Books by M. Elena D'Amelio
Papers by M. Elena D'Amelio
Conference Presentations by M. Elena D'Amelio
Summary: Vittorio Gassman is considered to have been one of the most important and successful Ita... more Summary: Vittorio Gassman is considered to have been one of the most important and successful Italian actors, a movie star who shined both on stage and on screen, especially in the genre of the commedia all’italiana (Comedy Italian style). However, before becoming an Italian star, Gassman worked as a transnational actor in Hollywood. He signed a contract with MGM in 1952 and worked in Hollywood until 1954, resulting in American films such as Sombrero (1953) and Rhapsody (1954), and transnational co-productions Mambo (1954) and War and Peace (1954). After 1954, Gassman left Hollywood to continue his career in Italy. However, while his Italian career is well documented, his transatlantic career has never been properly investigated, mostly due to the fact that in Hollywood, unlike in Italy, Gassman never reached stardom status. The investigation of his “failure” in Hollywood, compared to his success in Italy, is the subject of this paper.
My method is to interpret Gassman’s work in Hollywood through concepts of masculinity, ethnicity, and sexuality that circulated in the fifties, concepts that center on two strands, one represented by reviewing the popular interest and gossip around the marriage and the divorce of Vittorio Gassman and American actress Shelley Winters, and the other by the construction of the Latin lover stereotype in Hollywood movies. I believe that the failure of Gassman’s career in Hollywood is deeply intertwined with both the failure of his own marriage to Shelley Winters, as well as the problematic casting of him as a Latin lover in the MGM movies. I argue that Gassman never achieved stardom in Hollywood because he did not represent the hegemonic masculinity commonly perpetuated by films of the fifties, symbolized by the “New American Domesticated Male” (Cohan 53), and because he actively refused to embody the Italian masculinity associated with the ethnic stereotype of the Latin lover. The period of my examination mainly focus on the years from 1952 to 1954, which includes Gassman’s marriage to Winters and his contractual years at MGM. I explore how Gassman was perceived as celebrity in Hollywood and the difference to his stardom status in Italy, as well as how the paradigms of star studies and celebrity studies apply to Vittorio Gassman’s case. Further, I consider Gassman’s transnational career as an Italian actor working in Hollywood in the fifties, and how the reception of his Italian-ness is contextualized within his works.
Category: Stardom Studies
Keywords: Archival Research, Stardom, Hollywood, Italian Cinema, Transnationalism
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Books by M. Elena D'Amelio
Papers by M. Elena D'Amelio
Conference Presentations by M. Elena D'Amelio
My method is to interpret Gassman’s work in Hollywood through concepts of masculinity, ethnicity, and sexuality that circulated in the fifties, concepts that center on two strands, one represented by reviewing the popular interest and gossip around the marriage and the divorce of Vittorio Gassman and American actress Shelley Winters, and the other by the construction of the Latin lover stereotype in Hollywood movies. I believe that the failure of Gassman’s career in Hollywood is deeply intertwined with both the failure of his own marriage to Shelley Winters, as well as the problematic casting of him as a Latin lover in the MGM movies. I argue that Gassman never achieved stardom in Hollywood because he did not represent the hegemonic masculinity commonly perpetuated by films of the fifties, symbolized by the “New American Domesticated Male” (Cohan 53), and because he actively refused to embody the Italian masculinity associated with the ethnic stereotype of the Latin lover. The period of my examination mainly focus on the years from 1952 to 1954, which includes Gassman’s marriage to Winters and his contractual years at MGM. I explore how Gassman was perceived as celebrity in Hollywood and the difference to his stardom status in Italy, as well as how the paradigms of star studies and celebrity studies apply to Vittorio Gassman’s case. Further, I consider Gassman’s transnational career as an Italian actor working in Hollywood in the fifties, and how the reception of his Italian-ness is contextualized within his works.
Category: Stardom Studies
Keywords: Archival Research, Stardom, Hollywood, Italian Cinema, Transnationalism
My method is to interpret Gassman’s work in Hollywood through concepts of masculinity, ethnicity, and sexuality that circulated in the fifties, concepts that center on two strands, one represented by reviewing the popular interest and gossip around the marriage and the divorce of Vittorio Gassman and American actress Shelley Winters, and the other by the construction of the Latin lover stereotype in Hollywood movies. I believe that the failure of Gassman’s career in Hollywood is deeply intertwined with both the failure of his own marriage to Shelley Winters, as well as the problematic casting of him as a Latin lover in the MGM movies. I argue that Gassman never achieved stardom in Hollywood because he did not represent the hegemonic masculinity commonly perpetuated by films of the fifties, symbolized by the “New American Domesticated Male” (Cohan 53), and because he actively refused to embody the Italian masculinity associated with the ethnic stereotype of the Latin lover. The period of my examination mainly focus on the years from 1952 to 1954, which includes Gassman’s marriage to Winters and his contractual years at MGM. I explore how Gassman was perceived as celebrity in Hollywood and the difference to his stardom status in Italy, as well as how the paradigms of star studies and celebrity studies apply to Vittorio Gassman’s case. Further, I consider Gassman’s transnational career as an Italian actor working in Hollywood in the fifties, and how the reception of his Italian-ness is contextualized within his works.
Category: Stardom Studies
Keywords: Archival Research, Stardom, Hollywood, Italian Cinema, Transnationalism