Introduction: Deep Space Compositions in Italian Film

This collection of four pieces takes a shared focus on the technique of deep space compositions. As an experiment, the pieces first locate a specific instance of deep space in any example of Italian film, then extending analysis and interpretation from this point. They are placed together in a discursive collection in order to compare results. The objective of the pieces is to use the technique as a mode of productively and originally reassessing the films themselves, and to reject preemptive textual readings. The pieces examine La signora di tutti (Max Ophuls, 1934), Le quattro volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010), Un poliziotto scomodo (Stelvio Massi, 1978), and Splendori e miserie di Madame Royale (Vittorio Caprioli, 1970). The pieces bring into focus and reconsider intrinsic formal issues related to space, from its realist credentials through to issues of distraction, focus, simultaneity and movement.