ABSTRACT
Early film theories approach cinema holistically, not just as an aesthetic phenomenon. However, it’s also true that the question of whether or not film was an art or how it could become one emerged almost immediately. These discussions were carried out in a number of different contexts throughout the 1920s, not just within the aesthetic debates. For those interested in cinema as a pedagogic tool, for example, cinema was an important point of intersection between pedagogy and aesthetics (Orlando and Orestano, both of which contributed to this field, are included in this anthology). 2 For Catholics, cinema was important in the relationship between morality and art. 3 For positivist psychologists, the developmental dynamic that transformed brute sensations into aesthetics feelings was fundamental. 4 Most of all, the diffuse presence of discourses on aesthetics reflect the degree to which art was a fundamental aspect of ‘tradition’ in Italian cultural history of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The theoretical context of this cultural history is characterized by a deep and complex intersection of different philosophical, scientific, artistic, and literary currents, all of which are interested, despite their different methods and objectives, in the question of art. The texts gathered in this section, even if they do not fully reflect the broadness of Italian discussions on cinema and aesthetics, nonetheless demonstrate the extensive influence this period’s discourses had in defining the principal terms of the debate.
