Italian Neo-Realism

Introduction to Italian Neo Realist Cinema

Realism is political assumption that conceives of world associations as a great effort for power among countries. States project power mainly by depending on force or the warning of force (Mearsheimer, 57). Realism discounts moral reflection in foreign policy, and declare that a state can achieve security only by amassing power.

Before Indies and even before French New Wave, Italian neo-realism staked out new cinematic territory (Carr, 14). One of those blanket terms that mean all things to all people, neo-realism has few absolutes, though there are elements that set Italian version distinctly apart. Screenwriter as well as poet Cesare Zavattini wrote an actual manifesto to guide these movies, but their creation was just as much the result of timing, chance as well as fluke. Categorically, anti-Fascism was their utmost single influence that marked World War II's immediate postwar period. Key elements are an emphasis on real lives (close to but not quite documentary style), the totally or largely non-professional cast, as well as the focus on collectivity rather than individual (Morgenthau, 65). Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of 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 studio and on to streets, camera freed-up and more vernacular, and emphasis away from fantasy and towards reality (Williams, 71). Despite rather short run - 1943 to 1952 - heavyweight movies of period and principles that guided them put Italian cinema on map at time and continue to shape contemporary global filmmaking.

Italian Neo-Realism started after end of World War II (1940's and 1950's); in the time where country was struck by poverty and the difficult economical as well as political time which the whole country was facing, it was having drastic impacts on the life of citizens too (Mearsheimer, 43). The feelings of era were reflected in subject matter and style of Italian Neo-Realist movie makers.

Key Films of Italian Neo-Realist Movement

Because of movie Roma, Italian Neo-Realism attracted global acknowledgment, citta aperta (Rome Open City) directed by Roberto Rossellini in 1946, movie won Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival (Sitney, Adams, 124).

Other key movies of Italian Neo-Realist movement include:

Roma, citta aperta (Rome Open City, 1946) Roberto Rossellini

Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948) Vittorio De Sica

Sciuscia (Shoeshine, 1946) Vittorio De Sica

La terra trema (The Earth Will Tremble, 1948) Luchino Visconti

Miracola de Milano (Miracle in Milan, 1951) Vittoria De Sica

Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949) Guisseppe De Santis

Italian Neo Realism certainly inspired French New Wave Movement, as well as making an impact on whole of movie maker, showing an alternative way of making movies (Bondanella, Peter, 24).

Style of Italian Neo-Realism

To introduce neorealist, philosophical, formal-aesthetic, literary, and cultural preconditions that concurred to generate neorealist as the distinct Cinematic movement in mid-1940s in Italy. Philosophically, neorealist - like any form of realism, be it cinematic, literary, and artistic in general - is characterized by 'the disposition to ontological truth of physical, visible world' ...