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Considering the Origins and Examining Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves as an Introduction to Italian Neorealism Cinema
Bicycle Thieves
An Introduction To Italian Neorealism Cinema
By Bryn V. Young-Roberts
DeepFocusFilmStudies.com editor Bryn V. Young-Roberts was asked by organisers of an Italian film event in Leeds to give an introductory lecture on Italian Neorealism. The following is a summary of what he said before screening the film Bicycle Thieves (1948), Vittorio De Sica’s classic 1940s Italian Neorealism masterpiece. |
1. So what exactly is Italian Neorealism film?
Between the mid 1940s and early 1950s there were 80-90 Neorealism films, which account for about only 10% of Italian film output of the era. Categorisation of Neorealism films is not easy, with a lack of coherence and disputes over what elements are definite, although this blurring of lines between it being ‘art cinema’ and ‘popular cinema’ seems to be one of the elements itself.
On some level, Italian Neorealism was a desire to nihilistically forget the previous 20 years of fascist ideology. Produced by many formerly involved with the resistance, it was as if film could finally tell ‘the truth’ and be authentic, rejecting the vacuous entertainment offered by Mussolini and bourgeois formalism in the previous 2 decades.
Never all that popular within Italy, it depended on foreign success to make a profit.
Between the mid 1940s and early 1950s there were 80-90 Neorealism films, which account for about only 10% of Italian film output of the era. Categorisation of Neorealism films is not easy, with a lack of coherence and disputes over what elements are definite, although this blurring of lines between it being ‘art cinema’ and ‘popular cinema’ seems to be one of the elements itself.
On some level, Italian Neorealism was a desire to nihilistically forget the previous 20 years of fascist ideology. Produced by many formerly involved with the resistance, it was as if film could finally tell ‘the truth’ and be authentic, rejecting the vacuous entertainment offered by Mussolini and bourgeois formalism in the previous 2 decades.
Never all that popular within Italy, it depended on foreign success to make a profit.
Some Key Elements Of The Genre - Has a reputation for liberal humanism. - They are often, but not always, set in Rome. - There is the occasional improvisation of scripts. - Bleak endings which do not tie up the story but rather leave protagonists adrift are common. - The genre attempts to create the illusion of the present tense. - Most have an elliptical narrative structure. - Neorealism films tend to reject plot-enhancing details. - Use of long takes. - Location shooting. - Employment of non-professional actors. - Newsreel-style photography. - They generally lack close-ups in comparison to other genres, instead opting for more long and medium shots which act as constant reminders that the character is but one element in a much larger world. HOWEVER, Camera style and continuity editing is overall quite conventional, which perhaps helps make it ‘art’ cinema that can still be accessible to a ‘popular’ audience. |
Additional Information To Consider - Neorealism is a dedication to human reality, highlighting ambiguity and resisting analysis. It successfully melds the highbrow and lowbrow - the traditional and the new. - Marxists considered the primary aim of Neorealism to be the promotion of a democratic national identity. - They are known by some as ‘male weepies’ due to their sentimental nature, but not quite in the melodramatic sense that ‘female weepies’ are. - According to one of its founders, in the ideal sense, Neorealism would be a film where a central character is filmed and nothing happens. In reality it is a genre firmly anchored in the poverty and pessimism of post-war Italy. In this sense it can be considered more a movement than a genre. |
2. What are the origins of the genre? What led to its development?
World War II
The second world war left Western Europe in an economic, physical and psychological mess. For the most part this resulted in the cinema industry being in an unstable economic situation. Until the Marshall Plan was set in motion in 1949 to rehabilitate the economic state, all industries had difficulty with large scale production, and film-making was no exception.
The physical destruction inflicted upon the film industry by the war had debilitated production all across Europe. In England, 25% of cinemas had been destroyed. Germany had lost 60% of its film-making production capabilities. While the French had maintained a decent output of films throughout the war, even under occupation, the film industry was eventually destroyed after Allied bombing and street-fighting in its Capital towards the very end. Due to their early surrender and unique liberation, Italy found itself with one of the most intact film industries in Western Europe.
The psychological impact of the war was devastating, with 21 million people finding themselves as refugees. Entire cities had been reduced to rubble, accounting for the destruction of about 35% of all urban dwellings. Nazi atrocities cast a dark shadow across all of Europe, with one Auschwitz survivor (German-born philosopher Theodor Adorno) asking how could there possibly be any poetry after Auschwitz.
World War II
The second world war left Western Europe in an economic, physical and psychological mess. For the most part this resulted in the cinema industry being in an unstable economic situation. Until the Marshall Plan was set in motion in 1949 to rehabilitate the economic state, all industries had difficulty with large scale production, and film-making was no exception.
The physical destruction inflicted upon the film industry by the war had debilitated production all across Europe. In England, 25% of cinemas had been destroyed. Germany had lost 60% of its film-making production capabilities. While the French had maintained a decent output of films throughout the war, even under occupation, the film industry was eventually destroyed after Allied bombing and street-fighting in its Capital towards the very end. Due to their early surrender and unique liberation, Italy found itself with one of the most intact film industries in Western Europe.
The psychological impact of the war was devastating, with 21 million people finding themselves as refugees. Entire cities had been reduced to rubble, accounting for the destruction of about 35% of all urban dwellings. Nazi atrocities cast a dark shadow across all of Europe, with one Auschwitz survivor (German-born philosopher Theodor Adorno) asking how could there possibly be any poetry after Auschwitz.
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Before World War II
The origins of Italian Neorealism stretch back even further than the war. When Mussolini seized power in 1922 Italian cinema was already struggling, and when sound arrived in 1930 only a handful of films were being produced a year. Appreciating the value cinema could offer as propaganda, the fascist regime eventually founded a national film school in 1937 (The Centro Sperimentale Della Cinematografia), which was unprecedented outside of the Soviet Union. Many future pivotal Italian film directors would be trained in the school, including:
- Roberto Rosellini - Luigi Zampa - Pietro Germi - Guiseppe De Santis - Michelangelo Antonioni
The school would also be a Launchpad for the theoretical journal Bianco e Nero (Black and White), which is still a much respected academic resource to this day.
In addition to this they also created the massive Cinecitta film studios in Rome which comprised of 16 sound stages and 600,000 square meters of exteriors. Within a year they had released over 80 films, which was double the previous year. Eventually they would also impose restrictions on the importing of foreign films, with American movies being banned completely by 1940.
The 1930s and early 40s was, in some respects, a golden era for Italian cinema in terms of entertainment. It gave birth to Calligraphism – decorative, pictorial formalism where film adaptations of late 19th century and early 20th century literary fiction works were meticulously photographed. Despite being what we might consider the antithesis of Neorealism, the ‘genre’ provided a training ground for most directors, scriptwriters, technicians and performers that would later come to be associated with Neorealism. The other pool of talent would emerge from the Fascist propaganda documentary makers.
Head of the naval ministry’s film department, Francesco De Robertis was producing feature length semi-documentary films as early as 1941 which could be considered direct heralds to the Neorealism movement in their use of on-location shooting, non-professional actors and newsreel-style photography. While Robertis was too much of a devout fascist to join the list of directors of the Neorealism genre directly, he did provide much technical inspiration and served as mentor to Roberto Rossellini, who would go on to become one of its greatest directors.
The origins of Italian Neorealism stretch back even further than the war. When Mussolini seized power in 1922 Italian cinema was already struggling, and when sound arrived in 1930 only a handful of films were being produced a year. Appreciating the value cinema could offer as propaganda, the fascist regime eventually founded a national film school in 1937 (The Centro Sperimentale Della Cinematografia), which was unprecedented outside of the Soviet Union. Many future pivotal Italian film directors would be trained in the school, including:
- Roberto Rosellini - Luigi Zampa - Pietro Germi - Guiseppe De Santis - Michelangelo Antonioni
The school would also be a Launchpad for the theoretical journal Bianco e Nero (Black and White), which is still a much respected academic resource to this day.
In addition to this they also created the massive Cinecitta film studios in Rome which comprised of 16 sound stages and 600,000 square meters of exteriors. Within a year they had released over 80 films, which was double the previous year. Eventually they would also impose restrictions on the importing of foreign films, with American movies being banned completely by 1940.
The 1930s and early 40s was, in some respects, a golden era for Italian cinema in terms of entertainment. It gave birth to Calligraphism – decorative, pictorial formalism where film adaptations of late 19th century and early 20th century literary fiction works were meticulously photographed. Despite being what we might consider the antithesis of Neorealism, the ‘genre’ provided a training ground for most directors, scriptwriters, technicians and performers that would later come to be associated with Neorealism. The other pool of talent would emerge from the Fascist propaganda documentary makers.
Head of the naval ministry’s film department, Francesco De Robertis was producing feature length semi-documentary films as early as 1941 which could be considered direct heralds to the Neorealism movement in their use of on-location shooting, non-professional actors and newsreel-style photography. While Robertis was too much of a devout fascist to join the list of directors of the Neorealism genre directly, he did provide much technical inspiration and served as mentor to Roberto Rossellini, who would go on to become one of its greatest directors.
Cesare Zavattini: The Theoretical Founder
When it comes to the founding of Neorealism we must not overlook the importance of screenwriter Cesare Zavattini. He is one of the major founders of the Neorealism genre, not only because of his direct involvement in film work but because in 1942, years before the first Neorealism shot had been filmed, he was calling for a change in Italian cinema which outlined the rules for the genre. He proposed that film-makers do away with contrived plot, abandon hiring professional actors and make direct contact with contemporary life by looking to the streets for material.
According to Zavattini, plot was inauthentic because it imposed an artificial structure on ‘everyday life’. Hiring professional actors furthered this artificial reality as ‘to want one person to play another implies the calculated plot’. Rather than the heroic ideals of fascism, he wanted cinema to instead capture the sacredness and dignity of the ordinary people. He wrote ‘cinema should accept, unconditionally, what is contemporary’.
While it is disputed, the term Neorealism itself was coined 2 years before the first film of the genre was made. Attacking the reactionary conventions of Italian film, Centro Spermintale lecturer Umberto Barbaro created the term as a reference to what was missing from current cinema, with particular criticism aimed at French Poetic Realism. The term became popular with his intellectual peers and was soon gracing the pages of Bianco e Nero and other film journals with the context of being a rallying call for a revolutionary realistic national cinema.
The great irony here is that while many film critics were writing about Neorealism being an antithesis to French Poetic Realism, many of the artists who would later go on to make Neorealism films were apprenticed in the genre and when Neorealism would finally be produced it would take much of its inspiration from the French influence, particularly with regard to the socialist humanism element. The poetic realism provided an aesthetic and intellectual liberation to many Italians working under a fascist regime, and in this sense Neorealism is the product of a pressure tap finally being released.
When it comes to the founding of Neorealism we must not overlook the importance of screenwriter Cesare Zavattini. He is one of the major founders of the Neorealism genre, not only because of his direct involvement in film work but because in 1942, years before the first Neorealism shot had been filmed, he was calling for a change in Italian cinema which outlined the rules for the genre. He proposed that film-makers do away with contrived plot, abandon hiring professional actors and make direct contact with contemporary life by looking to the streets for material.
According to Zavattini, plot was inauthentic because it imposed an artificial structure on ‘everyday life’. Hiring professional actors furthered this artificial reality as ‘to want one person to play another implies the calculated plot’. Rather than the heroic ideals of fascism, he wanted cinema to instead capture the sacredness and dignity of the ordinary people. He wrote ‘cinema should accept, unconditionally, what is contemporary’.
While it is disputed, the term Neorealism itself was coined 2 years before the first film of the genre was made. Attacking the reactionary conventions of Italian film, Centro Spermintale lecturer Umberto Barbaro created the term as a reference to what was missing from current cinema, with particular criticism aimed at French Poetic Realism. The term became popular with his intellectual peers and was soon gracing the pages of Bianco e Nero and other film journals with the context of being a rallying call for a revolutionary realistic national cinema.
The great irony here is that while many film critics were writing about Neorealism being an antithesis to French Poetic Realism, many of the artists who would later go on to make Neorealism films were apprenticed in the genre and when Neorealism would finally be produced it would take much of its inspiration from the French influence, particularly with regard to the socialist humanism element. The poetic realism provided an aesthetic and intellectual liberation to many Italians working under a fascist regime, and in this sense Neorealism is the product of a pressure tap finally being released.
3. What was the first Neorealist film?
So what was the first Neorealism film? Conventionally, most people who study film believe Roma, Citta Aperta (Rome Open City, 1945) to be the first film in the Neorealism genre. There is a contender for the title however, in Luchino Visconti’s 1943 Ossessione (Obsession), which was released a whole 2 years before Roberto Rossellini’s film. Visconti’s film was welcomed by those awaiting Neorealism to happen – it took cameras away from the studios and onto the streets to show the lives of ordinary folk while providing many of the themes and styles now associated with the genre (popular setting, social content, realistic). Its detractors argue that it lacks the political commitment and historical perspective to be regarded as a bone fide Neorealist film, much of which is due to the fascist government censoring the film and cutting it down to half its length. Abroad, the film could not be shown at all until 1976 as it infringed upon copyright, being an unapproved adaptation of James M. Cain’s 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (Hollywood film versions of which were later released in 1946 and 1981). Whether or not it can be seen as the first Neorealism film, it certainly provided the template for the genre’s future.
So what was the first Neorealism film? Conventionally, most people who study film believe Roma, Citta Aperta (Rome Open City, 1945) to be the first film in the Neorealism genre. There is a contender for the title however, in Luchino Visconti’s 1943 Ossessione (Obsession), which was released a whole 2 years before Roberto Rossellini’s film. Visconti’s film was welcomed by those awaiting Neorealism to happen – it took cameras away from the studios and onto the streets to show the lives of ordinary folk while providing many of the themes and styles now associated with the genre (popular setting, social content, realistic). Its detractors argue that it lacks the political commitment and historical perspective to be regarded as a bone fide Neorealist film, much of which is due to the fascist government censoring the film and cutting it down to half its length. Abroad, the film could not be shown at all until 1976 as it infringed upon copyright, being an unapproved adaptation of James M. Cain’s 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (Hollywood film versions of which were later released in 1946 and 1981). Whether or not it can be seen as the first Neorealism film, it certainly provided the template for the genre’s future.
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Rome, Open City (1945)
So that brings us to what most regard as the beginning of the genre. Rome, Open City was shot just weeks after the liberation of the eponymous city in 1945 and filmed on low quality film stock, Rossellini getting his hands on whatever he could, which resulted in the film having a newsreel look. In addition to this, for technical reasons he had to film it silently, adding all dialogue in post-production, which has gone on to become standard in Italian film-making ever since. Also, because of the damage Allied bombing had caused the studio, only 2 sets were used, meaning that the majority of the film had to be shot on location. Since the subject matter of the film was about events which had occurred in the city the previous Winter, when the Nazis had declared it an ‘open city’, the use of genuine locations added to the newsreel feel and added to the verisimilitude of the production.
The film was a huge international success, making over half a million dollars in America alone. Audiences world-wide were surprised by the intelligence, technical ingenuity and integrity the film was offering, qualities they had not seen in Italian cinema since before Mussolini took over in 1922. The film set the standard for the genre with its documentary feel, mix of professional and non-professional performers, contemporary setting and national experience and humanistic drive.
So that brings us to what most regard as the beginning of the genre. Rome, Open City was shot just weeks after the liberation of the eponymous city in 1945 and filmed on low quality film stock, Rossellini getting his hands on whatever he could, which resulted in the film having a newsreel look. In addition to this, for technical reasons he had to film it silently, adding all dialogue in post-production, which has gone on to become standard in Italian film-making ever since. Also, because of the damage Allied bombing had caused the studio, only 2 sets were used, meaning that the majority of the film had to be shot on location. Since the subject matter of the film was about events which had occurred in the city the previous Winter, when the Nazis had declared it an ‘open city’, the use of genuine locations added to the newsreel feel and added to the verisimilitude of the production.
The film was a huge international success, making over half a million dollars in America alone. Audiences world-wide were surprised by the intelligence, technical ingenuity and integrity the film was offering, qualities they had not seen in Italian cinema since before Mussolini took over in 1922. The film set the standard for the genre with its documentary feel, mix of professional and non-professional performers, contemporary setting and national experience and humanistic drive.
Vittorio De Sica, Director of Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Despite how good Rome, Open City is, it is Bicycle Thieves which is widely regarded as the best the genre has to offer, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
A former matinee idol, the actor-turned-director made his directorial debut in the late 1930s with conventional middle-class comedies, but during the war he developed more of a sensitivity toward urban social problems under the influence of friend Cesare Zavattini, who would go on to be one of the screenwriters of Bicycle Thieves.
Despite how good Rome, Open City is, it is Bicycle Thieves which is widely regarded as the best the genre has to offer, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
A former matinee idol, the actor-turned-director made his directorial debut in the late 1930s with conventional middle-class comedies, but during the war he developed more of a sensitivity toward urban social problems under the influence of friend Cesare Zavattini, who would go on to be one of the screenwriters of Bicycle Thieves.
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4. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Bicycle Thieves was made at a time of deep economic and social crisis, when 22% of men were unemployed in Italy and feeling impotent. This is reflected in our protagonist Antonio who throughout the film is shown as incapable of looking after his family. His wife and son are much more pro-active than he is, and he fails to help them at every turn, which involves scenes when he unapologetically fails to help his wife carry some water buckets at the beginning of the film, or his lack of fatherly skills in one, minor incident when his son falls over and gives him no help or sympathy. In fact, later on he manages to lose his son and at one point even slaps him.
At its heart it is a film about exclusion, about the poor feeling alienated. The film plays with the idea of isolation and how individual needs are not always a concern for society. Our hero only needs a single bike to change the lives of himself and his family, yet on his quest to find one we see hundreds, if not thousands of bikes which makes us consider how minuscule his need really is in relation to society - yet for him it consumes his world. The film manages to subtly suggest a larger socio-economic problem in Italy beyond our protagonist’s needs, as a scene in a pawn warehouse full of bikes and bed sheets reveals that he is not the only one in such a situation during the current economic climate.
A half urban, half countryside setting in the film provides a great visual juxtaposition between desolate land and new buildings which encapsulates the feel of the era that regeneration was occurring, but that not everyone was experiencing the benefits yet. In this sense it adds to the transitional feel of Neorealism, as films which deal with a narrative that is in-between beginnings and ends. Bureaucracy plays the greatest villain in the film, not so much as an active antagonist, but as an inactive one, the breakdown of systems – the pawn warehouse, the headquarters of his workplace and the police station all hinder his quest for success, the sociological and political message being that institutions do not help the poor.
Bicycle Thieves was made at a time of deep economic and social crisis, when 22% of men were unemployed in Italy and feeling impotent. This is reflected in our protagonist Antonio who throughout the film is shown as incapable of looking after his family. His wife and son are much more pro-active than he is, and he fails to help them at every turn, which involves scenes when he unapologetically fails to help his wife carry some water buckets at the beginning of the film, or his lack of fatherly skills in one, minor incident when his son falls over and gives him no help or sympathy. In fact, later on he manages to lose his son and at one point even slaps him.
At its heart it is a film about exclusion, about the poor feeling alienated. The film plays with the idea of isolation and how individual needs are not always a concern for society. Our hero only needs a single bike to change the lives of himself and his family, yet on his quest to find one we see hundreds, if not thousands of bikes which makes us consider how minuscule his need really is in relation to society - yet for him it consumes his world. The film manages to subtly suggest a larger socio-economic problem in Italy beyond our protagonist’s needs, as a scene in a pawn warehouse full of bikes and bed sheets reveals that he is not the only one in such a situation during the current economic climate.
A half urban, half countryside setting in the film provides a great visual juxtaposition between desolate land and new buildings which encapsulates the feel of the era that regeneration was occurring, but that not everyone was experiencing the benefits yet. In this sense it adds to the transitional feel of Neorealism, as films which deal with a narrative that is in-between beginnings and ends. Bureaucracy plays the greatest villain in the film, not so much as an active antagonist, but as an inactive one, the breakdown of systems – the pawn warehouse, the headquarters of his workplace and the police station all hinder his quest for success, the sociological and political message being that institutions do not help the poor.
The film manages to emphasise his impotence by surrounding him with matriarchal, strong women - such as his wife, a seer and a church volunteer - in lesser roles but who seem able to get more done than he can. For instance, it is his wife who comes up with the idea of selling their bed sheets to pay for a bicycle when he thinks they have reached a dead-end.
Despite the strong supporting roles of women this is very much a man’s film. It predominantly features groups of workmen, political men, football fans, thugs and policemen while centring on a father-son relationship. Antonio’s son imitates his father throughout the film, his dad being his idol, which makes the ending ever more tragic.
But this is not just a grim documentary, there are moments of comic relief in the film. In fact, the happiest moment in the film occurs about 20 minutes in, and if it had been following a more conventional Hollywood narrative and ended there then the audience would have left the cinema on a feel-good high. It is the nature of Neorealism however, to continue for another hour after this ‘happy ending’ and finish in the middle of a bad situation.
Don’t be fooled into assuming Neorealism is just about gritty realism where the film-makers simply point a camera at real-life and stand back. The ‘neo’ appendage of Neorealism is really another word for ‘art’- they still want to present it to us as their interpretation of reality, which is mostly a vehicle for sociological commentary. There is a myth that Neorealism films are very simple technically and theatrically, but as you watch Bicycle Thieves you should be able to witness that it is not the case, with some very elaborate set-ups taking place – one metropolitan scene even involved 6 cameras and clearly a lot of planning.
Despite the strong supporting roles of women this is very much a man’s film. It predominantly features groups of workmen, political men, football fans, thugs and policemen while centring on a father-son relationship. Antonio’s son imitates his father throughout the film, his dad being his idol, which makes the ending ever more tragic.
But this is not just a grim documentary, there are moments of comic relief in the film. In fact, the happiest moment in the film occurs about 20 minutes in, and if it had been following a more conventional Hollywood narrative and ended there then the audience would have left the cinema on a feel-good high. It is the nature of Neorealism however, to continue for another hour after this ‘happy ending’ and finish in the middle of a bad situation.
Don’t be fooled into assuming Neorealism is just about gritty realism where the film-makers simply point a camera at real-life and stand back. The ‘neo’ appendage of Neorealism is really another word for ‘art’- they still want to present it to us as their interpretation of reality, which is mostly a vehicle for sociological commentary. There is a myth that Neorealism films are very simple technically and theatrically, but as you watch Bicycle Thieves you should be able to witness that it is not the case, with some very elaborate set-ups taking place – one metropolitan scene even involved 6 cameras and clearly a lot of planning.
Although non-professional actors were used for most parts, they still give fantastic performances, having been coached by the director, himself an accomplished actor. De Sica and other Neorealism directors chose their actors primarily for their faces, looks of real-life working class people that glamorous actors could not replicate. Our protagonist is played by a man De Sica found working in an arms factory, while a shoddy looking older man was played by a genuine homeless person (A journalist interviewed the man years later and found him still destitute, living near the shooting location).
5. The Decline of Neorealism
The genre came to an end in 1952, going out on a high with De Sica and Zavattini’s Umberto D, a film with no plot but instead a structure that comprised of a series of loosely connected incidents which more closely embody the outline proposed for the genre almost ten years previously. The genre declined as the Italian economy began to improve and therefore Neorealism could no longer portray the contemporary life nationally familiar.
Even by the time Bicycle Thieves was released, the Italian government became very hostile to the genre, concerned that it was not portraying the ‘new improved’ Italy to the world. The Andreotti Law eventually brought the Italian film industry under state control, which effectively killed the already waning genre.
It went on to be more than a passing inspiration for future generations of film-makers who would take cinema into the territories of French New Wave and Dogme 95.
These films are now remembered as an attempt to capture the human condition in narrative form. Although there are layers to these films, an audience is probably best served not by looking for symbolism, but by trying to experience them viscerally.
The genre came to an end in 1952, going out on a high with De Sica and Zavattini’s Umberto D, a film with no plot but instead a structure that comprised of a series of loosely connected incidents which more closely embody the outline proposed for the genre almost ten years previously. The genre declined as the Italian economy began to improve and therefore Neorealism could no longer portray the contemporary life nationally familiar.
Even by the time Bicycle Thieves was released, the Italian government became very hostile to the genre, concerned that it was not portraying the ‘new improved’ Italy to the world. The Andreotti Law eventually brought the Italian film industry under state control, which effectively killed the already waning genre.
It went on to be more than a passing inspiration for future generations of film-makers who would take cinema into the territories of French New Wave and Dogme 95.
These films are now remembered as an attempt to capture the human condition in narrative form. Although there are layers to these films, an audience is probably best served not by looking for symbolism, but by trying to experience them viscerally.
Listen to part of the lecture here:
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FURTHER READING Bondanella, Peter, Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present (2001) F. Rocchio, Vincent, Cinema of Anxiety: A Psychoanalysis of Italian Neorealism (1999) Haaland, Torunn, Italian Neorealist Cinema (2012) S. Coleman, Donatella, Filming the Nation: Jung, Film, Neo-realism and Italian National Identity (2010) Shiel, Mark, Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City (2006) Wagstaff, Christopher, Italian Neorealist Cinema: An Aesthetic Approach (2007) |
Before You Go...
The lines between reality and fiction are often blurred in Italian neorealism film. Our next article explores this concept further:
From Factual To Fantastic: Issues Of Using Non-Fiction Elements Within Fictional Contexts In Popular Film
Also Worth Checking Out
The lines between reality and fiction are often blurred in Italian neorealism film. Our next article explores this concept further:
From Factual To Fantastic: Issues Of Using Non-Fiction Elements Within Fictional Contexts In Popular Film
Also Worth Checking Out
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