ITALIAN NEOREALISM

1945-1952
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Italy Prior to W.W. II

1. Invented spectacular epic
features: Cabiria, Fall of Rome,
but quickly stagnated in silent era
2. First sound films not very good -White Telephone films
2

Italian Neorealism
1. Mussolini and Fascists in power
by time sound arrived late 1920s
2. Italian fascism not really
comparable to German nazism

Italian Films Under Mussolini

1. Some censorship
2. Nationalistic films encouraged
Repressive tolerance
3. No official policy or values
4

From 1935-40 Govt Controls

1. Loans to 18 accredited studios
2. All foreign films had to be
dubbed into Italian
3.Centro Sperimentale film school
But little outright propaganda
5

Rise of Neorealism near End

of World War II (1944)
1. Only 16 films made in 1944
2. Loyalties divided between
socialists and communists &
those who favored the Allies
3. Most Anti-Fascists in hiding
6

Roots of Neorealism
Beginning in 1930s:
1. Interest in Soviet Cinema--Pudovkin not Eisenstein
2. American hardboiled novels
James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammet
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3 Great Neorealist Directors

1. Roberto Rossellini
2. Victorio De Sica
3. Luchinio Visconti
8

Roberto Rossellini
1. Documentaries and short
subjects during war.
2. Began OPEN CITY -- the key
neorealist film in 1943 before
Germans had even left Rome.
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Open City (1945)

1. Totally different (180 degrees)
from approved studio epics.
2. The lives of the common
people during German
occupation.
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Neorealist Style (in Open City)

1. Some non-professional
actors, but pros in key roles
2. Shot on the fly -- hidden
cameras
3. In the streets not the studio
4. Very, very low budget
5. Extremely rough technically
11

Open City

Seemed almost real at the time

Extremely topical
Issue oriented
Real people and problems
Less artificial -- the way things
are
(caught on the run - a documentary
quality)
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Luchinio Visconti
1. Ossessione (44) -- complete
steal of Cains novel The
Postman Always Rings Twice
2. La Terra Trema (1948)
3. Bellissima (1951)
4. Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
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Vittorio de Sica
1. Actor who got into directing

2. Worked with writer:

Caesar Zavattini --The
philosopher of neorealism
Remember his name
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DeSicas Films
1. Shoeshine (1946)
2. The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Fridays film
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Philosophical Underpinnings
1. Often based on real incidents
2. Current social problems
3. Semi-documentary
4. Express an ideology
5. Technique bridges fiction &
documentary --- hence the term
NEOREALIST
16

Neorealist Period (1945-52)

Maybe ends a year or two earlier

1. Rossellini (Ingrid Bergman)

2. DeSica (Sophia Loren)
3. Visconti -- color films about
rich & famous
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4. The Italians themselves joked

about White Telephone films
that
a. spent so much time in the
heroines bedroom
b. were so obscene
c. tried so hard to be funny
d. had such enormous budgets
e. Offended the Catholic church
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Beyond Neorealism
Reasons for change:
1. Pressure from Catholic Church
and Govt about bad P.R. overseas
2. New prosperity = return to more
personal films and upper class
subjects.
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More Psychological
Less Sociological

Rossellini
DeSica
Visconti

All become mainstream in

1960s
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By 1960
Some common ideas with
French New Wave
Existential philosophy
Bigger budgets
Glossier films
MORE PERSONAL WORKS
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Many influential new directors

1. Ermanno Olmni -- Tree of
Wooden Clogs
2. Piero Passolini-- Accatone ; The
Gospel According to St. Matthew
3. Bernardo Bertolluci - The
Conformist, Spider Strategem, Last
Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor
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Other New Directors

4. Lina Wertmuller -- Swept Away,
Love and Anarchy, 7 Beauties
5. The Tavianni Brothers (Paolo &
Vittorio) Padre Padrone, The Night
of the Shooting Stars
6. Sergio Leone -- A Fist Full of
Dollars, For a Few Dollars More,
etc.
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The Most Important

Directors

Michelangelo Antonnioni:
LAvventura (1960)
The Eclipse (1961)
Red Desert (1964)
Blow-Up (1966)
Zabriske Point (1970)

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Frederico Fellini
Worked as writer during neorealist
period
1. The White Shiek
2. La Strada 3. The Nights of Cabiria
4. La Dolce Vita
5. 8 (Fellinis most important film
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8 - 1/2
His 9th film - autobiographical
Mixes dreams and fantasy
Exaggeration and overstatement
Technique for its own sake
Symbolism, fantasy & real action
NOT a classical Hollywood film
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Todays Film
The Bicycle Thief
1948
Vittorio DeSica
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