TY - JOUR AU - O'Rawe, Catherine PY - 2020/01/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The Non-Professional Actor in the Reception of Italian Cinema Abroad JF - Cinergie – Il Cinema e le altre Arti JA - Cinergie VL - 9 IS - 18 SE - Special DO - 10.6092/issn.2280-9481/10925 UR - https://cinergie.unibo.it/article/view/10925 SP - 73-83 AB - This article will examine the overlooked centrality of the non-professional actor in the circulation of Italian films outside the country. It analyses the importance of the legitimating label of neorealism in critical and festival discourse, and its relation to a weak Italian national star system, and to the Italian state system of film funding. It also places attention on the cultural representation of the non-professional who becomes a kind of “star attraction” on the festival circuit, an object of curiosity and a marker of authenticity for a cinephile audience, due to their “out-of-placeness” in the paracinematic activities of festival promotion. It argues that the non-professional actor is part of the branding of Italian cinema internationally, along with the figure of the auteur. ER -