Bicycle Thieves also known as the bicycle thief is a film produced in 1948 in Rome. It is a story of a poor father searching for his stolen bicycle after World War II. Without the lost bicycle he will lose job and his young family will be in trouble. It is a film of kindness and love that has touched many people around the globe due to of its influential simplicities. At times, the simple stories are essential to tell, because many people can identify with them because they can create an emotional template of honesty and truth. The story depicted by the film is wondrously simple; the film portrays that in a world like the one where the workman lives, poor people must steal among themselves so as to survive (Tumasulo 1).
Vittorio De Sica was the director of The Bicycle Thieves and his films and the style used on them led to the Italian Neorealist movement together Roberto Rossellini's film; Rome: Open City, which gave a new measure of realism to cinema (Snyder and Howard 139). Neorealism often refers to films of working class life and of the efforts and social environment of people engrossed in a culture of poverty. Italian Neorealism was a pioneering breakthrough, not only due to its technical style and raw filmmaking, but also for the gritty realism of the story depicted and emotional naturalism the characters in the film. According to Andre Bazin, neorealism implies no more actors, no more sets and no more stories which in artistic illusion of reality implying that there are no more cinemas (MacCabe 14).
Neorealism comprises films which were mostly shot on a low-budget and on real locations without use of stages or props. Neorealism is a style where film producers used non actors which brought a sense of reality to the cha...
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...eed to use artistic realism (Edwards, 2).
Formalist film theory is a theory that emphasizes on the formal and practical elements of a film such as the lighting, sound and set design, color use, composition and editing. It is an important theory of film study nowadays. Formalism generally considers the combination of the many elements of film production and the impacts, emotional and logics of the combinations and of the individual elements (Andrew 56). All the elements whether in combination or individually are meant create tension in the film. Formalism is exclusive in that it involves both ideological and auteurist branches of criticism. These formative elements in most films today are aspirations people like Rudolf Arnheim and Béla Balázs who developed movie models for analysis and cultural critique that every so often were ahead of their times (Tomasulo 11).
The auteur theory is a view on filmmaking that consists of three equally important premises: technical competence, interior meaning, and personal signature of the director. Auteur is a French word for author. The auteur theory was developed by Andrew Sarris, a well-known American film critic. Technical competence of the Auteur deals with how the director films the movie in their own style. Personal signature includes recurring themes that are present within the director’s line of work with characteristics of style, which serve as a signature. The third and ultimate premise of the Auteur theory is the interior meaning which is basically the main theme behind the film.
New Cinema however, also known as Cinema Novo became a film movement that appeared in Brazil in the late 1950s and reached its peak in the late 20 century to be used as a historic, political and economic device This movement sought to Rerepresent a culture while shedding new light on a national cinema which contributed to a new multinational aesthetics; thus thwarting the utopian idea of Brazil by suggesting that the country’s historical, social, political and economic ills were still very much evident. Although Cinema Novo borrowed some attributes from Classic Hollywood Cinema storytelling, these two Cinemas are different and are defined by their greater purpose for visual storytelling.
Classical Hollywood Cinema is a chain of events that has a cause – effect relationship within a time and space. The environment looks realistic and believable to the viewers because the style is predictable, and the time is linear throughout the film. Each scene with the development of the plot and story is motivated by cause and effect. The filmmaking process involves four major steps that cut across the board. The process revolves around these levels that make it orderly to every individual involved in filming. The process has the following stages: Idea and Development, Pre-Production, Production and Post- Production. In Idea and Development it is normally
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.
...eing of pure Aryan descent was a survival tactic, he had “…Beautiful blond hair and big, safe blue eyes.” Liesel’s eyes are not just brown. She had “…dangerous eyes. Dark brown. You didn’t really want brown eyes in Germany around that time.”
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.
Bicycle Thieves is considered an example of Italian Neo-realism. The plot demonstrates Italians of the working class in Italy and unfolds their day to day lives. One could argue it portray the reality and develops into an emotional storyline towards the end. Antonio, the main character is offered a job requiring a bicycle and on his first day it was stolen on the streets. You immediately feel drawn to the character as you want to see a happy ending. Watching the film, automatically feel sorry for him as he’s got no money and needs to make a living as soon as possible for his wife with two children to support. From the close ups and observational shots it clearly shows he is desperate as Antonio and his son Bruno go around searching for it for hours. The opening sequence uses the conventions of documentary to introduce the film giving an impression of realism and authenticity, which attracted me to the film instantly. These shots were used to capture realism. The function of this scene is to illustrate the nature of surrounding and an insight of Italy at this time.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
This analysis observes the opening scene of the Coen brother’s film No Country for Old Men (2007), a neo-noir crime thriller set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The film does conform to classic Hollywood style in that the story is character-centered and plot and narrative change to serve character exposition. As well as the character’s actions changing plot and narrative and that style is subservient to the story as the ultimate goal is to develop a fictional world that is perceived as real, as Bordwell put it the classic Hollywood style should be “seamless” and “style-less” (Bordwell, 1988). But does have Post-classical influences such as lack of musical score and modern editing techniques and special effects.
Vittorio de Sica's The Bicycle Thief. Since the beginning of its existence as a country, Italy has faced enormous challenges in establishing itself as a unified political and social entity. The geographic, economic, and linguistic differences between its various regions and the artificial manner in which they were amalgamated created a legacy of internal divisions that continues to dominate the country's political climate to this day. Italy's numerous historical fiascoes, such as its disastrous involvement in the two World Wars and the rise of fascism, further escalated the domestic problems that had haunted it since the Risorgimento.
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,
While all this was taking place on the other hand in France a new movement was surging of blanket term devised by critics for some of the French filmmakers of the late fifties and sixties who were impacted by the Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood films. It initially was never a movement which was officially planned, but the up surging filmmakers were being connected to it because of their self-conscious dismissal of classical filmmaking methods and their spirit of young iconoclasm which was a sample of the European art movies. Many filmmakers were involved with their work as they tried to involve the social and political turmoil’s of the era.
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.
John Gibbs and Douglas Pye (2005) Style and meaning : studies in the detailed analysis of film. Engalnd: Manchester University Press, pp 42-52.
Neo noir genre of film production is a style that has existed in the world of film production since the 1940s. Neo is a French word for new while noir means black. Noir film means black film although it does not literally incorporate the racial orientation of the black people. Rather it is the mood and attitude of the film in terms of different styles.