Memory in CRISTO SI È FERMATO a EBOLI and CRONACA DI UNA MORTE ANNUNCIATA: Considerations of Francesco Rosi's Identity as a Director

Since the late 1970's, Francesco Rosi's cinema is considered to have experienced a substantial change: from a rigorous historical, documentary and politically committed approach the director has turned towards more commercial productions, as evidenced by the recruitment of international stars, a tendency towards sentimentalism and nostalgia, and a refrain from serious ideological engagement. The article analyzes two of Rosi's later films, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1979) and Cronaca di una morte annunciata (1987), in order to challenge these readings. The analysis of the use and function of subjective memory in the two films paves the way to a discussion of the impact that postmodernity had on the director's identity. The swift cultural transformations brought about by the turbo-capitalist economy and by globalization have progressively submerged that sense of understanding and control over historic and cultural dynamics which constituted Gramsci's legacy to neorealist and post-neorealist intellectuals. As a response to the confusion, relativity and disorder originated by the advent of a postmodern society the director points at the constructive value of personal memories, a route which climaxes in Diario Napoletano (Rosi's autobiographical documentary of his personal and artistic past) and in his final decision to renounce cinema and return to the theater.