Militant Cinema and Political Documentary in Italy. The Case of Marco Bellocchio as an Example of Its Evolution

Abstract

This article presents the evolution of the Italian political documentary in the politicised context of the 60s and 70s, moving from the rich tradition of militant cinema linked to the neorealist cinema heritage, to the emergence of new approaches to historical and political documentary or explorations in ideological terms of different social realities. This development is illustrated through the unique case of Marco Bellocchio (1939), a key Italian filmmaker of the past five decades, whose little-known documentary work reflects the shift from a pure militant cinema albeit with personal nuances (Paola, 1969), to a personal documentary style that explores extreme social situations in ideological terms, as in the case of his most emblematic documentary Matti da slegare [Fit to Be Untied] (1975), and finally to the positing of reflections on Italian political history using conventional documentary forms (Sogni Infranti, 1995) and new explorations in the combination of fiction and documentary with a political dimension, as in three of his most recent films: Buongiorno notte [Good morning, night] (2003), Vincere [To Win] (2009) and Bella addormentata [Sleeping Beauty] (2012).