Italian Vernacular Cinema

film is not the art of scholars, but for illiterates 

Around 1970´s, working class italian used to go to the cinema every night as part of their daily life. Being transform into a habit, it became more of a social space where the convention of watching a film was different and talking, drinking and smoking during the show was common. It was divided according to classes; Prima and seconda visione was always in mayor cities and the audience selected the film to watch, while the terza visione was more of an industrial and rural area and the audience had limited choices and would watch the same films for a while.

This is the time where auteurs like Federico Fellini started introducing his films full of style and sophistication such as La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 ½  (1963).

Other auteurs from the time that shared their own points of view about modernity, set pieces and eye line shot where pioneers to the new genre called Giallo, a mystery/horror that had place between 1970 and 1975 with films like The bird with the crystal plumage by Dario Argento (1970), The girl who knew too much by Mario Brava (1963) and Death walks on high heels by Luciano Ercoli (1971).

Speaking of the essence of this films and what the auteurs where trying to express, some of the contemporary films that we can find with similar aspects could be Black Swan (2010), Death Proof (2007), Dressed to kill (1980) and Black Christmas (1974)