Moving Images, Shifting Cities: Cinema and Urban Spaces in Postwar Italy (1950–1968) 

Andrea Gelardi, Ph.D.

Between the late 1940s and the early 1970s,  Italy underwent profound and accelerated transformations of its urban landscapes. In the wake of World War II, the devastation of major cities prompted widespread reconstruction, triggering rapid urban expansion beyond traditional boundaries. Driven by intense internal migrations from the rural South to the industrial North, and fueled by economic growth during the so-called economic miracle (1957–1963), Italian cities reshaped both their spatial configurations and social structures. Amidst this upheaval, cinema emerged as a crucial cultural force: both as a mediator of urban identities in transition and as a visual archive of the country’s dramatic – and traumatic – transformations. Films captured the contradictions of a society caught between rural traditions and modern urban life, revealing how cities became arenas of negotiation, exclusion and aspiration. Against this background, the project addresses a central question: how did cinema – across fiction, documentary, and popular film culture – represent and negotiate the social, spatial, and cultural transformations set in motion by the transformation of its landscapes? To unpack this inquiry, the project examines how different kinds of cinematic productions portrayed the spatial segregation and social displacement produced by post-war urban reconstruction, adopting a critical perspective informed by anti-colonial theories of the colonial city. Along with this axis, the research will also explore how cinematic narratives of mobility and internal migration articulated evolving urban identities, negotiating the tensions between traditional belonging, regional attachments, and the emerging models of modern urban citizenship.