ABSTRACT
The extension to the broader political spectrum of what once had been thought of as a separate domain, the 'Woman Question', was one of many significant challenges to official Italian politics and the formal parties of the left in the 1970s. In the same period, from a perspective almost directly opposite that of feminism, terrorism also mounted a sustained critique of existing political and social forms. This chapter discusses two films made in the early 1980s, Tragedia di un uomo ridicolo (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1981) and Colpire al cuore (Gianni Amelio, 1982), whose use of the theme of terrorism and its potential causes and effects highlights the interrelation of the political and the personal arenas, and its relevance for any understanding of the conditions of the time. It describes the films' concentration on the father-son relationship within a more general exposition of the family and family relations, and argues that they offer some insight into discussions about the paternal role and about Italian society at that time. It further proposes that any examination of the phenomenon of terrorism has to take account of the importance of its personal and psychological dimensions, and that the films' capacity to open up this theme is part of their power.
