Hollywood's Semi-Independent Production

Italian neorealism and the ‘woman’s film’: Selznick, De Sica and Stazione Termini

“…39 In addition, Selznick's career as a 'semi-independent' producer complicates the notion of him as standing in unproblematically for Hollywood in the cultural imaginary. 40 It might be more useful instead to consider the film as marking out the limitations and contradictions of the neorealist project itself. 1953, in fact, was the year in which the perceived crisis or 'involution' of neorealism preoccupied Italian critics on the left; this involution was due to multiple factors, such as the expansion of the Italian film industry, its development of a star system and the emergence of popular female stars such as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, who featured in very popular Italian melodramas and iscomedies.…”