Altissima pressione e il film musicale italiano a metà degli anni sessanta: tradizione, rinnovamento, British Invasion

During the 1960s, cinema still plays a leading role in the italian media system. At the same time television and the pop music industry are developing very fast and play an increasingly crucial role in the processes of cultural consumption throughout the decade. In the Sixties, therefore, the film industry, the pop music industry and the television industry are developing at three different speeds: they have different temporalities. This essay aims to deal with the relationship between cinema, television and Italian pop music through the analysis of a single film: Altissima pressione (Enzo Trapani, 1965). In the first part of the essay I sketch out a brief history of the production of this low budget film. In the second part I analyze Altissima pressione in relation to the so called musicarello: an italian film genre that was successful at the box office in the mid-sixties. In the third part I consider the ways in which Altissima pressione proposes itself as a cultural product meant for the young audience. In particular, I deepen into two aspects: 1) the importance of the songs that are sung in the film by some of the most famous young italian pop singers of the Sixties; 2) the mise en scène of their performances.