Table Of ContentV
i
t
a
l
i
C
Popular cinema has mostly been approached from a ‘cult’
a
perspective that analyses or simply celebrates its textual and
‘transgressive’ qualities. In recent years a new generation of film p
scholars have begun to champion the study of popular genres but
i
the question as to why these films may be worthy of study today t
– ‘what can they offer us now?’ – is rarely asked. capital and popular
a
cinema answers this question by responding to the need for a t
more solid historiographic approach. hl
e
The book situates ‘low’ film genres in their economic and
a
culturally specific contexts (a period of unstable ‘economic miracles’ d
in different countries and regions) and explores the interconnections on
between those contexts, the immediate industrial-financial l
d
interests sustaining the films and the films’ aesthetics. Through l
in-depth examination of what may at first appear as different cycles a
in film production and history – the Italian giallo, the mexican horror rp
film and Hindi horror cinema – capital and popular cinema lays the s
o
foundations of a comparative approach to film; one capable of
a C a p i ta l
accounting for the whole of a national film industry’s production p
r
(‘popular’ and ‘canonic’) and applicable to the study of film
eu
genres globally.
c
l
Based on new research and making available, for the first time o a n d
in english, new information on the work of mario Bava, Fernando a
m
méndez and the ramsay Brothers, capital and popular cinema will
be of interest to second- and third-year undergraduate students, ir
n
post-graduate students, researchers and scholars working on cult g p o p u l a r
and exploitation cinema, genre cinema, national cinema, film and C
!
media theory, and in area studies. i
n
Valentina Vitali is reader in Film studies at the University of east london
e C i n e m a
cover: cora cinema, stockholm, 1960. author unknown.
m
source: Filminstitutet, sweden via Wikimedia commons
a
the dollars are coming!
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk V a l e n t i n a V i t a l i
Capital and popular cinema
Capital and popular cinema
The dollars are coming!
Valentina Vitali
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Valentina Vitali 2016
The right of Valentina Vitali to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 9965 6 hardback
First published 2016
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guar-
antee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
In memory of Paul Willemen
Contents
List of figures viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: national cinema and unstable genres 1
1 The time of popular cinema 10
2 The exclusion of giallo films from the history of Italian cinema 33
3 Mexico: the cinema of Fernando Méndez 77
4 The Hindi horror films of the Ramsay brothers 122
Conclusion 158
Notes 168
Bibliography 185
Filmography 201
Index 207
Figures
1 Advertisement for La ragazza che sapeva troppo, from Il
Messaggero, 27 July 1963. 38
2 Advertisement for La frusta e il corpo, from Il Messaggero,
28 August 1963. 39
3 The Supercinema in Rome. 40
4 Nora lying unconscious at the feet of Trinità dei Monti. Film
still from La ragazza che sapeva troppo (Galatea s.p.a. /
Coronet s.r.l., 1962: director Mario Bava). 47
5 The church of Trinità dei Monti reflected upside down in a
puddle of rainwater. Film still from La ragazza che sapeva
troppo (Galatea s.p.a. / Coronet s.r.l., 1962: director Mario
Bava). 47
6 Film still from El vampiro (Cinematográfica A.B.S.A., 1957:
director Fernando Méndez). 108
7 Poster for El grito de la muerte (Alameda Films, 1958: director
Fernando Méndez). 114
8 Advertisement for Misterios de ultratumba, from Il Messaggero,
30 July 1960. 115
9 Advertising brochure for Ghutan (Ramsay Entertainment,
2007: director Shyam Ramsay). Courtesy of Shyam Ramsay. 137
10 VCD cover of Hotel (Vision Universal, 1981: directors Shyam
and Tulsi Ramsay). Courtesy of Shyam Ramsay. 145
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyright
material, and the publisher will be pleased to be informed of any errors and
omissions for correction in future editions.
Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to Paul Willemen, who encouraged me to write it by
challenging my arguments with unique insight every step of the way.
I would like to thank Jerry Pinto for discussing the Ramsay brothers
with me and for facilitating my research in Mumbai, and Shyam Ramsay
for interrupting his busy production schedule to talk about his films and for
his permission to reproduce the advertising material included here. David
Chapman read early drafts of the manuscript and offered valuable feedback,
for which I am very grateful. Thank you also to Barbara Spina for compiling
the index. The staff at the Bank of Italy’s library in Rome kindly allowed me
to access periodicals that enabled me to trace the circulation of Mario Bava’s
films. I am also grateful to the University of East London for sponsoring
my research in Rome and Mumbai. Every effort has been made to trace the
copyright owners of the illustrations included in this book; anyone claiming
copyright should contact the author. Unless indicated otherwise, the trans-
lations of Italian, French and Spanish texts are mine.
