The Showgirl Effect: Adolescent Girls and (Precarious) “Technologies of Sexiness” in Contemporary Italian Cinema

Of postfeminist girls and fireflies: Consuming Rome in Un giorno speciale

“…Alongside Pretty Woman , Roman Holiday (Wyler, 1953) is another key intertext in this process, one offering a vision of feminine pleasure and flânerie – a portrait of a woman whose sentiments are restrained by her position as Princess (Audrey Hepburn), whose body is constrained by duty, but who nonetheless evades total discipline. Gina too occupies a kind of gilded cage, but like Princess Ann, she too can find in the space of Rome, tourist postcard that it may be, a moment of escape, a Deleuzian ‘line of flight,’ as I have argued elsewhere (Hipkins, 2015). The film echoes this through the women’s appropriation of vehicles – for a moment Gina becomes the driver of Marco’s official car, just as Ann takes off on the Vespa of journalist Joe (Gregory Peck).…”

“…Hence, once again, we see what I have labeled 'the showgirl effect,' an anxiety about supposedly misdirected young female ambition, driving the narrative (Hipkins, 2015). After a makeover, provided by her solicitous mother, Gina is collected by a young driver Marco (Filippo Scicchitano) on his first day in the job.…”

“…Un giorno speciale follows a 19-year-old aspiring actress, Gina (Giulia Valentini), from a socially disadvantaged background in the Roman periphery, on the day her mother encourages her to 'visit' an influential male politician in the hope of getting her into television. Hence, once again, we see what I have labeled 'the showgirl effect,' an anxiety about supposedly misdirected young female ambition, driving the narrative (Hipkins, 2015). After a makeover, provided by her solicitous mother, Gina is collected by a young driver Marco (Filippo Scicchitano) on his first day in the job.…”