Mary P. Wood is Reader in European Cinema at Birkbeck College, University of London
'Simply the best book available on any national cinema, capturing the look, feel and pleasure of film. It is a lifetime's work: a very successful integration of a profound knowledge of Italian cinema and culture, combined with a long and intensive involvement in the dynamic and combative culture of film theory, teaching and debate.'Barry Curtis, Middlesex University'A pleasure to read. Mary Wood's discussion of a wide range of films and topics - genres, auteurism, landscape, realism, melodrama, history past, gender, nationhood - is admirable, providing fascinating insights into individual films as well as insights into the economic, cultural and political context of Italian cinema.'Marcia Landy, University of Pittsburgh'Wood's great strength is her ability to construct sophisticated readings of films, genres, directors and the themes within this framework.'Italian Studies'Majestic.'Italian Studies Vol 63 No 1, Spring 2008