Gente di Roma: an exercise of dérive by Ettore Scola

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the understanding of the city film Gente di Roma by Ettore Scola [Roma Cinematografica (Production), & Scola, E. (Director). (2003). Gente di Roma [Motion picture]. Italy: Istituto Luce] through a combined focus which mingles tourism studies and cultural studies, in particular through theories on psychogeography formulated by the Situationist International, Erving Goffman's idea on front and back regions and Rojek and Urry's process of indexing and dragging. In the movie, the representation of travel aims at depicting the identity of Rome through an exercise in ‘dérive’ and a long journey by bus. This is aimed at exploring the identity of the metropolis, which here is considered in its postmodern version, revealing its fluidity and mutability. The changes that are affecting Rome have to do with the contribution of immigrants, suggesting how the mobility of people is currently provoking mobility in identity too.

Keywords:

• Gente di Roma
• Ettore Scola
• travel
• psychogeography
• derive
• Rome
• identity

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisors Dr. Charles Burdett and Professor Derek Duncan for their help and precious commentaries, and Dr. Catherine O'Rawe and Dr. Loredana Polezzi for revising an earlier draft of this article.