Introduction

The cycles of perceived success and failure of the Italian cinema have meant that its historiography lends itself readily to chronological periodization. These cycles have been rationalized and contextualized according to a terminology of crisis and rebirth. On the one hand, periods populated with commercial or critical successes in cinema are posited as ‘anni d’oro’, such as the international fame of Italian divi in the 1910s, the new neorealist image in the 1940s, or the proliferation of modernist masterpieces in the 1960s. On the other, subsequent periods of dwindling audiences and tumbling profits are framed in dichotomic, eschatological terms: the major instance here is the current crisis of the cinema which appears to date back to the late 1960s. This article introduces a special issue of the journal Italian Studies that is devoted to a critical re-appraisal of these historical periods, using a variety of thematic approaches and referring to little considered genres of filmmaking.