Italian 1960s auteur cinema (and beyond): classic, modern, postmodern

In this essay I consider Italian auteur cinema of the 1960s and argue that authorship has a unique status at this historical juncture. Being an auteur in Italian 1960s cinema does not simply mean devising a personal style. Authorship is inextricably intertwined with a set of dynamics related to modernity and specifically to notions of the modern subject and modern art. Auteur cinema appears as a specific manifestation of this broader tendency in the arts. After addressing certain theoretical considerations around auteurism and modernity, I will devote the bulk of this essay to the analysis of Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Federico Fellini in relationship to auteurship, modernity, and in the case of the latter two, postmodernity. Finally, I will address the career of Nanni Moretti to demonstrate how the modern auteur is superseded by the postmodern auteur.