ABSTRACT
Luigi Zampa's 1947 film Angelina exemplifies the paradoxical trend whereby, with the critical and commercial success of Italian neorealism, Italy's post-war cinema became progressively more central in the global marketplace as it focused increasingly on the domestic periphery. This chapter explores the implications of that paradox. I demonstrate how, even as Angelina's international distribution raised awareness of the miserable conditions endured by the inhabitants of the Roman periphery, it also galvanized the resistance of those same inhabitants, who accused Zampa of aestheticizing their oppression. From this perspective, the cultural centrality of films like Angelina, and of Italian neorealism more broadly, can be understood to present substantial ethical and political challenges, since facilitating the increased diffusion of images of Italy's impoverishment inevitably inspired shame as well as sympathy, marginalization as well as solidarity. I argue that Angelina effectively anticipates this conflicting reception, representing on screen the differing reactions of diverse audiences, in Italy and internationally, to portrayals of the periphery. In this way, Zampa's film reveals itself to be a significant meditation on the limits of cinema—however realistic, however well intentioned, however popular—to convey an authentic voice to the center from the periphery.
