Dung on the Red Carpet: The Image of Peasants in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 and Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs

This article places Bernardo Bertolucci’s Novecento (1976) and Ermanno Olmi’s L’albero degli zoccoli (1978) in dialogue to analyze the image of peasants that these films offer. It demonstrates that the 1970s were a period of intense liminality for Italy, something which influenced substantially the formation and production of the image of peasants in these films. Firstly, we explore contingent issues of the period, including the exhaustion of the economic miracle, and black and red terrorism, to start unpacking the peasant image constructed in the films. Subsequently, we use the standpoints of machinery, landscape and historical movement to show that the directors wielded this image to confront the encroaching process of modernization of Italian society. Finally, we expose and reflect on certain illusory claims of historical authenticity which are built on a schemata of stereotypes and which confirm that the 1970s were an influential phase for peasant imagery. Many of these issues continue to haunt us today. This research, then, enriches our analytical toolbox for the history and future dynamics of peasant studies, intruding disciplines which span from Italian history to film studies.