Examines the themes and styles that characterize the work of Italian film directors from different generations, ranging from Marco Bellocchio, Dario Argento, Marco Tullio Giordana, and Nanni Moretti, who made their name in the 1960s and 1970s, to Oscar winners such as Gabriele Salvatores who forged their careers in the late 1980s.

William Hope completed a doctorate in Italian literature and film at the University of Birmingham and lectures at the University of Salford. His main research area is modern Italian cinema, he is a member of the editorial board of Studies in European Cinema, and is currently co-ordinating an AHRC-funded project entitled A New Italian Political Cinema? His publications include Giuseppe Tornatore: Emotion, Cognition, Cinema (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2006) and the edited volume Italian Cinema - New Directions (Peter Lang, 2005).