Seeking a Face for Crime in 1970s Italy. Intermedia and Transnational Echoes in Piero Chiara’s TV Crime: I giovedì della signora Giulia (1970)

Abstract

Focusing in particular on the TV crime I giovedì della signora Giulia (1970, 5 episodes) based on the novel by Piero Chiara (published in 1970, close to the television version, but in 28 episodes as early as 1962 in a Swiss daily newspaper), the essay will examine the dense network of relations and cross-references of this Chiara's work on TV with publishing and cinema, with news and information (starting with the presence of the famous detective Tom Ponzi in the cast). It will be shown not only on a thematic level but also on a visual level and in its ideational and productive dimension, how once again, in this glimpse of the new decade, the detective story (especially on television) is capable of sedimenting and becoming a filter of cultural and visual anxieties and challenges.