'The Ideal Man': Amedeo Nazzari, Fatherhood, and Italy's Melodramatic Masculinity

This article investigates the stardom of Amedeo Nazzari, both in his pre-war cinematic roles as war hero, and in post-war cinema, where he played the pater familias in a series of melodramas directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and produced by Titanus from 1949 to 1954. While Fascism conceptualized heroism as action and patriotic sacrifice, post-war Italian screen culture redefined the coordinates of heroism through new impersonations of suffering masculinity. Nazzari’s stardom, moving from roles of military virility to melodramatic father figures, negotiated issues of gender, sexuality, class, and national identity during the transition from Fascist dictatorship to democracy.