Heroínas a la italiana: Narrativas que reparan
It’s been two years since our lives have been ruled by the SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19. It’s contagious variants keep multiplying: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, omicron, –plus the combination between covid and flu–, and at the moment of writing, the recently discovered omicron BA 2. It looks like...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Spanish |
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2022
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| Online Access: | https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=8793072 |
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| Summary: | It’s been two years since our lives have been ruled by the SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19. It’s contagious variants keep multiplying: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, omicron, –plus the combination between covid and flu–, and at the moment of writing, the recently discovered omicron BA 2. It looks like the promised “new normality” may never come.We think of the virus as an invisible enemy that attacks in waves, bombings not quite like any other humanity has suffered, but ferocious all the same. We are not the first in doing this obnoxious comparison between war and virus. Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a meaningful speech: “Since German unification, no, since the Second World War, there has been no challenge to our nation that has demanded such a degree of common and united action”. Additionally, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced on TV the re-inforcement of quarantine: “We are facing this country’s worst crisis since World War II”.After the worst calamities, we as human beings have taken refuge in narratives that “heal”. These manifest themselves as witnesses of the memory but also as expressions of hope. Tales of neorealism come to mind, those of Rossellini and De Sica. War told upon the still smoking ruins of bombed cities in a documentary like recording. According to Bazin (1990) it depicts a revolutionary humanism.
Furthermore, neorealism gave place to other narratives. A bound predecessor of spaghetti western with similar themes: civilization or barbarity. Being its best example Sergio Le-one’s dollar trilogy.Italian cinema went from the horror of a social order devastated by the postwar to another. One of anti-heroes with cowboy ́s hats, horses and guns. Movies with maximum violence, however, still keep shines of illusion, partnership and a clear message in favor of peace.In this text we will reflect on how cinema has taken care of bringing social suffering to the screen, presenting never seen before heroine: Italian style. Some are unconditional and indomitable; others are at the same time victims and villains. The differences between the feminine stereotypes of Northamerican western and Cinecittà’s far west will be a neces-sary place, in addition to some side notes about traditional masculinities in homoerotic relationshipsWe understand that 2020 was neorealist, the ordeal that simply faced us with death. For the survivors it brought hunger, unemployment and desperate improvisation in many as-pects -from international sanitarian policies to home-made face masks. Nowadays with “Monday’s newspaper”, there’s also the certainty that the hot led of this ruthless enemy is coming to a halt. In 2021, lack of compassion ruled, a cruelty only seen in Italian westerns. Nihilism and skepticism manifested in conspiracy theories and demonstrations against life saving vaccines. Displays of generalized misanthropy in the rise of individual liberties.¿What can we foresee for 2022? “The effects to come are incalculable. They are elusive, because previous experience does not allow us an estimate to endure the distressing un-certainty. And we count on that. On nothing” (Méndez, 2020, p.250) |
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