white telephone

Calque of Italian telefoni bianchi.

white telephone (countable and uncountable, plural white telephones)

1. (derogatory) Italian light-comedy and melodramatic films from the Fascist period.
2. (often derogatory) Films of other nations that share a nonseriousness of tone and disconnection from reality with the Italian films.

white telephone (comparative more white telephone, superlative most white telephone)

1. (often derogatory) Characteristic of the Italian genre of film, white telephone; a sense of consequence-free lives of privilege.

• white-telephone

• big white telephone