From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Italian neorealism is a film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed in long takes on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors for secondary and sometimes primary roles. The movement is often considered to have started in 1943 with Ossessione and ended in 1951 with Umberto D^{[citation needed]}. Italian neorealist films mostly contend with the difficult economical and moral conditions of postwar Italy, reflecting the changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: defeat, poverty, and desperation. Because Cinecittà (a complex of studios in Rome--the center of commercial filmmaking in Italy since 1936) was occupied by refugees, films were shot outdoors, amidst devastation.

Contents 1 Development 1.1 Characteristics 2 Impact 3 Significant works in Italian neorealism 3.1 Precursors and influences 3.2 Main works 4 Major figures 5 See also 6 External links

The movement was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine Cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Gianni Puccini, Giuseppe De Santis, and Pietro Ingrao. Largely prevented from writing about politics (the editor-in-chief of the magazine was none other than Vittorio Mussolini, son of Benito Mussolini), the critics attacked the telefono bianco films that dominated the industry at the time. As a counter to the poor quality of mainstream films, some of the critics felt that Italian cinema should turn to the realist writers from the turn of the century.

The neorealists were heavily influenced by French poetic realism. Both Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti had worked closely with Jean Renoir. Additionally, many of the filmmakers involved in neorealism developed their skills working on calligraphist films (though the short-lived movement was markedly different from neorealism). Elements of neorealism are also found in the films of Alessandro Blasetti and the documentary-style films of Francesco De Robertis. Two of the most significant precursors of neorealism are Toni (Renoir, 1935) and 1860 (Blasetti, 1934).

Neorealist style, like most styles, does not have an inherent political message. The most common attribute of neorealism is location shooting and the dubbing of dialogue. The dubbing allowed for filmmakers to move in a more open mise-en-scène. Principal characters would be portrayed mostly by trained actors while supporting members (and sometimes principals) would be non-actors. The idea was to create a greater sense of realism through the use of real people rather than all seasoned actors. The rigidity of non-actors gave the scenes more authentic power. This sense of realism made Italian neorealism more than an artistic stance, it came to embody an attitude toward life.

Ideologically, the characteristics of Italian neorealism were:

1. a new democratic spirit, with emphasis on the value of ordinary people
2. a compassionate point of view and a refusal to make facile (easy) moral judgements
3. a preoccupation with Italy's Fascist past and its aftermath of wartime devastation
4. a blending of Christian and Marxist humanism
5. an emphasis on emotions rather than abstract ideas

Stylistically, Italian Neorealism was:

1. an avoidance of neatly plotted stories in favor of loose, episodic structures that evolve organically
2. a documentary visual style
3. the use of actual locations--usually exteriors--rather than studio sites
4. the use of nonprofessional actors, even for principal roles
5. use of conversational speech, not literary dialogue
6. avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork, and lighting in favor of a simple "styless" style

The beginnings of Italian Neorealism can be found with the director, Roberto Rossellini. His movie, Rome, Open City. It is a movie about the collaboration of the Catholics and Communists fighting Nazi occupation of Rome shortly before the American army liberated the city. Some of the footage is reported to have actually been shot during the Nazi retreat out of the city. Parts of the film are conventional and some stereotyped. Rossellini wanted to convey the cruel atmosphere that existed during Nazi occupation, and many of the film's narrative elements are based on actual events during this time.

Vittorio de Sica: If Rossellini brought neorealism to the forefront of world cinema, it was De Sica who sustained the movement. He collaborated with scriptwriter, Cesare Zavattini on all of his neorealist films. One of his greatest and most widely known films is "Bicycle Thieves". In this film there is a Chaplinesque blend of pathos and comedy. The film is acted entirely by nonprofessionals and consists of simple events in the life of a laborer. The film is about the protagonist getting a job (at the time of the movie, 25% of the Italian workforce was jobless) and in order to get to work, the protagonist has to get his bicycle out of hock. In order to do that, the protagonist and his wife have to pawn their sheets and bedding (her wedding dowry.) On his first day at work, the bike is stolen. The rest of the movie deals with the attempts to recover the bike. It touches on Italy's institutions and cultures--the government bureaucracy, political parties, the Church, popular beliefs, neighborhoods, the family, soccer. It is a painful realization for the protagonist's son, Bruno, that his father is human and not the super hero that he considers.

"Bicycle Thieves" stands alongside Rossellini's Rome, Open City as a neorealist achievement. It was, however, not without its own controversy. The film offered no slick solutions and so fell between the firing lines of the country's ideological debate--to conservatives it was impermissible to show society's flaws so brazenly, to the left, it lacked analysis and a clear agenda for social change. De Sica says to us though, "My films are a struggle against the absence of human solidarity. . .against the indifference of society towards suffering. They are a word in favor of the poor and unhappy."

Italian Neorealism ended in 1948. Liberal and left wing parties were defeated in the polls. Levels of income were surpassing prewar levels, most Italians liked American cinema and the vision of a desolate, poverty-stricken country outraged politicians anxious for democracy and prosperity.

Italy's move from individual concern with Neorealism to the tragic failure of the human condition can be seen through Fredrico Fellini's films.

Fellini: La Strada For Italian film, is a transitional movie. The larger social concerns of humanity, treated by neorealists, gave way to the treatment of individual needs and the tragic failure of the human condition and human communication.

Here we see Fellini with a fairly strong sense of plot, although we might fail to understand the significance at times of the scenes as they seem to unfold in an order void of logic. Fellini is a director concerned with moral and spiritual conditions of the human heart. His films are internal struggles that become abstract in their design in order to attempt to communicate that which is at time uncommunicatable. La Strada is a film that deals with a more broad issue, not as much internalized as his later films would become, but more on the surface, dealing with issues that are abstract, but still fall within relatively easy grasp. Where Italian neorealism aimed at psychological analysis and ultimate description of feelings, Fellini left the interior of his characters unrevealed. We never truly understand why Gelsomina would stay with Zampano. She claims, by the words of the "Fool" that everything has a purpose. She sees her purpose as staying with Zampano. The "Fool" or the "Clown," as some refer to the highwire walker, helps Gelsomina to begin to see the marvelous, to feel the "rapture of life" a quality which is not supernatural or gratuitous, but rather simply a quality of nature. This is something Zampano does not understand and so revolts against. We see the Clown and Gelsomina as having no real understanding of "being." They exist, but they do exist with a soul. Gelsomina learns from the "Fool" that she belongs to the world. She learns that she is something besides an outcast, and she learns that she is irreplaceable, that she has a destiny which is to stay with Zampano. When the "Fool" is murdered, in a sense, so to is Gelsomina. Or at least she is rendered helpless by the unnecessary act. Zampano becomes terrified by the girl's suffering and in the end loses his patience and abandons her. Zampano will eventually be crushed by his loss of Gelsomina's absence in his life. It is not through remorse, or even by love, but through the overwhelming and incomprehensible sorrow which can be the only sensation of his soul, deprived of Gelsomina.

The connection begins with the "Fool" and is cemented into place with the visit to the convent. The nature of this spirituality is there to be seen and felt by both Zampano and Gelsomina, but only the girl understands it while Zampano only wants to steal the silver from outside the window of the granary where they will sleep for the night. The spirit is lost, the human tragedy is in the failure to see this loss (Zampano) until it is too late.

The period between 1943 and 1945 in the history of Italian cinema is dominated by the impact of neorealism, which is properly defined as a moment or a trend in Italian film, rather than an actual school or group of theoretically motivated and like-minded directors and scriptwriters. Its impact nevertheless has been enormous, not only on Italian film but also on French New Wave cinema and on movies in diverse parts of the world.

• The works of Giovanni Verga
• 1860 (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934)
• Toni (Jean Renoir, 1935)
• La nave bianca (Francesco De Robertis, 1941)
• Aniki-Bóbó (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
• Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (novel, Carlo Levi, 1947)

• Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)
• Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)
• Sciuscià (Vittorio De Sica, 1946)
• Paisà (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
• Germania anno zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)
• Ladri di biciclette (De Sica, 1948)
• La terra trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948)
• Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949)
• Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
• Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica, 1951)
• Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)

• Vittorio De Sica
• Roberto Rossellini
• Luchino Visconti
• Cesare Zavattini

Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952) was actually filmed in 1951. "Most historians date the end of the Neorealist movement with the public attacks on De Sica's 'Umberto D' (1951) " (Film Art; An Introduction, 8th edition, by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson pg 461)

• Cinema of Italy

• GreenCine primer on Italian Neo-Realism
• In Black & White on Italian Neo-Realism
• Comprehensive interview with Suso Cecchi d'Amico - the legendary screenwriter from the Neo-Realism period