Italian Neorealism (1942-1951)

Sir thought that we already discussed this along with Surrealism but we told him that we know nothing about the Italian Neorealism yet, so discussed it to us. 

Neorealism - the term had no roots but it was first coined at the works of Italian critics in the early 1940's in the books, the term Neorealism may mean the young generations' desire in breaking the norms of that time when it comes to cinema. 

According to some historians, Neorealism was not really an escape of Mussolini in cinema. As we have also discussed in our Comm102 class that Mussolini used cinema for his propaganda, which is to show that Italy, under his administration is good and pleasant. Russolini's White Ship (1941), the movie shown reality but still it was a propagandistic film. 

A scene in the White Ship

Neorealism was about showing the real conditions in Italy and it was influenced by some foreign movement as well. The movement survived through economic, cultural and social factors. They also made a way to somehow remove censorship in Italy. 

Some of well known films during the Italian Neorealism are the following: Visconti's La Terra Trema (1947) Rosselini's Rome Open City (1945), Paisan (1946) and Germany Year Zero (1947): De Sica's Shoeshine (1946) and Bicycle Thieves (1948).

Rome Open City Poster

A scene in Bicycle Thieves

The Italian Neorealism was known for location shootings (they have to resort to that because the largest studio in Rome, Cinettia was wrecked), the use of non-actors just like in Soviet Montage and open ended endings unlike the narrative closure of the Classical Hollywood Cinema.

The Italian Neorealism came to an end when the Italy started to be economically stable again, the censorship was brought back again and the large film production companies began to rule in the Italian film industry hence making the small scale film production companies close. The neorealist directors also now have their individualistic concerns evident in their movies too. Though the era of Neorealism may have ended, there are few directors that were inspired by it including Federico Fellinin and Micheangelo Antonioni, Ermanno Olmi and Satyajit Ray and on groups like the French New Wave. 

I saw a film. The Flowers of St. Francis it was directed by Roberto Rosselini and one of screenwriters is Federico Fellini. Enjoy!