Exciting new critical perspectives on popular Italian cinema including melodrama, poliziesco, the mondo film, the sex comedy, missionary cinema and the musical. The book interrogates the very meaning of popular cinema in Italy to give a sense of its complexity and specificity in Italian cinema, from early to contemporary cinema.

Addressing the appeal of the journey narrative from pre-cinema to new media and through documentary, fiction and the spaces between, this collection reveals the journey to be a persistent presence across cinema and in cultural modernity. Drawing on examples from different regions and cultures that traverse art and genre cinema, the book explores the journey as a motif for something wider, a metaphor for self-discovery and social transformation, and evidence of autonomy and progress (or their lack). Illuminating areas of global movement, belonging, diaspora and memory, these essays document...