Italian neorealism, also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories

set amongst the poor and the working class, filmed on location, frequently using non-professional
actors. Neorealist films were generally filmed with nonprofessional actors, although in a number of
cases, well-known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types
in front of a background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film.

They were shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in rundown cities as well as rural areas due to its
forming during the post-war era.

Neorealist films typically explore the conditions of the poor and the lower working class. Characters
oftentimes exist within simple social order where survival is the primary objective. Performances are
mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, devoid of
the self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films often feature children in
major roles, though their characters are frequently more observational than participatory.

Pioneers of Italian neorealism

Pioneers include filmmakers such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini as well as theoreticians and
critics such as Cesare Zavattini and André Bazin. “The cinema was born with neo-realism” said filmmaker
Giuseppe Bertolucci, not overselling the movement one bit.

Contributions of the pioneers of Italian neorealism:-

Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio Domenico Stanislao Gaetano Sorano De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in
the neorealist movement The roots of Neorealism—an emphasis upon simple, honest story lines, a
documentary style, the frequent use of children as protagonists, on-location shooting, social themes,
and faith in the brotherhood of man—are found in De Sica’s early works, particularly Teresa
Venerdì (1941; Doctor, Beware) and I bambini ci guardano (1944; The Children Are Watching Us). De Sica
became one of the world’s most acclaimed directors with four masterpieces of the genre: Sciuscià
(1946; Shoeshine), an account of the tragic lives of two children during the American occupation of Italy;
Ladri di biciclette (1948; The Bicycle Thief), an Oscar winner for best foreign film; Miracolo a Milano
(1951; Miracle in Milan), a comic parable about the clash of rich and poor in Milan; and Umberto D.
(1952), a tragedy.
Robert Rossellini

Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and producer. Rossellini
was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement
with films such as Rome, Open City, Paisan, and Germany, Year Zero.

Impact of neo realism on Indian film makers.

For most people, Indian films mean Bollywood – rigidly formulaic Hindi-language musicals – but for
others they mean exquisite art movies, mainly produced in Kolkata in the Bengali language. The latter
industry, which came to be known as parallel cinema, is exemplified by the work of the near
contemporaries Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. Italian Neorealism influenced many more
styles of realism to come about in Cinema, specially Indian New Wave Cinema also known as Parallel
Cinema. After the emergence of Italian Neorealism in the 1940’s, India and many others worldly
Cinema’s took on the traits to show stories of realism to the lower classes. The Golden Age’ of Indian
Cinema; it was a key point historically in India as they gained independence from the British Empire.
Majority of Indian Cinema, prior to this, was centered on the Bollywood style, upbeat, idealistic and
often musical. The pursuit of cinematic realism, originating in West Bengal, India in the 1950’s, following
the Italian Neorealism of the 40’s, was seen as a break from this national tradition.

Satyajit Ray

It was the Italian Neo-Realists who gripped Ray's imagination next. Ray noted in his book that his trip to
London as an art director of an advertising agency was to seal the fate of his advertising career. He said
that within three days of his arrival he had seen The Bicycle Thief by Vittorio De Sica which furthermore
strengthened his resolve to make his first feature film Pather Panchali using natural locations and
unknown actors as was the case with The Bicycle Thief.

Ray's praise for The Bicycle Thief knew no bounds as he says: "BT is a triumphant discovery of the
fundamentals of cinema and De Sica has openly acknowledged his debt to Chaplin."

In Pather Panchali, Ray introduced the neo-realist tradition of using non-actors and actually shooting on
location while using an unadorned style of photography. The details of speech, behavior, habits,
customs, rituals, substantiated the very simple structure and the narrative line. The film, almost a
documentary, was simple enough to be comprehensible at all levels. Incidentally, the novel Pather
Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, from which the movie was adapted, was a sprawling saga
whose slow speed, leisurely denouement caught the perfect rhythm of the rural Bengal. When focusing
on these and how they are represented aesthetically, they both have many things to together. The
Bicycle Thief and Pather Panchali both leave the audience with a lasting sense of contentment through
visual story telling, contrastingly of the depressing main narratives. In The Bicycle Thief even though
Antonio has lost everything he still manages to hold onto his humanity, as his attempt to steal another’s
bike is met with empathy and forgiveness, we see him smile relieved as he walks away with his son hand
in hand. In Pather Panchali, Apu, after facing two heart-wrenching losses, ( his recently deceased sister’s
necklace, which she earlier denied to have stolen. He then dramatically throws it into a river. These two
scenes of each (lm both leave us with the lasting image of humanity, as Apu reaches contentment
throwing away the stolen necklace, clearing his sister’s name, and as Antonio is also cleared of his sins
from attempting to steal the bicycle.

Ritwik Ghatak

The Bengali film director Ritwik Ghatak was a professor at the institute and a well-known director.
Unlike Ray, however, Ghatak did not gain international fame during his lifetime. For example, Ghatak's
Nagarik (1952) was perhaps the earliest example of a Bengali art film, preceding Ray's Pather Panchali by
three years, but was not released until after his death in 1977.[21][22] His first commercial release
Ajantrik (1958) was also one of the earliest films to portray an inanimate object, in this case an
automobile, as a character in the story, many years before the Herbie films.The protagonist of Ajantrik,
Bimal, can also be seen as an influence on the cynical cab driver.

Mrinal Sen

Ray found international recognition in his very first film, and Ghatak became a cult among filmmakers
(mostly thanks to his students at the Film and Television Institute of India), slowly turning into the
alternative great. Sen neither had the fortune of Ray’s early successes, nor did he find a steady stream of
followers. Like his films, out of bounds for narrative cinema, he remained on the outskirts of popular
fanfare, and conventional definition. Sen didn’t really get into cinema at the very onset. He was
interested in the aesthetics of cinema, reading, writing, and debating about it. Sen was an ardent
follower of Marxist philosophy. In many Mrinal Sen movies from Punaschato Mahaprithivi, Kolkata
features prominently. He has shown Kolkata as a character, and as an inspiration. He has beautifully
woven the people, value system, class difference and the roads of the city into his movies and coming of
age for Kolkata, his El-Dorado.

Cinema is a very powerful weapon that works both ways. While cinema influences people, people
influence it right back. That is why, parallel cinema plays a very crucial role- mirroring our society, as
well as affecting it. The films of Sen, Ghatak and ray offered their audiences a political message about
the social conditions they represented.