I've just finished Cinema Italiano and here is my review.
I have always wanted to read this from when I first saw the book on Amazon as I am a film fan and have lots of titles on DVD & Blu-Ray. The book centres on the Italian film markey which I am sure a few of you have seen a few of these under the English / American names. Cinema Italiano covers everything you want to know and then some.
Ranging from the Peplum genre of Hercules and Hercules Unchained (both starring Steve Reeves) to the more Italian popular Maciste films (retitled Hercules for us English speaking viewers). Then Cinema Italiano talks about the Spaghetti Western genre, which shot to popularity with the Clint Eastwood classic A Fistful Of Dollars. The books goes into great detail about the genre that includes the Italian popular Django series, The Great Silence through to the lesser known Sartana, Trinity and Once Upon A Time In The West.
There is too much to talk about as every genre from the 50's through to the 80's is written about. These include War (Inglorious Bastards), Drama (La Notte), Peplum (Goliath And The Dragon), through to Horror (Black Sunday), Giallo (New York Ripper) etc.
Cinema Italiano also features in it's pages talk of the directors such as Lucio Fulci and why he was considered a hack through to Dario Argento and why everyone loved his films, Mario Bava and his early horror films through to his later films like A Bay Of Blood. Then there are the stars such as Franco Nero, Fabio Testi and Gian Garko to name a few. So if you are into Italian Cinema then I would check this book out.
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