Not just War Brides: the encounter between American soldiers and Italian women

Women's participation in Second World War was expressed also in the ancient topos of the encounter with soldiers, an encounter almost inevitable. The conflict created a favorable situation for relationships and during the period, perhaps for the first time – in Italy and all over Europe – many women, most of which had never left the towns where they were born and grew up, had the opportunity to meet “the other”, the stranger, sometimes even the exotic. Women, however, were not mere “passive targets” for military policy or soldiers’ wishes: these girls had their own aspirations and made choices that shaped their relationships. Both Italian and American cinema, during the late 40s and early 50s, focused on the encounter of Allied soldiers and Italian civilians, starting from Paisà, considered one of Rossellini’s masterpieces: very often, in this films, no happy ending is provided, with a more realistic description of intercultural relationships, that doesn’t fall into rhetoric, highlighting even the less edifying aspects of these encounters.