Prestigio de la Nación vs mirada deconstruyente: las imágenes de Italia en el Festival Internacional del cine de Venecia desde el final de la 2ª Guerra Mundial hasta el "milagro económico"

This Wide intends to investigate what kinds of Italy's images emerged at the Venice International Film Festival from the second postwar to the years of so-called «economic miracle». In postwar years there was a conflict between the national prestige for several successes — mostly abroad — and the image of socio-economic poverty that those films built. The most powerful politician in the Italian cinematic industry at that time, the Christian Democratic G. Andreotti, alternated between acknowledgement of the commercial, cultural and diplomatic value of those successes, even though films focused on a poor country, and the explicit annoyance for their screening and the consequent attempts to censor those, both at home and abroad. Concerning the «Mostra del cinema» from the second half of 195os to first half of 196os and its function of «economic miracle» showcase, it is not possible to define one and only image of Italy. On the one hand, the «Mostra» was essential in 1959 to launch again Italian cinema at l\me and abroad thanks to prize-giving of II generale della Royere (R. Rosellini) and La grande guerra (M. Monicelli) and this way it helped to promote an indulgent image of Italian, who were sly but nice, opportunist but ultimately good folks. On the other hand, the «Mostra» not only exalted that process of economic expansion and modernization Italy passed through, but also — and especially — promoted a more problematic and deconstructive representation of the country, both of its past and present