The Non-Professional Actor in the Reception of Italian Cinema Abroad

• Main Author: Catherine O'Rawe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bologna 2020-12-01
• Series: Cinergie
• Subjects: non-professional actor; neorealism; film festivals; “anti-stardom”; authenticity.
• Online Access: https://cinergie.unibo.it/article/view/10925

This article will examine the overlooked centrality of the non-professional actor in the circulation of Italian films outside the country. It analyses the importance of the legitimating label of neorealism in critical and festival discourse, and its relation to a weak Italian national star system, and to the Italian state system of film funding. It also places attention on the cultural representation of the non-professional who becomes a kind of “star attraction” on the festival circuit, an object of curiosity and a marker of authenticity for a cinephile audience, due to their “out-of-placeness” in the paracinematic activities of festival promotion. It argues that the non-professional actor is part of the branding of Italian cinema internationally, along with the figure of the auteur.