Italian Neo Realism
Italian Neo-Realist Cinema began back in the mid 1940s amid a tide of anti-fascist feeling and a keen sense of representation of which had been sorely lacking in the Mussolini era. Instead of detailing the plight of struggling Italians era everywhere, they either showed the latest decadent Hollywood movie or their own grotesque version set on grand hotels, ocean liners and nightclubs which gave the nickname "White telephone" movies, such was their opulence. One of Italy's well known directors, Federico Fellini, recalls that for his generation, America was the movies.
Their films were significant for what film critic André Bazin would deem "cinéma verité." It acted as a journalistic entry in reporting the day to day problems of ordinary Italians and were filmed in an episodic rather than dramatic fashion. This was due in part to the fact that Italian directors felt it unwise to manipulate the film with editing to greater enhance it's dramatic effect and instead let the film unfold subtly. In Umberto D for example, we get the story of an old aged pensioner who faces eviction if he doesn't cough up the money. Throughout the whole film, we see how he sells certain possessions in order to gain money to pay off the rent that is owed. With that we are shown his stay in hospital, his random brush with old friends and the less than perfect living conditions. He has his dog Flick and servant Maria as friends.
Another example would be Roberto Rosselini's Germany Year Zero, a powerful film in which a young boy, Edmund tries to find work in the wake of the end of the Second World War, he is barely 13 but his father is unwell, money and food are in short supply and he is forced to look for work so his family can survive. He meets an unemployed teacher who used to teach him and while spending his time with the teacher he learns certain ideals that it is a survival of the toughest and that it is a survival of the fittest and that those that are not, should be left behind to die. This would then lead on to dramatic consequences for all involved.
It should be noted that for many Italians this movement in cinema perfectly crystallised the Resistance. It had brought together cinema journals for which journalists and future filmmakers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini would write for the likes of Cinema and Bianco e Nero on films and the development that was taking place.
There were other issues at hand as to why filmmakers chose to take to the streets over shooting in a studio. The Cinecitta studio complex that had helped film so many Italian films beforehand was now being used as a refugee house. So there was no question as for directors to take their films out into the streets with a cast that was largely untrained nonprofessional actors.
Audiences soon grew tired of these movies as they did not take too kindly to seeing their country being shot and seen in such a depressing manner. Laws were passed in Italy that allowed the directors to film in the neo-realist way but not so in a way that could be seen as detrimetal to the image that Italians would like. By then, it seemed to be the beginning of the end of the movement despite some classics like Miracle in Milan.
The impact of Italian neo-realism became widespread, it informed the Polish Film School. Filmmakers such as Krysztof Kieslowski would be indebted to the social realism that was an important aspect of the Italian neo-realism and would inform so many of his films as well. Many of the films from the French New Wave have also benefitted from Italian Neo-Realism. However we must look to Italian filmmakers themselves. Federico Fellini and Michaelangelo Antonioni had started working in films when the movement was in full swing and it would inform much of their work irrespective of when the movement had died. Even the likes of Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini carried it's ideas on how to represent class struggles and society at large.
Indeed Fellini was so indebted to the Neo-realist cinema that he once commented that he agreed with the principle of neo-realism itself but
It is with this however that we can see that Fellini wanted to delve deeper and with that, so too goes for perhaps most of the filmmakers then.
Another big influence Italian Neo-Realism had was on Martin Scorsese. In his documentary, My Voyage to Italy, Scorsese traces his families history and describes the impact with which these Italian films had had on him. Such was their impact, it's hard to imagine how less visceral his early films, particularly Taxi Driver would've been were his film viewing not informed by films by the likes of Roberto Rosselini and Vittorio De Sica.
Italian Neo-realism may have been a short period in which these films were around. Indeed, it only lasted 9 years between 1943 to 1952. But in the near 60 years since that movement, the impact of these movies hasn't diminished one iota. Its legacy charting a deeply chaotic time in the aftermath of the Second World War as people try to return to normal and struggle with the day to day things that were once commonplace. Whether that be trying to maintain a job by having a bike only to have it stolen or in more serious matters having to sell everything they own just to keep a roof over their head. It is a great testament to the directors that in these films, cinema goers all over the world will have something to relate to. It takes a special kind of film to retain that kind of charm.
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/neorealism1.jsp
http://www.imdb.com/
"American movies were more effective, more seductive. They really showed a paradise on earth, a paradise in a country they called America."By 1943 however, journalists had urged filmmakers to quit the studios and go out to the streets, to film what was really going on in modern day Italy.
Their films were significant for what film critic André Bazin would deem "cinéma verité." It acted as a journalistic entry in reporting the day to day problems of ordinary Italians and were filmed in an episodic rather than dramatic fashion. This was due in part to the fact that Italian directors felt it unwise to manipulate the film with editing to greater enhance it's dramatic effect and instead let the film unfold subtly. In Umberto D for example, we get the story of an old aged pensioner who faces eviction if he doesn't cough up the money. Throughout the whole film, we see how he sells certain possessions in order to gain money to pay off the rent that is owed. With that we are shown his stay in hospital, his random brush with old friends and the less than perfect living conditions. He has his dog Flick and servant Maria as friends.
Another example would be Roberto Rosselini's Germany Year Zero, a powerful film in which a young boy, Edmund tries to find work in the wake of the end of the Second World War, he is barely 13 but his father is unwell, money and food are in short supply and he is forced to look for work so his family can survive. He meets an unemployed teacher who used to teach him and while spending his time with the teacher he learns certain ideals that it is a survival of the toughest and that it is a survival of the fittest and that those that are not, should be left behind to die. This would then lead on to dramatic consequences for all involved.
It should be noted that for many Italians this movement in cinema perfectly crystallised the Resistance. It had brought together cinema journals for which journalists and future filmmakers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini would write for the likes of Cinema and Bianco e Nero on films and the development that was taking place.
There were other issues at hand as to why filmmakers chose to take to the streets over shooting in a studio. The Cinecitta studio complex that had helped film so many Italian films beforehand was now being used as a refugee house. So there was no question as for directors to take their films out into the streets with a cast that was largely untrained nonprofessional actors.
Audiences soon grew tired of these movies as they did not take too kindly to seeing their country being shot and seen in such a depressing manner. Laws were passed in Italy that allowed the directors to film in the neo-realist way but not so in a way that could be seen as detrimetal to the image that Italians would like. By then, it seemed to be the beginning of the end of the movement despite some classics like Miracle in Milan.
The impact of Italian neo-realism became widespread, it informed the Polish Film School. Filmmakers such as Krysztof Kieslowski would be indebted to the social realism that was an important aspect of the Italian neo-realism and would inform so many of his films as well. Many of the films from the French New Wave have also benefitted from Italian Neo-Realism. However we must look to Italian filmmakers themselves. Federico Fellini and Michaelangelo Antonioni had started working in films when the movement was in full swing and it would inform much of their work irrespective of when the movement had died. Even the likes of Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini carried it's ideas on how to represent class struggles and society at large.
Indeed Fellini was so indebted to the Neo-realist cinema that he once commented that he agreed with the principle of neo-realism itself but
"looking at reality with an honest eye - but any kind of reality; not just social reality, but also spiritual reality, metaphysical reality, anything man has inside him."
It is with this however that we can see that Fellini wanted to delve deeper and with that, so too goes for perhaps most of the filmmakers then.
Another big influence Italian Neo-Realism had was on Martin Scorsese. In his documentary, My Voyage to Italy, Scorsese traces his families history and describes the impact with which these Italian films had had on him. Such was their impact, it's hard to imagine how less visceral his early films, particularly Taxi Driver would've been were his film viewing not informed by films by the likes of Roberto Rosselini and Vittorio De Sica.
Italian Neo-realism may have been a short period in which these films were around. Indeed, it only lasted 9 years between 1943 to 1952. But in the near 60 years since that movement, the impact of these movies hasn't diminished one iota. Its legacy charting a deeply chaotic time in the aftermath of the Second World War as people try to return to normal and struggle with the day to day things that were once commonplace. Whether that be trying to maintain a job by having a bike only to have it stolen or in more serious matters having to sell everything they own just to keep a roof over their head. It is a great testament to the directors that in these films, cinema goers all over the world will have something to relate to. It takes a special kind of film to retain that kind of charm.
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/neorealism1.jsp
http://www.imdb.com/
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