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FACTFILE: GCE A2 MOVING IMAGE ARTS ITALIAN

Italian Neorealism

Learning Outcomes − film-making practices; Students should be able to: − narrative; − style; • demonstrate knowledge and understanding − characters; and of as an alternative − themes; cinematic storytelling tradition to Hollywood; • explain the influence of Italian Neorealism on • identify the narrative and stylistic conventions the work of contemporary film-makers; of Italian Neorealist Cinema and explain how they depart from the Classical Hollywood Style • analyse examples of Neorealist Cinema; and and narrative; • analyse the cinematic style of film-makers • discuss the following elements of Italian who have been influenced by Italian Neorealist Neorealist Cinema and explain their purpose in cinema. key Neorealist works:

Course Content

The term ‘neorealism’ was first used to describe filmmakers committed to using a cinematic style a wave of films made in at the end of based on visual . World War 2 that offered an alternative to the film language and filmmaking practices of the The three leading directors of the neorealist Classical Hollywood Style. The end of the war and movement were: over two decades of violent fascist dictatorship had left a devastated country. Italian Neorealism • – Rome, Open City (1945), was a movement of directors, screenwriters, Paisa (1946), and Germany Year Zero (1947); cinematographers and actors who all wanted • – Shoeshine (1946), Bicycle to ensure that the reality of ordinary, everyday Thieves (1948) and Umberto D. (1951); and , and the working class in particular, • – (1948). was presented on screen. To achieve this these

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Unlike most mainstream Hollywood films, • naturalistic lighting; neorealist films focus on thelives of ordinary • poor quality film stock people, exploring the many social and political • post-synchronised sound; problems they experienced in wartime or post- • the use of a mobile camera; war Italy. Many of Italy’s film studios had been • a predominance of medium and long shots; destroyed during the war making it no longer and possible to film there and this did indeed force • a respect for the continuity of time and space. many Italian filmmakers to explore alternative locations to film in. Neorealist filmmakers, on the Visually neorealist films had the starkly realistic other hand, were not forced to do this as they were look and feel of documentaries and newsreels. already making a conscious choice to shoot on As Marilyn Fabe points out: “Unburdened by location rather than in a studio setting. Shooting cumbersome sound equipment, the camera had on the streets of Italy was a conscious attempt by greater freedom of movement, creating the effect neorealists to represent real life as convincingly as of capturing events fortuitously, on the run, the possible and with the harshness of documentaries. way images of life appear in documentaries and Neorealist films featured mainlynon-professional newsreels.” (Fabe, 2004) actors, which also helped to give the films a feeling of being authentic portrayals of real life. Director Vittorio De Sica explained the original impetus for Influence of Neorealism Neorealism as, “an overwhelming desire to throw out of the window the old stories of the Italian has described the Italian neorealist cinema, to place the camera into the mainstream films of the immediate post-war years as “the most of real life, of everything that struck our horrified precious moment in film history.” The director eyes.” (Shiel, 2006) discusses how these films shaped his cinematic sensibility in the documentary, Director Roberto Rossellini, often seen as the father (Scorcese, 1999). of Neorealism, defined Neorealism as follows:“For me a realist film is precisely one which tries to Neorealism’s influence on world cinema has been make people think…What mattered to us was the profound, particularly in developing countries. For investigation of reality, forming a relationship with almost seven decades, the neorealist aesthetic reality.” (Shiel, 2006) has been the inspiration for cinema movements in , Africa and Iran, which focus on the lives of The visual style of Neorealism challenged the ordinary people. conventions of the Classical Hollywood Style. The following film techniques used by neorealist Italian Neorealism also influenced the Realist directors formed a new cinematic aesthetic: movement in the cinema in Britain. British director, Ken Loach, for example, has shown commitment to • location shooting; the neorealist philosophy and aesthetic in many of • lengthy takes; his working class dramas, including Kes (1969) and • unobtrusive editing; Raining Stones (1993).

Case study:

Bicycle Thieves is a landmark film in the history of to find a job. When he finally lands a job flyposting, the cinema, featuring a cast of non-professional his livelihood is cruelly snatched away from him actors and a meandering storyline that rejects the when his bicycle is stolen. Antonio, and his son narrative closure of Hollywood cinema. Screenwriter Bruno, set off on a fruitless search for the stolen believed that, “the cinema should bicycle film through the streets of Rome. The take as its subject the daily existence and condition bicycle is never found and Antonio is driven by of the Italian people.” (Shiel, 2006) despair to become a bicycle thief himself.

The subject matter of Bicycle Thieves focuses on For Mark Cousins, “demolition of the plot was the the poverty, mass unemployment and human revolutionary change the Neorealists effected.” misery of post-war Italy as seen through the plight (Cousins, 2004) He points to the narrative of Bicycle of Antonio, a down-trodden man trying desperately Thieves as an example of how far Neorealism

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departed from the plot-driven Classical Hollywood Hollywood cinema. The mobile camera follows the Narrative. The film contains many incidents that father and son at a distance so that, at all times, we are not directly relevant to the story of how the are keenly aware of the bustling life of the city all father and son attempt to track down the thief who around them. The camera keeps its distance as the has stolen the bicycle. main characters walk out of, and back into, shot. In the third and fourth shot in the sequence, the Apart from the theft of the two bicycles, the film camera remains static like a silent observer as the is almost completely lacking in dramatic action characters walk towards it from the distance and or conflict. The rules of the Classical Hollywood then stroll past it casually. The camera then pans Narrative are dispensed with as time that should be slowly right, to follow them as they exit the scene. spent searching for the bicycle is instead wasted. We have the feeling that we are watching real life This unobtrusive use of the camera gives the happening before our eyes; we observe father and sequence a documentary feel, not unlike Cinema son sheltering from the rain, eating dinner or sitting Verite’s fly-on-the-wall technique of capturing real on the sidewalk in despair. Cousins describes the life ‘on the run’. The free-moving documentary style film as“a string of incidents”, rather than the tight of photography employed by the director gives chain of cause and effect of Hollywood storytelling this sequence the starkly realistic look and feel of in which the action of each scene makes the documentaries and newsreels. This was another key following one inevitable. (Cousins 2004) storytelling technique of neorealist cinema.

Despite the unromanticised images of hardship Another key neorealist technique is respect for throughout the story and director De Sica’s refusal the continuity of time and space. This sequence is to provide a happy ending, the film carries a potent shot in a series of long takes, the first shot lasting emotional charge that continues to resonate with 26 seconds, the second, lasting 40 seconds. The audiences today. editing is unobtrusive featuring only four cuts in 1 minute 37 seconds. This creates the feeling that the Sequence Study sequence is happening in real time. (Timecode: 00:29:43–00:31:17) Finally the naturalistic performances of the This low-key, slow-paced sequence has a strong father, the son and the bin men, none of whom are feeling of being an authentic portrayal of real professional actors, give the impression that we life. The sequence could be described as a classic are watching real people moving with the natural example of neorealist filmmaking, featuring many rhythms, mannerisms and speech patterns of of the storytelling techniques, which challenged ordinary people. the conventions of the Classical Hollywood Style and amounted to a new cinematic aesthetic. The melodramatic storyline and the drifting, uncertain References way that the downbeat characters go about their search for the stolen bicycle offers an immediate Cousins, Mark. (2004). The Story of Film. London: contrast to the relentless forward momentum of Pavilion Books, Chapter 5, pp. 138-9. classical Hollywood narrative. Fabe, Marilyn. (2004). Closely Watched Films. The sequence takes place in a real location on Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of the busy streets of Rome with ordinary people California Press, Chapter 6, p. 101. going about their daily lives. The scene is filled with working people - street sweepers, bin men, Shiel, Mark. (2006). Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding lorry drivers - and the mise-en-scene appears the Cinematic City. London: Wallflower Press, pp. 2, completely authentic with no trace of any artifice. 54 & 58. The naturalistic lighting and, at times, grainy black and white film stock strengthens the impression Hallam, Julia and Marshment, Margaret. (2000). that we are watching a scene of real life unfolding Realism and Popular Cinema. Manchester before our eyes. University Press.

The sequence is shot almost exclusively in long My Voyage to Italy, 1999 [film]. Directed by Martin shot with some medium long shots. There are none SCORCESE. Italy/US: MediaTrade. of the close-ups that we associate with Classical

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