In Italy, post-World War II, a new film movement emerged amidst the collapse of the Mussolini regime, the desecration of a city and its historical landmarks, changes to social order and significant loss of life. Italian Neorealism embraced the harsh, impoverished and oppressive conditions being experienced by ordinary people trying to return to some normality (Film Reference 2015). Seizing an opportunity to discard popular Hollywood formula movies directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittoria de Sica and Luchinio Visconti shifted focus to ‘lower-class characters and their concerns, using nonprofessional actors, outdoor shooting, (necessarily) very small budgets, and a realist aesthetic’ (Criterion, 2015). While the Italian Neorealism movement
As a form of art cinema appeals to a different audience than those who view it as entertainment. In real life happy endings can be rare and this is reflected in the Italian Neorealism movement. In Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines there is evidence of the Italian Neorealist influence on Cianfrance as the script, acting and his direction is placed to achieve an accurate and truthful reflection of everyday life. Demonstrating real life Blue Valentine ends with the breakdown of the family unit and the concern of a child growing up in a broken home. In The Place Beyond the Pine, Cianfrance explores the theme of how the mistakes of one generation impact upon, and are repeated by, future generations. These are themes, which occur in everyday life and the reality is apparent to audiences. When considered in the context of art both films are complex representations of life, love and relationships in which there is a strong sense of truth and anticipated finality. However, in the context of entertainment audience opinion may reflect that of the Italians after WWII, who did not want to be confronted by the harsh reality of life. There is no evidence of the escapism sought by many audiences in either of the films, as the truth Cianfrance delivers is raw and
Perhaps an even stronger testament to the deepness of cinema is Darren Aronofsky’s stark, somber Requiem for a Dream. Centering on the drug-induced debasement of four individuals searching for the abstract concept known as happiness, Requiem for a Dream brims with verisimilitude and intensity. The picture’s harrowing depiction of the characters’ precipitous fall into the abyss has, in turn, fascinated and appalled, yet its frank, uncompromising approach leaves an indelible imprint in the minds of young and old alike.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a film that converts Shakespeare’s famous play into a present-day setting. The film transforms the original texts into modern notions, whilst still employing Shakespearean language. Compared to Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann’s picture is easier for a teenage audience to understand and relate to because of his modernisations. Despite the passing of four centuries Shakespeare’s themes of love, hate, violence, family and mortality remain the same regardless of the setting.
“Open City” is a neo-realist film that followed the movement in Italy during World War 2. The film is neo-realistic because it has that ‘reality’ like feeling to it by following specific characters through their daily stressful lives that are screwed up from poverty and war. It has many qualities that make it in some ways ‘closer’ to the characters. While watching, the viewer is sucked into the story and immediately feeling emotional with the families and the other various characters in the film. The main reason is Rossellini's choosing dramatic music and kids with big eyes.
Due to a federal antitrust law, production companies and distributors lost power and profits, and independent companies, such as the United Artists Corporation, gained traction. The antitrust law, combined with “the postwar downturn and above all the imperative of competing effectively with television,” led to the implementation of various widescreen formats, 3-D, and Technicolor in order to innovate film and engage the spectator. In doing so, this period imbalanced the emerging power of narrative with the resurgence of spectacle. Widescreen, especially, also contributed to a sense of realism, actively engaging the audience in the visual expanse of cinema. As a result, Some Like It Hot’s mode of spectatorial address, though not as focused on “attraction” as early cinem...
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
6. "Deterrence is the art of producing, in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack." -Dr. Strangelove. Deterrence in the film was the fear of the consequences of the nuclear attacks. It's significant because it encompasses idea of the Cold War.
Going to the movies is an experience that everyone can enjoy, and while most people have an idea of what genre of movie they are partial to, there are some movies that will appeal to almost any crowd. I recently took my two nieces, ages ten and thirteen, to see the 2014 musical Into the Woods, and in the audience there was a large group of teenagers, a couple families that had brought their preteen and teenage children, and even some adults that had gone to see it for their own enjoyment. There are numerous aspects of a movie that can catch a person’s attention, and the film producers of Into the Woods knew exactly how to draw in the desired crowd. In order to do this, the filmmakers used both ethos and pathos to appeal to their intended preteen, teenage, and adult audiences.
Connelly, Marie. "The films of Martin Scorsese: A critical study." Diss. Case Western Reserve University, 1991. Web. 07 Apr 2014.
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
The aim of this report is to discuss Italian Neorealism (Neorealismo); looking at how the movement played a significant element in European cinema during and after the times of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. The report not only looks at how but why Neorealism became a growing phenomenon for filmmakers during its debatable 10 year period, and what implication of messages these Neorealist directors were trying to send out through their films. Backed up by several reliable book sources, the evidence for this report will also highlight the influences Neo-realism has created in modern filmmaking today.
In his paper entitled: Driving into the Void: Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry Hamish ford argues that the theme, content and narrative (or lack thereof) of Taste of Cherry is one that is “negatively engaging”. He describes that the openness of the film is simultaneously threatening and enabling and its temporarlity evokes confusion (Ford, 2012, p.3). To him Taste of Cherry is destabilizing and underpinned with a quite violence (Ford, 2012, p.3). He argues that the open-ended denouement Kiarostami uses in many examples of his work cannot be exclusively positive in the viewer’s interpretation of them because of all the things we see and all that we do not; to understand it only as affirming would be a limited response. Ford stipulates that, in his opinion, these endings are subversive in nature as opposed to affirming (Ford, 2012, p. 29). The protagonist, Mr Badii, is constructed in such a way that he lacks depth and is difficult for the audience to relate to forcing them to have an objective view on the scene provided to them, our emotions should not come into play when viewing the final scene and we are forced to consider a number of possible outcomes, many ...
The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.
The film Cinema Paradiso was originated in 1988, it is a drama film that was directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and it’s original title was Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. The film was an inspiring way of exploring Italian Cinema and how it’s importance to viewers it truly is. Salvator, who is the main character looked up to Alfredo as a child, who was his best friend and teacher who taught him everything he knows about film making. In Cinema Paradiso the film dealt with several elements such as scenery, photography, editing, sound, lighting. Cinema Paradiso film showed specific understanding of the Italian and American traditions place in the history of this film. Cinema Paradiso is a film that not only is strong in Italian culture but also shows the significance
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
Martini, G. (2013) I Festival sono ancora necessari?, Spec. Issue of 8 ½- Numeri, visioni e prospettive del cinema italiano (2013).