"Una storia di froci". Il cinema di Marco Tullio Giordana e le logiche che contrastano la formazione del trauma culturale

This article investigates the role of civil commitment cinema, particularly the work of Marco Tullio Giordana, in contributing to the retrospective cultural trauma recognition of key events in Italian political history. Drawing on Jeffrey C. Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, the analysis focuses on Giordana’s films Maledetti vi amerò (1980), Pasolini, un delitto italiano (1995), I cento passi (2000), and Romanzo di una strage (2009). Through an examination of discourses, iconography, and narrative structures, the study highlights the mechanisms of downsizing, delegitimization, secrecy, and erasure that have prevented these events from being immediately understood as collective traumas. The article interprets cinema as a performative act that reconfigures public memory and challenges dominant narratives, thus enabling a symbolic reactivation of trauma where it had previously been silenced or neutralized.