Italian NeoRealism

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Italian NeoRealism

• 1946 ?

COM 320 History of the Moving Image
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Italian NeorealismOrigins

• Prior to and during WWII, filmmakers were
  encouraged to make meaningless, pure
  entertainment films
• 1924 the state film service LUnione
  Cinematografica Educativa (LUCE) was founded
  for the purpose of civil and national
  education, based somewhat on the Soviet model
• (Fascism was in place in Italy
• by 1922 Benito Mussolini
• the leader (Il Duce) beginning
• in 1925)

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Italian NeorealismOrigins

• 1932 Venice Film Festival founded by Count
  Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata
• 1934 Luigi Freddi (Italian Minister of
  Propaganda a Fascist party leader) established
  Cinema of Distraction, rejecting the Soviet
  model in favor of Hollywood-style production

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Italian NeorealismOrigins (contd)

• Over the next few years, Freddi created a number
  of film institutions
• 1935 national film school Centro Spiramentale
  della Cinematografia
• 1937 national studio Cinecitta
• 1937 film journal Bianco Nero
• Between 1934 and 1942 the Venice Film Festival
  awarded Mussolini Cups as prizes.

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Italian NeorealismOrigins (contd)

• 1938 Alfieri Law in 1938 gave producers direct
  aid, were allowed to make light-weight white
  telephone melodramas and comedies filmmakers
  thus honed their craft.
• During World War II there was a ban on U.S. and
  other foreign film imports.

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Italian NeorealismOrigins (contd)

• Neorealism actually began in last couple of years
  of fascism, inspired by Soviet Montage, French
  Poetic Realism, and Hollywood (e.g., Luchino
  Viscontis Ossessione, 43, a version of
  Hollywoods The Postman Always Rings Twice)
• Benito Mussolini executed in 45 the liberation
  that followed allowed the expression of repressed
  socio-political views.

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Italian NeorealismSubstance

• Open form narrative ranges from partisan
  heroics to contemporary social problems
• The new realism included the notion of abolishing
  contrived plots and professional actors

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Italian NeorealismSubstance

• Was it leftist? Opinions vary. Italian
  Neorealism/Marxist screenwriter Cesare Zavattini
  and many other filmmakers and critics called for
  a new realism as early as 1942
• Captured the beauty of ordinary life

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Italian NeorealismForm

• Amalgam of amateur and professional performers
• Cinema verite (not quite) or simple realist
  style

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Italian NeorealismForm

• Rough look partly a result of economic hardship
• Loosening of plot linearity

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Italian NeorealismImpacts on Films to Follow

• Fellinihis evolving auteurism
• Direct Cinema and other documentary forms
• In U.S. CanadaMaysles brothers, Frederick
  Wiseman, D. A. Pennebaker, etc.
• Selected political cinemas (e.g., Cuba)

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Key DirectorsLuchino Visconti

• Full name Luchino, Visconti di Modrone, Count
  of Lonate Pozzollo
• November 2, 1906 March 17, 1976
• Directed 20 films between 1943 and 1976
• Served as a writer on 16 films from 1941 to 1976
• Best-known work
• Ossessione (1943)
• Also a respected theatrical director, for the
  Rina Morelli-Paolo Stoppa Company
• President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival
  in 1969
• Openly homosexual known partners included actor
  Helmut Berger and director Franco Zeffirelli

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Key DirectorsRoberto Rossellini

• May 8, 1906 June 3, 1977
• Directed 51 films between 1936 and 1977
• Served as a writer on 44 films and a producer on
  11
• Best-known works
• Roma, Città Aperta (Open City) (1945)
• Paisà (Paisan) (1946)
• Stromboli (1950)
• Il Miraculo (The Miracle) (1952)U.S. Supreme
  Court decision on its sacriligeous status
  confirmed that the 1st Amendment applies to
  movies! (overturning the 1915 Mutual vs. Ohio
  case)
• Made six movies with Ingrid Bergman before and
  during their seven-year marriage (their three
  children include actress Isabella Rossellini)
• President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival
  in 1977
• I do not want to make beautiful films. I want
  to make useful films.

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Key DirectorsVittorio De Sica

• July 7, 1902 November 13, 1974
• First appeared in films as an actor in 1917, in
  Il processo Clémenceau
• Continued acting in films until his death in 1974
• Directed 36 films between 1940 and 1974
• Served as a writer on 23 films, and a producer on
  8
• Best-known works
• Sciuscia (1946) Won an honorary Oscar
• Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thieves) (1948)
  Won an honorary Oscar
• Leri, Oggi, Domini (1963) Won the Oscar for
  Best Foreign Language Film
• Matrimonio Allitaliana (1964) Nominated for
  Best Foreign Language Film
• Il Giardino Dei Finzi Contini (1970) Won Best
  Foreign Language Film
• After the Fox (1966) An English-language comedy
  starring Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt
  Ekland, and a cameo by De Sica, with a script
  co-written by Zavattini and Neil Simon, and music
  by Burt Bacharach...must be seen to be believed

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Key DirectorsFederico Fellini

• January 20, 1920 October 31, 1993
• Directed 25 films between 1950 and 1990
• Served as a writer on 51 films between 1942 and
  1990
• Best-known works (Note his EVOLUTION)
• La Strada (1954) Winner of the Oscar for Best
  Foreign Language Film
• Le Notti de Cabiria (The Nights of Cabiria)
  (1957) Won Best Foreign Language Film Oscar
  adapted into the Broadway musical Sweet Charity
• 8 ½ (1963) Won Best Foreign Language Film Oscar
• Amarcord (1973) Won Best Foreign Language Film
  Oscar
• He was a huge fan of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics
  one of his first writing jobs was the Italian
  translation of the Flash Gordon comic strip.
• Worked productively with his wife, actress
  Guilietta Masina
• Known for his hot temper on the set

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Key Works Ossessione

• Released in 1943
• Directed by Luchino Visconte
• Written by Luchino Visconte and Mario Alicata
• Premiered in Rome May 16, 1943
• A tale of forbidden love between a drifter and
  an innkeepers wife, culminating in murder
  Italys film version of The Postman Always Rings
  Twice
• Italys Fascist Party banned the film and
  destroyed its prints and negative. Visconte
  managed to save one print.
• Not seen again until it was shown in Sweden in
  1959

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Key Works Open City

• Italian title Roma, città aperta
• Released in 1945
• Directed by Roberto Rossellini
• Written by Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini
• Premiered in Italy September 27, 1945
• A story about the Italian Resistances struggle
  against the Nazis in occupied Rome, set just one
  year earlier (1944)
• For added realism, Rossellini cast real Nazi
  POWs in some of the German roles, and used real
  military uniforms and vehicles.
• First Italian Neorealism film to be released
  outside of Italy

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Key Works Paisan

• Italian Title Paisà
• Released in 1946
• Directed by Roberto Rossellini
• Written by Sergio Amedei, Klaus Mann, Federico
  Fellini, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes, Vasco
  Pratolini, Roberto Rossellini, and Rod E. Geiger
• Premiered in Italy December 10, 1946
• Anthology of six tales, of American soldiers
  following their landing in Sicily, and tracing
  their relationships with the Italian people.
• The monks in Episode V are genuine Franciscan
  monks, from the Maiori convent near Salerno.

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Key Works The Bicycle Thieves

• Italian title Ladri di Biciclette
• Released in 1948
• Directed by Vittorio De Sica
• Written by Cesare Zavattini, Suso DAmico,
  Vittorio De Sica, Oreste Biancoli, Adolfo
  Franci, and Gerardo Guerrieri
• Based on the novel by Luigi Bartolini
• Premiered in Italy November 24, 1948
• The story of a father in post-war Rome who,
  after years of unemployment and poverty, get a
  chance at a wonderful job only to have his
  bicycle critical for the job
  stolen.
• De Sica decided to use no professional actors.
  All of the cast is made up of amateurs.

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Key Works Stromboli

• Also known as Stromboli, Terra di Dio
  (Stromboli, Land of God)
• Released in 1950
• Directed by Roberto Rossellini
• Written by Roberto Rossellini, Art Cohn, Sergio
  Amidei, Gian Paolo Callegari, Renzo Cesana, and
  Father Félix Morlión
• Premiered in the USA February 15, 1950
• A young Baltic woman marries a fisherman to
  escape a prison camp, but finds that life in his
  village, the titular Stromboli, is every bit as
  alien and difficult.
• Ingrid Bergman left Hollywood to work with
  Rossellini and then was banned from Hollywood
  for six years because of her extramarital affair
  with him. Her pregnancy resulted in Robert Jr.,
  and two years later, twins Ingrid and Isabella.
• Howard Hughes used the scandal in publicity for
  the American premiere, resulting in the film
  earning 1 million on its first day.

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Key Works Umberto D

• Released in 1952
• Directed by Vittorio de Sica
• Written by Cesare Zavattini and Vittorio de Sica
• Graphically demonstrates the impact of rampant
  post-war inflation (the protagonist is an
  impoverished pensioner/retiree)
• Most of the actors were non-professional,
  including Carlo Battisti, who played the title
  role
• An open-ended conclusion to the film is typical
  of Italian Neorealismwere not sure what happens
  to Umberto and his dog Flike

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Key Works La Strada

• Translation The Road
• Released in 1954
• Produced by Dino de Laurentiis
• Directed by Federico Fellini
• Written by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and
  Ennio Flaiano
• Premiered at the Venice Film Festival September
  6, 1954
• A carefree girl is sold by her parents to a
  traveling circus, becoming the assistant of the
  shows surly, abusive strongman, and struggles to
  find her purpose and place in life.
• Winner of the first-ever Academy Award for Best
  Foreign Language Film

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