La scalata al sesso. L'erotismo nel cinema italiano degli anni Sessanta

The thesis analyzes the process of sexualization of the Italian cinema in the sixties. Following a chronological order, the study employs a methodology which combines film studies with cultural studies, the history of sexuality and gender studies. Its ultimate aim is to read the liberalization of the representations of sex in Italian cinema as part of a wider socio-cultural process. As such, the thesis reconstructs not only the cinematic culture of the time, but moreover consistently analyzes discourses on sexuality in publishing, newspapers and the popular press. Furthermore, it investigates the foreign influences in Italian popular culture, as proof of the increasing transnational character of the cultural industries. In particular, the five main sections of the thesis focus on: the theme of women's emancipation in the film inchiesta, the dissemination of psychoanalysis and sexology in Italian mass culture and comedy, the representations of gender and sexuality in popular film genres, the “sexual revolution” in relation to the birth of the adult-only magazines and the formation of the “sexy” film genre.