Narrative / Spectacle

In most film theory, based as it is on the example of Hollywood cinema, the assumption is that there is a narrative which is periodically interrupted by spectacle.

The question is whether this paradigm really fits Italian genre / filone cinema, where it often seems more the narrative that is interrupting the spectacle.

Perhaps it is a distinction that goes back to historical debates in the Italian industry over the labels of film and spettacoli - i.e. spectacle / show.

And perhaps Salvatore and Dario Argento naming their production company SeDA Spetaccoli and not SeDA Film or Cinema thereby tells us more than we might think and further indicates the tensions operating in his work under its auspices.