Multiculturalism in New Italian Cinema" - by Alberto Zambenedetti 
• Orientalism - by Edward Said 
• "U.S. Relations With Italy" - by the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs

Related Sources:

• The Media of Mass Communication - by John Vivian