Italian Neorealism

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.

Before the dawn of Neorealism, Italy was under great turmoil in the early 1920s suffering from major economic crisis, bank failures and a collapsing government, which would also mean a collapse in the Italian film industry and the ‘Silent Era’ of cinema (Roberts, 2005). When Benito Mussolini took control as the 40th Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 the revival of Italian cinema would be once again be relived, but this time ruled under the control and guidance by Mussolini and his fascist government (Bondanella, 2001).

It was not until the mid 1930s that the brutish dictator truly recognized the potential power of media, where in 1935 a special funding was given to the production of Italian films which was used to open up film institutions like the ‘Centro Sperimenale di Cinematografia’ (CSC) film school, and ‘Cinecitta’ (Cinema City) studios in 1937 (Ruberto and Wilson, 2007). The development of these institutions sparked the appearance of early sound cinema, specializing in genres such as comedies, melodramas, musicals and historical films, but were all categorized as ‘propaganda’ and ‘white telephone’ films by many critics due...

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...echoslovak New Wave, Denmark’s Dogme 95, and British Social Realism, which all can be seen as notable influences from that of Italian Neorealism.

Works Cited

Roberts, J. (2005), Benito Mussolini, Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books.

Bonandella, P. (2010), Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present (3rd edn), London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Ruberto, L.E. and Wilson, K.M. (ed.) (2007), Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema, Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Reich, J. and Garofalo, P. (ed.) (2002), Re-viewing Fascism: Italian Cinema, 1922-1943, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Landy, M. (2000), Italian Film, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sorlin, P. (1996), Italian National Cinema 1896-1996, London: Routledge.

Shiel, M. (2006), Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City, London: Wallflower Press.