Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Italian Noir: The Story of Italian Crime Fiction

Timeshift Series 10

Profile of a new wave of Italian crime fiction that has emerged to challenge the conventions of the detective novel - a dark world of corruption, unsolved murders and the mafia.

Timeshift profiles a new wave of Italian crime fiction that has emerged to challenge the conventions of the detective novel. There are no happy endings in these noir tales, only revelations about Italy's dark heart - a world of corruption, unsolved murders and the mafia.

The programme features exclusive interviews with the leading writers from this new wave of noir, including Andrea Camilleri (creator of the Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) and Giancarlo De Cataldo (Romanzo Criminale), who explains how his work as a real-life investigating judge inspired his work. From the other side of the law, Massimo Carlotto talks about how his novels were shaped by his wrongful conviction for murder and years spent on the run from the police.

The film also looks at the roots of this new wave. Carlo Emilio Gadda (That Awful Mess) used the detective novel to expose the corruption that existed during Mussolini's fascist regime and then, after the Second World War, Leonardo Sciascia's crime novels (The Day of The Owl) tackled the rise of the Sicilian mafia. These writers established the rules of a new kind of noir that drew on real events and offered no neat endings.

Also featuring Italian writers Carlo Lucarelli and Barbara Baraldi, the film uses rarely seen archive from Italian television.

59 minutes

Last on

Sun 17 Jul 2022 00:20
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four

More episodes

Previous

Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime FictionSeries 10

Next

The Golden Age of Coach TravelSeries 10

See all episodes from Timeshift

Clips

See all clips from Italian Noir: The Story of Italian Crime Fiction (5)

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • Franco Micalizzi

    Naples Alley

  • Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

  • Guido e Maurizio De Angelis

    The Life of a Policeman

  • Leroy Holmes

    A Lover / De Sade

  • Ennio Morricone

    The Sicilian Clan

  • Nino Rota

    Roma

  • Otis Taylor

    Ten Million Slaves

  • Armando Trovajoli

    A weird phone call

  • Sweet

    Ballroom Blitz

  • Plan B

    She Said

  • Franco Micalizzi

    Folk & Violence

  • 00:41

    Labelle

    Lady Marmalade

  • 00:48

    Plan B

    She Said

Credits

Narrator Jason Isaacs
Producer Francis Welch
Series Producer Ben Southwell
Executive Producer Michael Poole

Broadcasts