Persiane chiuse. La rappresentazione degli spazi del piacere e delle figure di donne in Adua e le compagne (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1960) e Nella città l’inferno (Renato Castellani, 1958)

Abstract

The Merlin act of 1958 sanctioned the closing of all «case chiuse», or brothels, thus generating a debate that addressed the issue of the control of feminine sexuality. Film narrative of that period reinterprets the topic through a dynamic – explored here in two study cases – that places in tension the representation of those «places of pleasure» and of discipline − brothels and prisons – open towards the exterior, in a movement that seems to generate unexpected spaces of freedom linked to the relationships between women, but which often ends by closing those openings and relegating women to the dominance of the male gaze.