Early film theories in Italy, 1896-1922

How did Italian writers, scholars, clergymen, psychologists, members of parliament, and philosophers react to the advent of cinema? How did they establish a common language to discuss an invention that exceeded habits and expectations, and that transcended existing forms and categories of thought? This anthology gathers for the first time a large number of social discourses that in Italy tried to define and contextualize cinema from the 1890s to 1920s. What results is an impressive picture of a culture in distress at a 'scandalous' event and eager to appropriate it for the sake of modernization.