01 Abstract

The purpose of my dissertation was to look in the genre of film; Giallo. I wanted to look at the artistic values of the genre that I felt deserved to be recognized on a greater scale and as a possibility to be referenced at an academic level, for the way the genre explores the use of colour in film. What I was asking was, could high art exist in low art?

For my research I looked directly into the giallo films of the past, paying closer attention to the works of director Dario Argento in particular. The main body of my research was to read the only existing book dedicated to the giallo genre. The other half of my research studies was spent reading recent academic books that looked into the use of colour in film.

I found out through my dissertation and research that the giallo couldn’t be paired with the likes of such high art genres like neo-realist cinema and with those films by high acclaimed directors such as Fellini and Antonioni. Even though I felt that after all my research that the giallo showed interesting uses of colour in film that should be considered high art and has history steeped in the contextualized symbolism with Italy’s ties in post war trauma with strong links to Mussolini.

From this dissertation I think that the most interesting question to follow it would be; why can’t high art and low art be bridged together? Why do they have to be such separate entities?