Individual and Collaborative Film Studies in Italy: Legal Constraints and the Gender Balance

In this article, we offer a handful of reflections about collaborative scholarship in Italy, referring in particular to the principal public funding scheme for research—the so-called “Progetti di rilevante interesse nazionale” (PRIN), organized and financed by the Ministry for Education, Universities and Research (MIUR). We draw, moreover, on our experience working on “The International Circulation of Italian Cinema,” a project on which we both collaborated as postdoctoral researchers at different times between 2017 and 2020. Drawing from our experience and attempting to speak to some of the themes of this issue, in these reflections we address essentially two macro questions: first, the nature of individual and collaborative research in Italian film and media studies today, and how certain legal frameworks affect this balance; second, the extent to which the gender balance in public-funded projects is representative of the composition of academic positions in our field

Individual and Collaborative Film Studies in Italy: Legal Constraints and the Gender Balance

In this article, we offer a handful of reflections about collaborative scholarship in Italy, referring in particular to the principal public funding scheme for research—the so-called “Progetti di rilevante interesse nazionale” (PRIN), organized and financed by the Ministry for Education, Universities and Research (MIUR). We draw, moreover, on our experience working on “The International Circulation of Italian Cinema,” a project on which we both collaborated as postdoctoral researchers at different times between 2017 and 2020. Drawing from our experience and attempting to speak to some of the themes of this issue, in these reflections we address essentially two macro questions: first, the nature of individual and collaborative research in Italian film and media studies today, and how certain legal frameworks affect this balance; second, the extent to which the gender balance in public-funded projects is representative of the composition of academic positions in our field

La Shoah a colori. Walter Genewein e il ghetto di Łódź

Nel 1987 in un negozio viennese di antiquariato venne ritrovato un album contenente quattrocento fotografie a colori risalenti al periodo della Seconda guerra mondiale. Come si scoprì qualche tempo dopo, su quelle foto erano rappresentate alcune scene di vita del ghetto di Łódź[1]. Scattate da uno dei responsabili amministrativi del ghetto, l’austriaco Walter Genewein, erano da considerarsi tra le prime immagini a colori della Seconda guerra mondiale. Per gli storici, gli esperti e gli stessi sopravvissuti, la dimostrazione dell’esistenza e della conservazione di quelle foto a quasi cinquant’anni di distanza fu uno choc: nonostante fossero assolutamente autentiche, non sembravano rappresentare in alcun modo il ghetto ricordato dai testimoni

The distribution and promotion of Dogman (2016) in the United States

This article will analyse the distribution and promotion strategies of Matteo Garrone’s Dogman (2018) in the United States. It will reconstruct the singularity of this case study in a comparative perspective, considering both the international circulation trends of European national cinemas and the distribution of contemporary Italian films in the United States. An integrated methodology will be adopted, combining film and media industry studies, cultural studies, and the field of art and culture economics. After an analysis of the tendencies of the distribution of Italian contemporary arthouse cinema in the United States, the specific distribution strategies adopted for Dogman will be considered against the background of the financing system within which the production model of the film is embedded. Further, the role of Magnolia Pictures, the North American distributor of Garrone’s film, will be inspected through the discussion of some interviews with professionals directly involved in the promotion and distribution of the film

Doppia memoria e regimi temporali ne La Passeggera di Andrzej Munk

This essay will analyze the relationship between the cinematic representation of memory and the photographic steadiness of the present, staged in the film The Passenger (Pasażerka, 1963, Andrzej Munk). Moving both from a textual and a contextual point of view, this article will focus on the posthumous film reconstruction made by Munk’s collaborators. Therefore, the aim of this essay is to discuss the relationship between time and death, past and present, but also victim and perpetrator, which all contribute to create an implicit wistful feeling of historical suspension, which creates a «double memory» storytelling

Effetti collaterali. La regia di Steven Soderbergh tra cinema e nuovi ambienti mediali

Nella costante ridefinizione dei modelli e delle pratiche di regia cinematografica nell’epoca della streaming culture2 e delle narrazioni transmediali3 la figura di Steven Soderbergh – produttore, regista, direttore della fotografia (con lo pseudonimo di Peter Andrews) e montatore (con lo pseudonimo di Mary Ann Bernard) di gran parte dei suoi film – diventa evidentemente un caso di studio cruciale. Negli ultimi quindici anni, infatti, il regista di grandi successi hollywoodiani come Out of Sight (1998) e Ocean’s Eleven (2001) ha sperimentato ogni nuova frontiera dell’audiovisivo: dalla complex tv (le due stagioni di The Knick a partire dal 2014), alla serialità interattiva (Mosaic, 2018); dai film a basso budget girati con gli iPhone (Unsane, 2018), ai film prodotti per le piattaforme streaming come Netflix (Panama Papers, 2019) o Prime video (The Report di Scott Z. Burns, 2019). Ma prima di addentrarci nell’analisi di alcuni casi di studio è utile operare due premesse fondamentali per contestualizzare l’ambito teorico di riferimento

Challenging Scenarios and Debated Indications for Laparoscopic Liver Resections for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Simple Summary Minimally invasive liver resections are nowadays performed worldwide for both benign and malignant lesions. Good short-term and safe long-term outcomes have been reported. Despite this growing implementation of the technique, challenging scenarios and debated indications still exist. There is currently a lack of high-quality evidence regarding minimally invasive liver resections in portal hypertension, advanced cirrhosis, lesions in the posterosuperior segments and large and recurrent tumors. Laparoscopic liver resections (LLRs) have been increasingly adopted for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with safe short- and long-term outcomes reported worldwide. Despite this, lesions in the posterosuperior segments, large and recurrent tumors, portal hypertension, and advanced cirrhosis currently represent challenging scenarios in which the safety and efficacy of the laparoscopic approach are still controversial. In this systematic review, we pooled the available evidence on the short-term outcomes of LLRs for HCC in challenging clinical scenarios. All randomized and non-randomized studies reporting LLRs for HCC in the above-mentioned settings were included. The literature search was run in the Scopus, WoS, and Pubmed databases. Case reports, reviews, meta-analyses, studies including fewer than 10 patients, non-English language studies, and studies analyzing histology other than HCC were excluded. From 566 articles, 36 studies dated between 2006 and 2022 fulfilled the selection criteria and were included in the analysis. A total of 1859 patients were included, of whom 156 had advanced cirrhosis, 194 had portal hypertension, 436 had large HCCs, 477 had lesions located in the posterosuperior segments, and 596 had recurrent HCCs. Overall, the conversion rate ranged between 4.6% and 15.5%. Mortality and morbidity ranged between 0.0% and 5.1%, and 18.6% and 34.6%, respectively. Full results according to subgroups are described in the study. Advanced cirrhosis and portal hypertension, large and recurrent tumors, and lesions located in the posterosuperior segments are challenging clinical scenarios that should be carefully approached by laparoscopy. Safe short-term outcomes can be achieved provided experienced surgeons and high-volume centers

Inhibition of mTOR pathway by everolimus cooperates with EGFR inhibitors in human tumours sensitive and resistant to anti-EGFR drugs

Inhibition of a single transduction pathway is often inefficient due to activation of alternative signalling. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a key intracellular kinase integrating proliferation, survival and angiogenic pathways and has been implicated in the resistance to EGFR inhibitors. Thus, mTOR blockade is pursued to interfere at multiple levels with tumour growth. We used everolimus (RAD001) to inhibit mTOR, alone or in combination with anti-EGFR drugs gefitinib or cetuximab, on human cancer cell lines sensitive and resistant to EGFR inhibitors, both in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrated that everolimus is active against EGFR-resistant cancer cell lines and partially restores the ability of EGFR inhibitors to inhibit growth and survival. Everolimus reduces the expression of EGFR-related signalling effectors and VEGF production, inhibiting proliferation and capillary tube formation of endothelial cells, both alone and in combination with gefitinib. Finally, combination of everolimus and gefitinib inhibits growth of GEO and GEO-GR (gefitinib resistant) colon cancer xenografts, activation of signalling proteins and VEGF secretion. Targeting mTOR pathway with everolimus overcomes resistance to EGFR inhibitors and produces a cooperative effect with EGFR inhibitors, providing a valid therapeutic strategy to be tested in a clinical setting