Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Filmmaker and the Milanese Independent Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s
- 2 Light and Liminal: Marinella Pirelli’s Cinema
- 3 From Vertov to Cine-Journals: Cesare Zavattini’s Experimental Journey
- 4 Gianfranco Brebbia: The ‘Absurd’, Expanded Quality of Experimental Cinema (1962–73)
- 5 Italian Family Films: The Case of the Archivio Nazionale di Bologna
- 6 Independence as Opposition? Redefining Political Cinema Through the Case of Mirko Locatelli
- 7 Travelling the World: The Essay Films of Massimo Bacigalupo (1968–77)
- 8 Tales of Courage: Trade Stories of Italian Independent Cinema
- 9 Niccolò Bruna’s Ethical Process as Social Engagement: Upholding Human Stories against a Backdrop of Globalisation
- 10 The Paradox of ‘Independence’ in Cyberspace: The Case of Italian Experimental and Independent Cinema
- Index
4 - Gianfranco Brebbia: The ‘Absurd’, Expanded Quality of Experimental Cinema (1962–73)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Filmmaker and the Milanese Independent Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s
- 2 Light and Liminal: Marinella Pirelli’s Cinema
- 3 From Vertov to Cine-Journals: Cesare Zavattini’s Experimental Journey
- 4 Gianfranco Brebbia: The ‘Absurd’, Expanded Quality of Experimental Cinema (1962–73)
- 5 Italian Family Films: The Case of the Archivio Nazionale di Bologna
- 6 Independence as Opposition? Redefining Political Cinema Through the Case of Mirko Locatelli
- 7 Travelling the World: The Essay Films of Massimo Bacigalupo (1968–77)
- 8 Tales of Courage: Trade Stories of Italian Independent Cinema
- 9 Niccolò Bruna’s Ethical Process as Social Engagement: Upholding Human Stories against a Backdrop of Globalisation
- 10 The Paradox of ‘Independence’ in Cyberspace: The Case of Italian Experimental and Independent Cinema
- Index
Summary
Introduction In Underground Cinema Today (1974), experimental and independent filmmaker Sirio Luginbühl stated that Gianfranco Brebbia ‘used his camera as if it was a machine-gun that scratches, burns, erodes the film to incandescence and a multitude of explosions of magnificent force and energy, like only a gentle and civilized man can when crying out to the entire world his desperate wish for a revolution’.
This encapsulates Brebbia's persona; a creative energy and an independent intellectual drive to find innovative ways of deploying media, were the features of a strong personality which shaped his vision as an artist in a highly idiosyncratic style. His films – between 1962 and 1973 he made 109 experimental films in 8mm and H8 – are the result of what one could term as an ‘alchemical fusion’ between polished analysis and an instinctive, creative approach to materials and techniques testing the boundaries of film as an expressive medium.
Especially relevant to the study of Brebbia's films are the Historical avant-garde, and the post-WWII film avant-garde with the Cooperativa del Cinema Indipendente (Co-operative of Independent Cinema) and the filmmakers of the New American Cinema.
In Cinema sperimentale e mezzi di massa in Italia (Experimental Cinema and the Mass Media in Italy), film historian Adriano Aprà argued that Italian experimental cinema had no history and no critical context. He wrote:
One could argue that there was no underground in Italy – though films, catalogue lists, and even a critical text, constitute evidence of its existence. This is due to two reasons: these films did not circulate widely, even in parallel or alternative exhibition circuits; and, moreover, they did not receive much critical attention… . Born not to be seen, they were neither aristocratic nor assertive as their American counterparts; they did not aspire to the museum venues, perhaps merely exhibited in domestic spaces in everyday circumstances; given that they were never born they neither died.
For this reason, the task of this chapter is to explore Brebbia's artistic vision in an attempt to provide some historical and critical material that is relevant to bridge a cultural gap in the history of Italian experimental and independent cinema.
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- Experimental and Independent Italian CinemaLegacies and Transformations into the Twenty-First Century, pp. 103 - 130Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2020