05 Even More On Suso Cecchi d’Amico From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S. [Video]

05 Even More On Suso Cecchi d'Amico From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S. [Video]

Transcript:

We know from that we also know her from “Bellissima” which was one of the earliest movies to look at the movie business – certainly in Italy – and see how it eats people up. Chews them up. Spits them out which is so sad. So it was a meta film before anyone even had a word for that and of course, we’ve seen many films about the film business since then. So she had the cynical view of it which I think is interesting and then also “The Miracle of Milan” which was a little interesting. It was neorealistic and a little surreal going on there. Very interesting. She was a very interesting filmmaker. So her work – oh and I should thank Paulo who’s here today. You’ll run into him because he comes to my MFA and on Zoom right now and does a lecture on neo-realism which is so useful to my students and has taught me so much over the years that I didn’t know just from being a kid who liked to watch Italian films with my grandmother who was from Italy.

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At the recent Screenwriting Research Network conference in Vienna, I gave this talk titled “From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S.”

In the talk, I trace the ways a manual about screenwriting by silent film writer Jeanne Macpherson influenced Suso Cecchi d’Amici who began to utilize Macpherson’s ideas and became the queen of Italian neorealism screenwriting in Europe. Then those Italian neo-realist screenwriters in turn inspired the Los Angeles School of Black Independent Film Makers (the L.A. School). In turn, such as Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry, Haile Gerima, and Julie Dash and their ideas fueled Spike Lee. Finally, when he became the first Black man to head the jury at the Cannes Film Festival (where Suso had once served) his choice of films influenced yet another generation of screenwriters.

From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike:  How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S. (Complete)

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