<i>La 'segnorina' neorealista tra melodramma e noir:</i> La tratta delle bianche <i>di Luigi Comencini</i>

Abstract

Italian critics of the early 50s labelled as "pink neo-realism" contemporary movies which tried to bring the aesthetics of the Italian Cinema of the Liberation back inside the boundaries of a more narrative and overtly mainstream cinema. Even though this was a very moralistic stand, historically grounded in the harsh attitude of Italian debate about cinema in the early days of the Cold War, it is nonetheless an interesting starting point in order to reframe the picture of that kind of cinema. It not only borrows its relationship with the new bounds of representation (poverty, prostitution, organized crime are now allowed to appear in an Italian movie) from the not yet concluded neorealist season, but it also has connections with American film genres; however, in doing so it drops the usual didactic tone in favour of a badly concealed sensationalism. For its strong ties both to the neorealist cinema and to genres such as film noir or melodrama, La tratta delle bianche (Luigi Comencini, 1952) can be seen as an ideal example of how the intersection between these different aspects worked in a crucial moment for the definition of the Post-World War II Italian cinematic industry.