Stardom and film-form: the performative scene as idea-form

Abstract

An Italian producer had every interest in hiring a famous actress: Loren, Pampanini, Mangano, Lollobrigida, etc. The presence of a diva increased the production value of any project, and with this not only its downstream commercial potential (with spectators), but also its upstream bankability (with distributors). On the other hand, the services of such an actress were expensive, and once the investment had been made, the diva had been contracted, it was essential to safeguard it, the investment, and maximize the hypothetical income. The star status of an actress translated, for the producer, into a symbolic capital to be administered and the films bore indelible traces of this administration. The scene in which the famous actress was engaged in singing/dancing numbers was, in my opinion, particularly important from a rhetorical point of view. It was strategic for its ability to happily combine expressiveness (entertainment value), narrative delivery (characterization and progression of the plot) and indeed star-building: filmic valorization of the female body.