Showcasing neurosis in Italian cinema of the economic boom

This essay explores neurosis in Italian cinema during the years of Italy’s economic boom, analysing its role in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il deserto rosso [‘Red Desert’] (1964) and Elio Petri’s Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto [‘Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion’] (1969) and La classe operaia va in paradiso [‘The Working Class Goes to Heaven’] (1971). The emotional and psychological turmoil of characters suffering from neurosis reflects their reaction to changes affecting Italian society of the time. As members of a community transformed by new social values and gender roles, neurotic characters embody and become spokespeople for the revolution of cultural norms taking place. I consider the differing factors that influence a gendered portrayal of neurosis in certain films of the 1960s and 1970s through a comparative analysis of female and male characters demonstrating neurotic symptoms and tendencies. Demonstrating how neurosis serves in the films examined to counter predominant gender models for Italian women and men of the time, I argue that these films propose re-evaluations of traditional forms of femininity and masculinity. Narrating the neurotic functions in these films to transform narratives of normality, portraying neurosis as a source of agency and knowledge rather than individual or social liability.