Italian Neorealism Essay

Italian Neo-Realism
Italian Neorealism has often been referred to as the “Golden Age” of classic Italian cinema. These neorealist films were evidence of the cultural change in Italy after World War II. Traditionally these films presented a contemporary story which was often shot in the streets due to the destruction of the film studios that were significantly damaged during World War II. In DeSica’s 1952 film Umberto D. you see postwar neorealist everyday life.
Umberto Domenico Ferrari is an elderly pensioner who is returning home after a protest on the reduction in pensions. Antonia Belloni is Umberto’s landlady and demands to be paid 15,000 lire or else she will force Umberto to leave. Maria is both the maid of the boarding house and Umberto’s

good friend; she is impregnated by one of two soldiers but has yet to discover who the father is. In order for Umberto to pay his rent he sells his books and his watch; when he gives Antonia the money he made she says he must pay all of the rent or nothing. Distraught by all of this Umberto contracts a sore throat and is admitted into a hospital putting a halt to his financial burden. When he is released from the hospital he comes home to find his room under construction by his landlady. Umberto is now homeless and his dog Flike is no where to be found. After a frantic search he finds Flike at a dog pound, Umberto experiences sadness so he attempts to commit suicide by standing in front of a train while holding Flike. His attempt at suicide fails because Flike gets frightened and runs away from the train. The film ends with Umberto in the park playing with Flike.
The scene that I am analyzing starts when Umberto comes home to finds a couple laying in his bed through the end of Umberto and Maria’s conversation in the kitchen. There very active camera movement throughout this whole scene. After Umberto opens the door to his bedroom there is a surprised look on his face anticipating something unusual is happening in his room. The camera pans from the left to the right reveals a couple laying in his bed. Umberto slams the door and exclaims that there are strangers in his bed. The camera cuts to the hallway and switches to a low angle wide shot so you can see the three main characters. The three enter the kitchen and the camera cuts to a further distance view from the corner of the kitchen that is even with their feet. For this shot length of the shot you can see the majority of the kitchen, and that the three are all present in the kitchen.
The camera cuts to a close up shot of Antonia’s face as she scolds Umberto for being rude to her guests, something I noticed when the camera was focused on her face was the drastic change in lighting. When Antonia is centered in the shot the camera lighting slightly overexposed. DiSica made the shots of Antonia visibly brighter and creates an illusion of a higher resolution due to the use of more white than grays and blacks. When on screen the white lighting makes her face look glamourous and rich, I affiliated this aspect of Antonia being wealthier than Umberto and Maria. When the camera is on the other two the shot appears to look dim, when compared to the luminous shots of Antonia. During the argument between Antonia and Umberto the camera is very close to their face and switches views as each person defends themselves while Maria stands behind Umberto looking timid and remaining silent.
You get a sense of classical Hollywood film conventions due to the constant cutting throughout this scene. In the kitchen Maria and Umberto exchange in conversation, and while one is talking the camera is focused closely on their face, then cuts to the other instead of having the camera from a further angle showing the two DiSica chose to have these more intimate clips of the character’s faces. You get a true sense of their feelings because the distance of this shot from shoulders up, so the viewer is able to see their emotions based off of their expressions. Already the camera has cut many times for different views, and by making these constant and quick cuts it makes the viewer feel like they are in the room watching the characters talk, by doing this it scenes feel real. As for the transitions throughout this scene they feel natural for the most part- given that the majority of this scene is dialogue between the three characters. The transitions flow just as the conversation does, showing everyday life and people discussing relatable day to day topics. For the most part the dialogue in this scene is associated with money or how a character is in need of money. Here DiSica was trying to draw light to the real strife of poverty that people were going through at the time. Because it was post World War II money was precious; in the film Antonia is constantly nagging Umberto about the money he owes her, while Umberto himself is trying to find ways to make money through other people in order to pay his rent.
Maria is a very active character during this whole scene. DiSica had a clear view for her as a character- if she was a maid then she must be constantly doing work. Throughout the majority of the scene Maria is holding a large bird plucking its feathers. The chores that Maria is preforming throughout this scene are exenterated to an extent so it is made clear to the viewer that she is the maid of the boarding house. Maria peers into the hallway to make sure Antonia isn’t around, slightly hinting the idea that she is fearful of Antonia; she takes precaution in her actions because she doesn’t want to lose her job. The length of this clip is slightly longer when compared to the other clips, the camera pans to follow her every move giving her actions a stronger sense flow from one to the next. If DiSica chose to cut after each of Maria’s actions then it would appear to be unnatural, by increasing the length of this shot DiSica creates cinematic flow. She pauses by the stove showing frustration by complaining that Antonia charges 1,000 lire an hour for the room that Umberto sleeps in. While she’s talking about money Umberto is counting his money, again DiSica wanted to show the importance of money at this time. Instead of adding to Marias complaint Umberto asks for the thermometer after he coughs; foreshadowing that he may an illness. After grabbing the thermometer Maria pauses and leans towards the kitchen door, you hear a turn of a door knob and then a door slam in the hallway, she nods in approval, the viewer should be able to realize that the couple that was Umberto’s room has left to stay in a different room. The sound door knob turn followed by a door slam is DiSica’s way of using diegetic sound; you cannot see the source of the sound, but you can assume it is the couple that was in Umberto’s bed.
In the kitchen there are ants on the wall by the sink, the camera focuses on the ants for a brief moment then Maria uses the sink faucet to try and spray the ants off the wall.

By adding the clips involving the ants in the kitchen DiSica reveals the unglamorous postwar living situations that the poor and middle-class experienced everyday. Maria mentions the ant problem and then casually mentions to Umberto that she’s pregnant. By sharing personal information with Umberto you can tell that the two have a trusting relationship. Umberto is shocked by how coy Maria was; acting as it isn’t a big deal. This information is only between between the two of them, Maria is scared to tell Antonia probably because it could risk her losing her job. The water fails to rid the ants from the wall, so Maria uses the gas stove to light newspapers on fire, waving the homemade torch on the ants shows that she is resourceful. Once again DiSica uses diegetic sound when off screen Antonia shouts, “the room is yours”, because the couple has moved to another room. On his way out Maria tells Umberto that she’s been pregnant for three months along, he doesn’t respond anything- just walks with his head down; seeming upset about the news. The view of the camera is wide and level with the floor showing the majority of the kitchen, so you can see Umberto exit while Maria continues to burn the ants off the

wall.
In both Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D. DiSica shows a true sense of poetic realism from the screenplay through the simplistic beauty of everyday life focused on the lower middle-class. Poetic realistic films tend to have an overall tone of bitterness or nostalgia with a plot usually leaving the protagonist in disappointment, death, or delusion. Based off of the endings of both films it is evident that DiSica exceeded this concept of realism. At the end Bicycle Thieves Antonio never gets his bike back and is almost arrested in result of trying to steal a bike himself; the film ends with Antonio and Bruno walking both shedding tears. For Umberto D. the ending is somewhat upsetting as well; after the failed attempt at suicide while holding his dog Flike the film ends with Umberto and Flike in the park. The artist should construct with passion and personality, so if viewer can relate to the film in some way, then ultimately it is successful in achieving cinematic art; because fundamentally, art is meant to make an individual experience emotion- this is to be true for all forms of art.