Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies

Food Between Life and Death in the Cinema of Marco Ferreri and Itami Jūzō

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Abstract

International cinema of every era has told of the relationship between men, women and food. In many cases it is presented as a common thread capable of binding every life impulse: sex, spirituality, greed, even death. In the cases of Italy and Japan, there are two directors in particular for whom the theme recurs with greater incisiveness: Marco Ferreri and Itami Jūzo, and especially in their works La Grande Abbuffata and Tanpopo. Both movies also represent a critique of the consumer society and the general decay of civil entourage. The characters thus contribute to representing a sort of mythology of the human being, each distinct in a grotesque, surreal and in many cases parodic way while they use food to translate their impulses. This essay aims to highlight the similarities between the main narrative strategies used by the two directors.


open access | peer reviewed

Submitted: June 10, 2021 | Accepted: July 21, 2021 | Published Dec. 22, 2021 | Language: en

Keywords Life • Cinema • Death • Tampopo • Symbolism • La Grande Bouffe • Food • Ferreri • Itami

Copyright © 2021 Maria Roberta Novielli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-559-9/014


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