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Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema is the first book to explore contemporary male stars and cinematic constructions of masculinity in Italy. Uniting star analysis with a detailed consideration of the masculinities that are dominating current Italian cinema, the study addresses the supposed crisis of masculinity.

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Introduction: Trouble Men: Masculinity, Stardom, and Italian Cinema 1. Mad About the Boy: Teen Stars and Serious Actors 2. Comedy and Masculinity, Italian Style 3. Boys Don´t Cry: Weeping Fathers, Absent Mothers, and Male Melodrama 4. The Last Real Men: Romanzo criminale 5. Brothers in Arms: History and Masculinity in the anni di piombo 6. Impersonating Men: History, Biopics, and Performance

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"Catherine O´Rawe´s Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema is an original and ground-breaking approach to stars and masculinity in the post-2000 Italian cinema. The author skillfully blends analyses of individual performances and star bodies with a consideration of different film genres. The book is especially useful as an introduction to a new generation of male actors and recent films that treat a contemporary crisis of Italian masculinity. O´Rawe´s book should be required reading for everyone who loves the Italian cinema." - Peter Bondanella, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Film Studies and Italian, Indiana University, USA

"O´Rawe´s analysis of a wide range of films released in Italy since the turn of the millennium provides a fascinating reflection on male stardom, the anxieties of contemporary masculinity, and the enduring dominance of the homosocial paradigm in Italian culture and society. This book will be an indispensable point of reference for all future studies of the representation of gender on Italian screens." - µine O´Healy, Professor of Italian, Loyola Marymount University, USA

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Catherine O´Rawe is Senior Lecturer in Italian at Bristol University, UK. She is co-editor of The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts (Palgrave, 2010), and has published widely on post-war and post-2000 Italian cinema.

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