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Ratner - Italian Neo-Realism
Ratner - Italian Neo-Realism
by Megan Ratner
Introduction
Before the indies and even before the French New Wave, Italian neo-
realism staked out new cinematic territory. One of those blanket
terms that mean all things to all people, neo-realism has few
absolutes, though there are elements that set the Italian version
distinctly apart. Screenwriter and poet Cesare Zavattini wrote an
actual manifesto to guide these films, but their creation was just as
much a result of timing, chance and fluke. Unquestionably, their
greatest single influence was the anti-Fascism that marked World War
II's immediate postwar period. Key elements are an emphasis on real
lives (close to but not quite documentary style), an entirely or largely
non-professional cast, and a focus on collectivity rather than the
individual. Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of
the status quo. Plot and story come about organically from these
episodes and often turn on quite tiny moments. Cinematically, neo-
realism pushed filmmakers out of the studio and on to the streets,
the camera freed-up and more vernacular, the emphasis away from
fantasy and towards reality. Despite the rather short run - 1943 to
1952 - the heavyweight films of the period and the principles that
guided them put Italian cinema on the map at the time and continue
to shape contemporary global filmmaking.
Origins
Whether they were being shown the glories of their Roman past, their
fascist future or of l'America, a country unreal outside the movie-
house, what Italians rarely saw were images that reflected their lives.
As early as 1935, anti-Fascist journalist Leo Longanesi urged
directors to "go into the streets, into the barracks, into the train
stations; only in this way can an Italian cinema be born."
Aside from the political realities, it's worth remembering that Italy
was still in the first stages of a huge transition from agriculture to
manufacturing. People struggled; the economic miracle was still more
than a decade away. Yet few films showed this, the exceptions being
Treno popolare (1933) by Rafaello Matarazzo and, paradoxically, in
documentaries produced by LUCE institute, under complete control of
the regime.
For many Italians, neo-realist films put images to the ideas of the
Resistance. In the film journals Cinema and Bianco e Nero, writers
called for a cinema that resembled the verismo (realism) of literature.
This had begun as a 19th century literary movement which was
expanded by Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Cesare Pavese and Pier
Paolo Pasolini, most of whom wrote for - or about - the movies as
well. Although philosophical ideas informed Italian neo-realism, it is
very much a cinematic creation. As Calvino pointed out, "neo-realists
knew too well that what counted was the music and not the libretto."
The aim was not to record the social problems but to express them in
an entirely new way.
Roberto Rossellini's Roma: città aperta (Open City, 1946) shows most
clearly neo-realism's link with the Resistance movement. Set during
the Nazi occupation of Rome, it mines the tensions of the foreign
presence and the divisions among those who abetted and those who
opposed. Made under duress (black market film stock, little studio
shooting, rushes unexamined, sound synchronized in post-production,
and, no surprise, a tiny budget), Open City has an eyewitness
immediacy tempered with operatic emotion. Pragmatic realities drove
the film as much as the script, co-written by Sergio Amedei and
Federico Fellini. The hybrid of melodrama and actual footage was the
result of Rossellini's populist, episodic approach, the story told in
bursts, intense and unsparing details of ordinary lives undone by the
trauma of occupation. Veracity rather than comfort informed the
narrative. As the Gestapo search for and find a key member of the
Resistance, Rossellini keeps his primary focus on Pina (Anna
Magnani), engaged to marry an unassuming but Partisan typesetter
by whom she is already pregnant. Open City may be most cited for
two unforgettable scenes - a torture scene, to which Reservoir Dogs's
lopped-ear scene bears a marked resemblance; and a sudden and
dramatic death scene, a final posture evocative of painterly renditions
of Christian martyrs. It also emphasizes the futility of war, its
senselessness, a theme Rossellini struck throughout his war trilogy.
In Paisà (Paisan, 1946), Rossellini directly engaged the effects of the
American presence in Italy, complicated by the Yankee shift from
enemy to ally. In each of the six episodes, he examines the
expectations and disappointments inherent in the crossing of two
such different cultures and the inevitable - sometimes fatal -
misapprehensions. Newsreel footage separates the vignettes and,
throughout, Rossellini plays with the stereotypical images held by
each side, his overall theme being that war is an equal-opportunity
brutalizer.
Labor Intensive
Legislation had little immediate effect on what was made, though the
stories began to reflect the scramble for work and stability that
defined this period. Visconti's terrific Bellissima (1951) centers on a
daughter and fanatic stage-mamma, the inimitable Magnani, eager to
get her modestly talented daughter a spot in a movie. To her
husband's dismay, she squeezes every extra penny into lessons and
cosmetic improvements for the little girl. Ultimately, the mother all
but puts herself on the market to get the recognition she's convinced
will make life worth living. Set in a working-class Roman
neighborhood, Bellissima gives rare insight into how provincial big-
city life could be, each neighborhood a virtual small town, the
neighbors sometimes helpful, often petty and jealous of any
advantage. Though not traditionally considered a neo-realist film,
Bellissima did focus on people's lives in the wake of war, the sense of
wanting to better oneself and the struggle to find a way out of the
grind of poverty. It becomes yet more poignant in this context.
Umberto D.
A Long Shadow