During the last two decades of the 20th century, the perception of Italian cinema's prominence within the film industry waned. This decline, in part due to the loss of its great directors, was also influenced by the legalization of private television networks. These networks glutted the airwaves with films and contributed to a shift from attendance at public theatres to private home-viewing that eventually altered the way media culture was produced and consumed in Italy. In this work, Millicent Marcus interprets, in detail, a body of work that manages to transcend these obstacles and establish an independent profile for the Italian cinema of the 1980s and 1990s. Marcus applies the concept of postmodernism to characterize video culture, then examines the cinematic path that developed in opposition to it. Throughout, she frames her study of the films with an examination of Italy's shifting social and political identity over the second half of the 20th century - an identity which Italian filmmakers have sought both to represent and resist.