Le Donne Che Si Pagano

English summary: Prostitution is requested all over the world but the providers of sexual services still live at the margins of society. In films, however, there are a lot of prostitute protagonists, not only in the melodramatic context, but also in other film genres. That is also true for Italy, a country that is known for its traditional family values and for being close to Catholicism. But why are prostitutes omnipresent in films? By analyzing the prostitute protagonists of six...
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English summary: Prostitution is requested all over the world but the providers of sexual services still live at the margins of society. In films, however, there are a lot of prostitute protagonists, not only in the melodramatic context, but also in other film genres. That is also true for Italy, a country that is known for its traditional family values and for being close to Catholicism. But why are prostitutes omnipresent in films? By analyzing the prostitute protagonists of six Italian films from 1950 to today, the study tries to find an answer to this question. Thereby the focus is set on two thematic fields: the prostitute as lover and the prostitute as mother. In order to specify the various aspects of prostitution in film, the chosen films are analyzed with six different approaches: the prostitute as voyeuristic object, the prostitute as threat and fantasy of men, the prostitute in a religious context, the prostitute's relation to space, the prostitute in the context of universal commodification and the prostitute as the personified Other. The study confirms that prostitute characters in films are not only voyeuristic objects, but tell us a lot about those who try to live according to moral and social conventions. German description: Prostitution wird nicht nur in Italien taglich nachgefragt, und diese Nachfrage gibt es - das sollte spatestens seit dem Fall Berlusconi klar sein - quer durch alle sozialen Schichten. Trotz der stetig gewachsenen Toleranz in Sachen Sexualmoral werden insbesondere die Anbieterinnen von sexuellen Dienstleistungen nach wie vor gesellschaftlich ausgegrenzt. Im Film sind diese Aussenseiterinnen jedoch allgegenwartig, auch in Italien, einem Land, das beruhmt ist fur sein traditionelles Familienverstandnis und die nicht nur geographische Nahe zur katholischen Kirche. Was aber macht Prostitution so interessant fur filmische Darstellungen? Ist es allein Voyeurismus oder vermag die Prostituierte gerade aufgrund ihrer Stellung ausserhalb jeglicher Sozialnormen Aussagen uber diejenigen zu treffen, die sich an gesellschaftliche Konventionen halten? Diesen Fragen geht dieser Band in der Analyse von sechs ausgewahlten italienischen Filmen von 1950 bis heute nach.