TALK: Futurist Cinema, Literature, and War: A. G. Bragaglia's "Thais" (1917)
Lucia Re (Professor of Italian, UCLA)
Friday, May 19th, 4-6PM
Location: South Hall 2635
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Lucia Re will discuss her work on futurist cinema at the final Culture, Gender, and Aesthetics RFG meeting of the academic year. This presentation will analyze the futurist silent film "Tha•s" by A.G. Bragaglia (1917), the only preserved futurist film. Issues that will be explored include: 1. The symbolic significance of Prampolini's abstract sets and dŽcor; 2. the figure of the "femme fatale" as an
ironic ?return of the repressed? for futurism, and the literary genealogy of Thais as a character; 3. the meta-cinematic quality of the film and its relationship with the futurist notion of technology; 4. the connection between the film and World War One. Part of the
film will be screened in video format. Refreshments will be served and the talk will be followed by a question and answer session.

Lucia Re is Professor of Italian at UCLA, where she also teaches in Comparative Literature and Women's Studies. Her most recent book is
the forthcoming "Women and the Avant-Garde."

This event is sponsored by the IHC's Culture, Gender, and Aesthetics Research Focus Group. The Culture, Gender, and Aesthetics RFG is co-convened by Professors Maurizia Boscagli of English and Bhaskar
Sarkar of Film Studies.

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