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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Radiance Films @filmsradiance.bsky.social · 15d

RIP Claudia Cardinale (1938-2025), an icon of Italian cinema and the embodiment of postwar European glamour.

Alongside her work with Fellini, Leone and Visconti she appeared in five Radiance releases, ranking amongst our most featured actors.

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Christina Newland @christinalefou.bsky.social · 15d

Can't believe I'm writing another post like this: RIP to a cinema giant. Claudia Cardinale was maybe the most beautiful woman in film history, but more, her unforgettable feline presence graces some of the greatest movies of all time, from Visconti to Leone to Comencini. :(

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame @kellogginstitute.bsky.social · 25d

Join Kellogg’s Visiting Fellows program at the University of Notre Dame! We seek scholars and practitioners from diverse social science disciplines working on global democracy. Apply today to advance your research in an ideal scholarly environment.

🔗 Learn more & apply: kellogg.nd.edu/vfellowships

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

History Channel @historyachannel.bsky.social · 26d

🎬 In 1946, Italian director Vittorio De Sica released Shoeshine, a poignant tale of two boys caught in postwar poverty. Its raw realism earned an honorary Oscar and helped define the neorealist movement—reshaping global cinema’s moral lens. #CinemaHistory

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

History Channel @historyachannel.bsky.social · 27d

🎬 In 1945, Italian director Roberto Rossellini began filming Paisan, blending fiction with real wartime experiences. Shot amid postwar ruins with non-professional actors, it pioneered neorealism and reshaped global cinema’s approach to truth and storytelling. #CinemaHistory

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Laura E. Ruberto @laura-e-ruberto.bsky.social · 26d

Happy to share that the exhibit I curated w/ @josephsciorra.bsky.social , Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, has been extended through November 26, 2025. Check it out!

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm
25 W 43rd St Fl 17, New York, NY
@calandrainstitute.bsky.social

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Charles L. Leavitt IV @clliv.bsky.social · 26d

"Sooner or later someone misreads the Italian and the system breaks down."
- Gore Vidal

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · Sep 8

8 September 1915 | Italian Jewish woman, Milena Modigliani, was born in Livorno.

She was deported to #Auschwitz from Milan on 30 January 1944 with her son Paolo. They were both murdered in a gas chamber after the arrival selection.

Black-and-white photograph of a woman standing in a courtyard, holding a bundled baby. She is dressed in formal clothing, including a hat, and smiles confidently at the camera. Behind her, laundry hangs from clotheslines stretched between balconies, and another figure stands on one of the balconies, partially obscured by the shadows. The building's structure and plants add depth to the scene, reflecting an everyday moment in a residential area.

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Vanda Wilcox @vandawilcox.bsky.social · Sep 4

The new issue of @modernitaly.bsky.social is finally out & it's the special issue I guest edited with Maria Stella Chiaruttini, entitled: Turning Points and Transformations in Contemporary Italy: A Century of Big Changes Through ‘Small Histories’

snappy, I know...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Modern Italy: Volume 30 - Turning Points and Transformations in Contemporary Italy: A Century of Big Changes Through ‘Small Histories’ | Cambridge Core

Cambridge Core - Modern Italy - Volume 30 - Turning Points and Transformations in Contemporary Italy: A Century of Big Changes Through ‘Small Histories’

www.cambridge.org

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Radiance Films @filmsradiance.bsky.social · Aug 26

An Italian Countess and Austrian Lieutenant embark on a lustful forbidden affair in Luchino Visconti's masterful period melodrama SENSO.

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Zito @zeets.bsky.social · Aug 12

I’m obviously a fan of Calvino — a few of the reviews of my book rightly invoke him as an inspiration for the way I write — and one of my favorite things that he does is how he can condense the tragedy of a life in one or two paragraphs. It’s so light, but it doesn’t feel like anything is missed

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Aug 8

if you want to get a sense of just how crazy poor WW2 Italy was, I strongly recommend Norman Lewis' incredible book NAPLES '44. By 1971 that same country had become the world's dominant producer of white goods. (Judt's POSTWAR is also very good on this)

Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · Aug 8

Italy was a pre-modern country with some modern cities under fascism. It was democracy — specifically Christian Democracy — that gave everyone houses, sewers, cars and fridges. I remember an interview with a rural person who finally got an indoor bathroom and said “I finally feel like a human being”

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Aug 11

really recommend ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS for a cinematic look at the kind of poverty that was pretty typical in early post-war italy

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Aug 8

if you want to get a sense of just how crazy poor WW2 Italy was, I strongly recommend Norman Lewis' incredible book NAPLES '44. By 1971 that same country had become the world's dominant producer of white goods. (Judt's POSTWAR is also very good on this)

Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · Aug 8

Italy was a pre-modern country with some modern cities under fascism. It was democracy — specifically Christian Democracy — that gave everyone houses, sewers, cars and fridges. I remember an interview with a rural person who finally got an indoor bathroom and said “I finally feel like a human being”

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · Jul 23

I would love it if neorealism made a comeback, but in the United States right this minute

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Radiance Films @filmsradiance.bsky.social · Jun 17

The struggles of an Italian fishing family are told in Luchino Visconti's classic LA TERRA TREMA. Combining documentary realism and poetic tragedy, it remains one of the finest examples of neorealism put on film.

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Fabio Simonetti @efghilmno.bsky.social · Jun 20

Your excruciating wait is almost over!! In just 143 days you will be able to read my new book, Encounters in Wartime Italy: A Social History of Invasion, Liberation, and Occupation, which Oxford University Press will publish on 10 November 2025!!

Preview it on the OUP website: lnkd.in/e4tMffRX

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Fabio Simonetti @efghilmno.bsky.social · Jun 14

You don't see that many top Italian Studies heads in the same room every day (and not all of them are in the picture...).

Great day Yesterday at the Italian Cultural Institute... e tanti auguri Modern Italy per i tuoi primi 30 anni!!

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

CatherineOR @cathorave.bsky.social · Jun 6

R.I.P Enzo Staiola, maybe THE face of Italian neorealism after Bicycle Thieves. I’m quoted in this Washington Post obituary of him archive.ph/fydat

Photo of Enzo Staiola from Bicycle Thieves (1948)

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UCFL Early Career Academics Special Interest Group @ucfl-eca.bsky.social · Jun 5

📣 Stipendiary Lecturership in Italian: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNJ207/s...

Stipendiary Lecturership in Italian at University of Oxford

Explore an exciting academic career as a Stipendiary Lecturership in Italian. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

www.jobs.ac.uk

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Serena Vandi @serevandi.bsky.social · Jun 5

A fantastic role at UCFL ECA SIG: university-council-for-languages.org/early-career... @ucfl-eca.bsky.social

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Charles L. Leavitt IV @clliv.bsky.social · May 28

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/antologaia/9...

AntoloGaia - Rutgers University Press

In this stirring memoir by a member of the first generation of LGBTQ+ activists in Italy, Porpora Marcasciano tells her story and shares the struggles and ac...

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

The Center for Italian Studies at Notre Dame @nditalianstudies.bsky.social · May 17

From a very grateful Assistant Director of the Center for Italian Studies (and a newly hooded Dr): thank you Prof. @clliv.bsky.social for supporting my graduate studies since the beginning and for making this moment happen. We did it!
#PhD #ClassOf2025 #NotreDame #ItalianStudies #ItalianCinema

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

The Center for Italian Studies at Notre Dame @nditalianstudies.bsky.social · May 5

We are delighted to announce that Prof. Charles Leavitt has won the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize to support his research on the experience of occupation, particularly the Italian response to the American occupation after World War II in Tombolo, a pine grove on the coast of Tuscany. [1/2]

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Selena Daly @selenadaly.bsky.social · May 2

It's been 9 years in the making so I'm very excited that my book, Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War, now has a cover, a webpage and a publication date (June for online, July for print!). 🥳 A steal at only £35! www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

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Reposted by Charles L. Leavitt IV

Laura E. Ruberto @laura-e-ruberto.bsky.social · Apr 3

New exhibit! Opening soon!

“Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States”
Curated Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra
Designed by Polly Franchini

May 1 - September 26, 2025

@calandrainstitute.bsky.social
25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor
New York, NY

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