La storia del cinema e la storia nel cinema. Dialogando con Gianfranco Gori e con Pierre Sorlin per riflessioni di metodo e proposte di percorsi didattici

Abstract

History of the Cinema and History in the Cinema. Reflecting with Gianfranco Gori and Pierre Sorlin on Questions of Methods and Didactic Proposals

This essay offers reflections on methodological issues and proposals of didactic paths through the author’s close dialoguing with two highly appreciated scholars of the relations between history and the cinema: the Italian Gianfranco Gori and the French Pierre Sorlin. Gianfranco Gori, in Italy, and Pierre Sorlin, in Europe and North America, play an active role in promoting innovative experiences in training and research focused on the use of film as a fundamental historical source and effective didactic tool. Opening with the author’s reconstruction of the origins of Italian cinema, to demonstrate his assumption by a concrete sample, the dialogue with the two scholars deals with the evolving of cinema techniques and languages up to television and the Internet. By reflecting on methodological issues, the author highlights how a film is always a «double jump into the past» and cinema is not only a mirror of reality, but also a strong agent of socio-cultural changes and of collective identity construction.