Maurizio De Benedictis between literature and cinema

Abstract

The article offers a portrait of Maurizio De Benedictis (1951-2021), first a researcher and then a professor at the "La Sapienza" University of Rome for over forty years, retracing his fields of study and his vast scientific production. De Benedictis' academic career can be divided into two parts: he began as a scholar of Italian literature and then continued in the field of cinema history. However, these two interests have always been intertwined in his work as a scholar, giving rise to critical approaches that are vitally complex and endowed with an original methodological openness. The article concludes with an examination of the narrative corpus of De Benedictis, who, in addition to being an essayist, was also the author of novels and short stories. The figure emerges of a scholar with a lively and multifaceted intelligence, capable of fascinating and involving generations of students in his great cultural passions.