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Un Americano a Roma: A 1950s’ Satire of Americanization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

David Ellwood
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Summary

The satirical film, Un americano a Roma is examined as a commentary on the absorption by Italians, and especially Italian youth, of fads and fashions deriving from America during the economic boom. Although no masterpiece, the film is an important reflection on Italian identity at a time of rapid and bewildering change. It reveals that, while America became ‘everyone's second culture’, loyalty to domestic traditions and customs remained strong.

Type
Contexts and Debates
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , 1996 , pp. 93 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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References

∗ An earlier version of this article appeared in History Today, May 1996.Google Scholar

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7 The figure of the US Ambassador had already become a national icon of American power in the epoch of the career diplomat James Clement Dunn (1946–52). At the time the film was made, the Ambassador was the flamboyant Claire Booth Luce, former Congresswoman and wife of the proprietor of Time, Henry Luce, a political appointee famous for her militant anti-communism. The film's Ambassador more closely approximated Booth Luce's immediate predecessor, Ellsworth Bunker (1952–3), a traditional career diplomat.Google Scholar

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