A crime is a serious offence such as murder or robbery. A punishment is a penalty imposed on somebody who is convicted of a crime. The two movies that are being compared and contrasted is I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958), filmed by Mario Monicelli and Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948), filmed by Vittorio De Sica. Both Bicycle Thieves and Big Deal on Madonna Street ushered in a new era of film. This allows two movies to accomplish similar goals in two completely different ways. What the movies have in common is the neorealist settings, character structure, and the genre. These are the reasons that make Big Deal on Madonna Street and Bicycle Thieves have similarities yet two completely different movies.
In the mid
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1940’s to the mid 1950’s, soon after World War II had ended, a new movement in Italian cinema occurred. Neorealism inspired many director’s creative processes that can be seen in their movies today. The start of Neorealism is characterized by on location shooting, poor/working class, and the use of non-professional actors. This shows the economy of Italians everyday life, poverty, injustice, and oppression that they face. In the two movies one thing that can be analyzed is Neorealism.
Both Big Deal on Madonna Street and Bicycle Thieves present neorealism on two different spectrums. The movie Bicycle Thieves portrays neorealism by showing a man named Antonio Ricci, who just got a job that would help provide for his family, putting up posters for the city requiring the use of a bicycle to get around and no other way. To even get a bicycle he had to trade in their family’s sheets in exchange for it trading goods when they don’t have any money to get one. After one day on the job his bike was stolen and he goes on a journey with his son to look for it roaming through Italy. This shows the economic struggles throughout the city and the social …show more content…
classes. The movie Big Deal on Madonna Street embraces a type of neorealism called “pink neorealism”. Pink neorealism is an adaptation of neo realism with a lighter tone for a comedy. In Big Deal on Madonna Street it pays tribute to The Bicycle Thieves by having tragic undertones yet remains pink neorealism by other means. Big Deal on Madonna varies from Bicycle Thieves with elements of Commedia all’italiana (Comedy Italian style), star system, stock characters, tragic undertones, and social commentary. The film also plays on the stereotypes of Italian culture. This is made apparent when Michele keeps his sister locked away from the outside world until she is married, making fun of Sicilians traditions. Furthermore, A character structure is a system of relative traits that are manifested in the specific ways that an individual relates and reacts to others, to various kinds of stimuli, and to the environment. Two characters that have a similar structure would be Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio from The Bicycle Thieves and Marcello Mastroianni as Tiberio from Big Deal on Madonna Street. Both the characters are fathers trying to provide for their family during hard times. Antonio from The Bicycle Thieves is a man who is given an opportunity to earn an income for his family but first need to get a new bike. Antonio and his wife sell their linen sheets to help obtain the bike to provide for his family. Tiberio from Big Deal on Madonna Street is a photographer who is taking care of his newborn because his wife is in jail for selling black market goods. He sells his camera to help by formula for his baby while his wife is serving time. Both of these characters show what one must do to be the man of the house in the time periods. There is also a moment where both characters do something they do not want to.
Antonio near the end of the movie tries to steal a bike after failing to find his own. Tiberio agrees to assist with the heist to help his current situation. These insistences exemplify that they are willing to do whatever it takes to provide for their family. What ends up separating the two characters is the end results of their actions. At the end of these films, Antonio decides to steal the bicycle while Tiberio backing out last minute for the safety of his family. The difference between the two was Antonio was willing to go through with stealing the bike regardless of the consequences. Tiberio was at first going through with the heist for his family but end up not going through with the it for the same reason, their family.
Last but not least, Genre is a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, and technique. Aside from the character structure the genre can be compared and contrasted in these two movies. The movie Bicycle Thieves genre is a mystery/crime and Big Deal on Madonna Street is a comedy. Even though the two movies are two different genres they do share similar set ups. Both movies are about the social issues of Italy but Big Deal on Madonna Street amplifies and spoofs Italians
troubles De Sica’s the Bicycle Thieves and Monicelli’s Big Deal on Madonna Street are movies that have many similarities as well as many differences. In the The Bicycle Thieves for neorealism is one of the best representations of it following the criteria to make a neorealism film. The movie Big Deal on Madonna Street takes a different approach to neorealism called “pink neorealism” giving it a light hearted affect to the film to make it more into a comedy. In addition to neorealism both of the movies have characters’ structure that can be examined. In the Bicycle Thieves Antonio is a family man who is willing to go to extreme measures to provide for his family even committing a crime that caused him in that predicament at the beginning of the film. Big Deal on Madonna Street the character Tiberio is a well a family man who makes sacrifices for his family while his wife is in jail and planned to go along with the heist. In the end he backed out due to the risk he was not willing to take because of his family. Last would be the genre that these movies fall into and what traits link them and what separates them. The Bicycle Thieves genre would follow a mystery/crime because of Antonio and his son spending the whole movie looking for his bike that someone stole from him. Big Deal on Madonna Street the genre is a comedy due to a group of men who try and pull off a heist that end up taking every wrong turn possible. All of these factors come together to compare and contrast the movies Bicycle Thieves and Big Deal on Madonna Street.
The characters in these films were savvy, secretive and wealthy unlike the gangsters seen in Little Caesar and Scarface: The Shame of the Nation. Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983) payed homage to the original, and although they follow roughly the same storyline, De Palma’s remake is more reminiscent of The Godfather films than its predecessor. Tony Montana (Al Pacino), the film’s main character, worked his way up from poverty by selling drugs and committing horrifying acts of violence in order to attain the power, wealth and woman he so desired. In his 1983 review of Scarface, Pulitzer prize winner, Roger Ebert states “Al Pacino does not make Montana into a sympathetic character, but he does make him into somebody we can identify with, in a horrified way, if only because of his perfectly understandable motivations” (RogerEbert.com). More than fifty years later, Ebert expresses similar thoughts to those of Robert Warshow, esteemed film critic and author of “The Gangster as a Tragic Hero.” “…We [the audience] gain the double satisfaction of participating vicariously in the gangster’s sadism and then seeing it turned against the gangster himself.” (Warshow) These sentiments are exactly what the censorship of the 1932 version intended to prevent, yet Scarface (1983) did not receive the same scrutiny. Despite the mixed reviews that Howard Hawk’s original Scarface: Shame of the Nation and Brian De Palma’s
"Genre: A group of films having recognizably similar plots, character types, settings, filmic techniques, and themes." (Konigsberg:165) The Genre of this film is difficult to define because it is not composed of a single agenda. The director makes a point of talking about Tosh’s life, but because of the cinematic themes and the film’s style it is not solely a documentary. This film is also a multimedia film because elements of music and concert footage are added to the essential plot. This film is avant-garde in it’s nature. "Avant-garde [refers to films that] deny the traditional narrative structure and techniques of commercial films by seeking to explore new modes of visual and emotional experience." (Konigsberg:25) It could be considered an anthology film, because of the various concert footage that is woven throughout the movie. "An Anthology film is a full length film made up of excerpts from other films which are related by some theme [or] the appearance of the same performer." (Konigsberg:16)
Amelio places an immense focus on intertextuality in this film as an homage to the end of the neorealistic era. He particularly references one of the leading figures of the neorealistic movement, Vittorio De Sica, and his film Bicycle Thief. The title, Stolen Children, and the main character’s name, Antonio, are an allusion of Bicycle Thief. Through Amelio’s choice of allusions,
The genre of the film is how we know what kind of film it is. Genre is a French word which literally means type; it shows what category a film comes under. There are certain factors in a genre which will identify it. Things like settings, characters and themes can all be similar in one specific genre.
The classic gangster film focusing on a host of norms defined by some of the first gangster films. This genre originated as an escapism from the negative depression era. People would flock to see the gangsters go from rags to riches with their glitzy lifestyle and beautiful women. As Shadoian puts it, “The gangster’s fizzy spirits, classy lifestyle, and amoral daring were something like Alka-Seltzer for the headaches of the depression” (Shadoin 29). Not all this came easily for the gangsters though, bloodshed is defined as a part of business with guns a constant motif. Despite these negative outcomes, it’s easy to see how this genre was such a great elusion from the everyday where the American Dream seemed like it might not even exist anymore.
When it comes to literary devices of course genre has to be in the top of those because genre changes how you read a book as in to take it serious or to see where they going with the story.
Like most things captured on film for the purpose of being marketed, the richness of gangster life, with sex, money, and power in surplus, is glorified, and thus embraced by the audience. And as a rule, if something works Hollywood repeats it, ala a genre. What Scarface and Little Caesar did was ultimately create a genre assigning powerful qualities to criminals. Such sensationalism started with the newspapers who maybe added a little more color here and there to sell a few more copies, which is portrayed in Scarface’s two newspaper office scenes. Leo Braudy denounces genres as offending “our most common definition of artistic excellence” by simply following a predetermined equation of repetition of character and plot. However, Thomas Schatz argues that many variations of plot can exist within the “arena” that the rules of the genre provide.
Aside from its acting, the other major influence which Mean Streets had upon American film-makers was through it's use of a rock n' roll soundtrack (almost perfectly integrated with the images), and in its depiction of a new kind of screen violence. Unexpected, volatile, explosive and wholly senseless, yet, for all that, undeniably cinematic violence. The way in which Scorsese blends these two - the rock and roll and the violence - shows that he understood instinctively, better than anyone else until then, that cinema (or at least this kind of cinema, the kinetic, visceral kind) and rock n' roll are both expressions of revolutionary instincts, and that they are as inherently destructive as they are creative. This simple device - brutal outbreaks of violence combined with an upbeat soundtrack - has been taken up by both the mainstream cinema at large and by many individual `auteurs', all of whom are in Scorsese's debt - Stone and Tarantino coming at once to mind.
The gangster genre within films in America has accomplished numerous positive criticisms and constant willing audiences due to containing outstanding spectacles and mind-blowing action. The Godfather, being second on the IMDb Top 250 Movies, has set a new popular concept to life within the Mafia from their point of view. Doing so, creating a positive association. Yet within Italy, the same topic contains a complete different view. Movies such as I Cento Passi demonstrate unenthusiastic view by those whom are outside yet negatively affected by those members. Unlike American films, the gangsters are not as often viewed at the protagonist and are the main causes for the problematic events. But how different is Italian Mafia and American Mafia in cinema?
Neorealism had appeared right after the end of World War II and was started by Roberto Rosselini, the father of Neorealism. With his movie, he started a new trend in Italian cinema. (quote) Although it was not specifically “Neorealist”, it was the start of the movement. Some of key characteristics of a neorealist cinema are as follows, “documentary visual style, the use of actual locations--usually exteriors--rather than studio sites, the use of nonprofessional actors, even for principal roles, use of conversational speech, not literary dialogue, avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork, and lighting in favor of a simple "styless" style” (1.). These characteristics are what embody true neorealist films, such as Bicycle Thief. Although some of these characteristics still linger in Umberto D, the movie that is considered the “death of the neorealism” (2.). It goes without saying that, regardless of the movement these movies are classified under, these are both spectacular contributions to cinema. However it is Bicycle Thief that shows the prime of what neorealist cinema was like during the movement.
The genre i have studied is musicals. A musical is a film which has musical performances from the actors to express their feelings. The films from this genre that i studied are 'Singin' In The Rain' (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952), 'Grease' (Randall Kleiser, 1978) and 'Hairspray'(Adam Shankman, 2007). I studied two characteristics of the musical genre (Breaking Into Song And Dance and The Grande Finale) that are shown in the films studied. The identifying characteristics of 'Breaking Into Song And Dance' and 'The Grande Finale" are always seen in musicals. These characteristics are expected to be in a musical by the audience and ultimately make a musical what we predict it to be, a film that expresses characters feelings through song while
Music is an inspirational outlet that can be used to convey a message to other people who relate to that message. Music can become even stronger when the person who is performing it is an inspirational source as well. For the past 30 years Madonna has become a well-known artist, actress, and role model to the people who support her. All artists know that they are only number one until someone else comes along and replaces them with more intriguing work to offer. Lady Gaga has been said to be the new Madonna of our generation and is quite often compared to her in many ways by her musical and styling choices. They both share similarities such as their musical genre, style, feminine empowerment, and their support towards the gay community. Their differences can also be seen in those same fields as well.
A genre is a type or category of film (or other work of art) that can be easily identified by specific elements of its plot, setting, mise en scène, character types, or style. (Goodykoontz, 2014) The gangster film is a sub-genre of the broader genre of crime film. A genre main objective is to classify the depiction of entertainment. The genre of my movie is a gangster film. My movie I chose was Scarface. Directed by Brian De Palma.An update of the 1932 film, Scarface (1983) follows gangster Tony Montana and his close friend Manny Ray from their trip on the Cuban Boat Lift for refugees to their arrival in Miami. (Scarface, 1983a)
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.
On the other hand, Antonio is also a moneylender, but does not charge interest. Iago also wants revenge because he feels that he has been cheated out of a position that he feels he deserves. The position that he did not get was that of Othello's lieutenant, which was given to Cassio who has knowledge about combat from books. Iago feels that he has more real experience and that he should have been the one to take that position. Another similarity is that both characters are ruthless and will stop at nothing to get what they want.... ...