Roberto Curti: 11 books

Tonino Valerii is one of Italy’s best genre film directors. Starting out as Sergio Leone’s assistant on For a Few Dollars More (1965), he went on to direct spaghetti westerns that stand out among the most accomplished in their class—Day of Anger (1967), The Price of Power (1969), A Reason to...

The “Gothic” style was a key trend in Italian cinema of the 1950s and 1960s because of its peculiar, often strikingly original approach to the horror genre. These films portrayed Gothic staples in a stylish and idiosyncratic way, and took a daring approach to the supernatural and to eroticism,...

Torna in una nuova edizione, aggiornata e ampliata, Sex and Violence, un viaggio in tutto ciò che è estremo al cinema, dai primordi ai giorni nostri: immagini e pellicole oscene, immorali, violente, scioccanti, proibite. Con un approccio trasversale e curioso, privo di pregiudizi e aperto a riflessioni...

Italian Gothic horror films of the 1970s were influenced by the violent giallo movies and adults-only comics of the era, resulting in a graphic approach to the genre. Stories often featured over-the-top violence and nudity and pushed the limits of what could be shown on the screen. The decade marked...

In 1970s Italy, after the decline of the Spaghetti Western, crime films became the most popular, profitable and controversial genre. In a country plagued with violence, political tensions and armed struggle, these films managed to capture the anxiety and anger of the times in their tales of tough...

The history of Italian cinema includes, in addition to the renowned auteurs, a number of peculiar and lesser-known filmmakers. While their artistry was often plagued with production setbacks, their works—influenced by poetry, playwriting, advertising, literature, comics and a nonconformist, sometimes...

In an eclectic career spanning four decades, Italian director Riccardo Freda (1909–1999) produced films of remarkable technical skill and powerful visual style, including the swashbuckler Black Eagle (1946), an adaptation of Les Miserables (1947), the peplum Theodora, Slave Empress (1954) and a...

A self-taught culinary virtuoso, Francesco Bracali is one of Italy’s top chefs. He and his brother, Luca, a sommelier, own the two-Michelin-stars restaurant Bracali in Massa Marittima, Tuscany. Once an unpretentious tavern run by their parents, the brothers turned it into a fine dining place where...

The Italian Gothic horror genre underwent many changes in the 1980s, with masters such as Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda dying or retiring and young filmmakers such as Lamberto Bava (Macabro, Demons) and Michele Soavi (The Church) surfacing. Horror films proved commercially successful in the first...

Grazie ai documenti originali e ad altre fonti d’epoca, spesso inedite, Visioni proibite ricostruisce per la prima volta in modo sistematico le vicissitudini di centinaia di pellicole cui fu negato il nulla osta della censura. Sono stati vittime di questa normativa (per altro mai abrogata) film...

Il ’68 e tutto ciò che da esso è nato – la controcultura, il pacifismo, la rivoluzione dei costumi, la sessualità libera – hanno cambiato profondamente il cinema. Il mondo aveva fame di emozioni forti, di dissacrazione, di trasgressione e il cinema, in un certo senso, si incaricò di soddisfare...