Part 1 Preface Part 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 1. What is Giallo? Chapter 4 2. Toward an Understanding of Vernacular Cinema Chapter 5 3. Space and Place in Italian Giallo Cinema: The Ambivalence of Modernity Chapter 6 4. Murder and Other Sexual Perversions Chapter 7 5. Watching the Detectives: Amateur Detectives and the Giallo as Detective Cinema Chapter 8 6. The Killer's Identity Chapter 9 7. "Weird Science of the Most Egregious Kind": The Ambivalence of Belief in the Giallo Film Part 10 8. "A Perverse Sublime": Excess and the Set Piece in the Giallo Part 11 9. The Giallo as Cinema of Poetry Part 12 10. From Giallo to Slasher Part 13 Filmography Part 14 Bibliography Part 15 Index Part 16 About the Author
Mikel J. Koven is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Worcester. He is the author of Blaxploitation Films (2001) and Films, Folklore and Urban Legends (Scarecrow, 2007).
...an interesting study of Giallo...a very detailed analysis of the
main themes of the genre...
*Killing In Style*
La Dolce Morte is an informed and engaging examination of neglected
and marginalized films that purposely provokes readers to
re-examine biases against the giallo.
*Rue Morgue*
La Dolce Morte presents sound and interesting textual analysis of
an impressive number of gialli.
*Senses Of Cinema*
...this is a serious contribution to film studies. It opens a side
of Italian cinema that is rarely studied. Recommended.
*CHOICE, Vol. 44, No. 11 (July 2007)*
...a carefully constructed presentation and discussion of one of
the most important phenomena in modern cinema.
*Film Studies*
"Giallo," Italian for "yellow," is applied to a vernacular film
genre (e.g., Sergio Martino's Torso, 1973) based on mystery novels
with bright yellow covers that an Italian publisher has been
producing since the 1920s. In the context of psychodynamics and
Italian audiences, Koven (film and television studies, U. of Wales,
Aberystwyth) explores themes including the outsider,
sexually-driven murder, the amateur detective's role, and a view of
these films from Pasolini's theory of a "cinema of poetry." He
concludes that gialli, like other horror cinema, reflect
modernity's ambivalence toward both traditional folk beliefs and
science.
*Reference and Research Book News*
Koven's study is highly detailed and wide ranging. Koven clearly
adores his chosen subject and explores it with an eye to
accessibility—he often writes wittily but always lucidly—and these
are reasons why the book is so engaging.
*Gothic Studies*
Koven's well-organized catalog of the subgenre's characteristics
makes his book a valuable reference tool as well as an incisive
critical study.
*The American Society Of Cinematography*
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