This course wants to explore examples of representations of women on the cinematic Italian screen, from passive “donne oggetto,” to femme fatales, from desperate housewives to victims of male violence and rape, from mothers to saints, from prostitutes to women with agency. In our lessons we will contextualize the construction of the image of women since Fascism up to “Berlusconi’s age,” articulating the relationship between different stages of the history of Italian cinema and the correspondent women’s images produced in films. We will be screening movies by De Sica, Rossellini, De Santis, Visconti, Germi, Zurlini, Fellini, Wertmuller, Bertolucci, Pasolini, Tornatore, Crialese, Comencini, and Infascelli. The course will be taught in Italian.