Oil's Film Empire: ENI, Esso, and Extractive Capitalism's Impact on Italian Commercial Cinema

This dissertation is a study of oil company branding as it occurs in the cinema of the Italian Economic Boom (circa 1958-1963). It considers the historical and cultural impact of the oil industry and extractive capitalism on Italian society and its cinematic output, with specific reference to two oil conglomerates that each have a major presence and influence in Italy. The first, ENI (l’Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), is the majority state-owned Italian energy company that was developed from the fascist era entity AGIP (Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli), and the second, Esso, is the trading name for ExxonMobil in Italy, a branch of the Standard Oil Company of Jersey, established in 1870 by the American tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in modern history.
Italy’s Economic Miracle, particularly within the parameters of oil company marketing, proposed financial prosperity and access to consumer goods as the keys to happiness. With my examination of oil branding, I interrogate the ways in which the cinema of the Economic Boom depicted life for the Italian people, and I determine how these depictions challenge the conception of economic, industrial, and technological advancement in Italy as beneficial to the individual’s quality of life. Rather than sustaining the Boom’s promises of consumer contentment, this analysis establishes that the films undermine them, with depictions of characters who frequently do not realize their ambitions, and are instead endlessly discontent, oftentimes miserable, even when they experience economic prosperity.
Consequently, this dissertation deals with two myths: that economic stability and consumption will ensure the individual’s happiness, and that middle class prosperity was accessible to everyone during the Economic Boom. I contend that the films I analyze from the period document the false promise being sold and, in the same text, critique that promise.

本学位论文聚焦意大利经济繁荣时期（约1958-1963年）电影中的石油公司品牌形象，探讨石油工业与榨取型资本主义对意大利社会及其电影创作的历史与文化影响，特别关注两家在意大利拥有显著市场地位与行业影响力的石油集团。第一家为埃尼集团（ENI，意大利国家烃类机构l’Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi），这家意大利多数国有能源企业脱胎于法西斯时代的阿吉普公司（AGIP，意大利石油总公司Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli）；第二家埃索（Esso）是埃克森美孚（ExxonMobil）在意大利的贸易品牌，其母公司泽西标准石油公司（Standard Oil Company of Jersey）由美国近代首富、实业大亨约翰·D·洛克菲勒于1870年创立。
意大利经济奇迹时期，尤其在石油公司的营销语境中，将经济繁荣与消费品可得性奉为幸福的核心要义。本研究通过考察石油品牌形象，剖析经济繁荣时期的电影如何描绘意大利民众的生活，并探究这些描绘如何挑战“意大利的经济、工业与技术进步有益于个体生活质量”这一主流认知。本分析并未延续经济繁荣时期对消费满足的许诺，反而证明电影实则消解了这一许诺：影片中的角色往往未能实现抱负，即便坐拥经济繁荣，也始终处于持续不满乃至痛苦之中。
因此，本学位论文旨在拆解两大迷思：其一为经济稳定与消费即可确保个体幸福，其二为经济繁荣时期中产阶级的富足惠及全民。笔者认为，本研究所分析的同期电影，既记录了这一被兜售的虚假承诺，又同时对该承诺展开了批判。