Lombard dialects and the cinema: From pragmatics to the artistic idea

The article deals with the cases of usage of Lombard dialects (in particular those of Milan and Bergamo) in various genres of cinematographic production. The author shows the most significant examples of narrative fiction, documentaries as well as cartoons, and tries to analyse the reasons which make directors include pieces of dialect into their films. The author traces in diachrony both the evolution of the artistic value of dialects and the changes in the general attitude towards them, while the variety of genres presented permits a more universal overview and makes possible a more generalized classification of usages, which is given at the end of the article. 

The article deals with the cases of usage of Lombard dialects (in particular those of Milan and Bergamo) in various genres of cinematographic production. The author shows the most significant examples of narrative fiction, documentaries as well as cartoons, and tries to analyse the reasons which make directors include pieces of dialect into their films. The author traces in diachrony both the evolution of the artistic value of dialects and the changes in the general attitude towards them, while the variety of genres presented permits a more universal overview and makes possible a more generalized classification of usages, which is given at the end of the article.