“You live and you suffer” — a translated quote from Antonio (from the film The Bicycle Thief), is a brief statement that summarizes the feelings of those who lived in the post world war II “civilization”. This paper will preview Italian Neorealism, and the way it’s elements are incorporated into the movie “The Bicycle Thief” to reveal the ideal Italian setting, as it was after the second world war.
Italian Neorealism was a nationwide film movement that occurred between 1945-1952. It portrayed the psychological, physical and economical effects that were faced in a Post World War II society. Italian Neorealism was aimed to show the adverse outcomes; including hopelessness, pauperism and inequity — caused by the war.
The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948), is a film set in such a society; post-war Italy. The main character, Antonio Ricci, tries to find work to fend for his family; wife and two children. When he finally finds an opportunity, the job requires him to have a bicycle. His wife manages to raise enough money by selling their bed sheets to the Pawn broker so Antonio may get a bicycle, which is later stolen whilst he is hanging posters. The movie subsequently follows Antonio’s quest to find his stolen bicycle.
De Sica aims to depict what is going on in a post war society by incorporating features from the Italian Neorealism film movement, but also by adding some of the typical Hollywood elements that ensure the film is entertaining. He does this through creating a film that feels as if the viewer is experiencing real life events being captured, as opposed to watching a scripted play. To achieve this, the film did not have a “set”. The movie was shot in a documentary style to ensure that a connection was made between...
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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.
The key moments I have noticed were the repetition of the crowd scenes and the camera focused on what is happening at the time in the town. The way the film invites us in a particular way captures the audience into the characters worlds and how they live from their own judgments. “Lies in being able to observe reality, not to extract fictions from it”. I examined that I was able to extract observational shots straight away and was able to observe reality quickly. Long takes which indicates the deep focus which suggests the realism in the film. The film shows the uncaring system is the reality of Italy, but they do not want this to be exploited. The desperate need for he...
The Godfather is the “dark-side of the American dream story” (Turan, pp2). The film follows the practices of a fictional Italian mafia family, the Corleone’s. Though most Americans do not condone the practices of the Italian mafia, they cannot deny that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a cinematic masterpiece. This film gave insight to a mysterious way of life that the average person does not have knowledge of. As the audience is educated about the mafia they also are introduced to many stereotypes.
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. At first, the anti-fascist Resistance movement, which dominated the end of World War II, seemed to bring Italy a ray of hope, promising a new era of freedom, reform, and democratic representation. However, this hope was quickly extinguished, as widespread poverty, government corruption, and deep divisions between regions and classes persisted and no true social reform was attained. These harsh conditions were depicted by a group of Italian film directors whose neorealist works have since been celebrated as masterpieces of world cinema. One of the most prominent of these is Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief. This 1948 film discusses the prevalent themes dominating Italy's social and political history, within the context of the unsettlingly poor post-War urban proletariat.
The story unfolds with the increasing limitations on the rights of Jewish people in Italy. Mussolini 's racial laws are beginning to take force on the rights of the Jewish people. Prohibitions such as no servants, no library
After Scorsese’s father asking him a question about a character, a young Martin raised his fingers to make an impression of him shooting a gun. This image is one of the most memorable images in Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver, where we see Robert De Niro repeating the same image pointing to his temples. This image is shown at the height of the film. When Scorsese got a television at home, no more did he have to leave his house to engross himself in the most recent movie best seller. Already we can see Scorsese’s love of filmmaking from an extremely young
Bonandella, P. (2010), Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present (3rd edn), London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the central character more time on screen, the film helps the audience to not only understand the character’s motivation but also empathize with his/her emotional state. Additionally, some antagonistic force creates conflict with the main character, preventing immediate success(). Finally, after confronting the antagonist, the main character achieves his or her goal along with growing emotionally(). This proven structure creates a linear and relatively easily followed series of events encompassing the leading character and a goal.
In this essay I will be explaining neo-realism and the stages it went through and how it affected cinema and will also talk about André Bazin and his work in regards to neo-realism.
Italian neorealism emerged after World War II, and had profound historical and cultural impacts on society and the film industry. Three specific traits of neorealist style included, but were not limited to: the use of working class characters (non-professional actors); the use of real locations as settings; and open, oftentimes unhappy, endings. In the closing scene from Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948), all three of these neorealist elements are present.
Italian Neorealism is a cinematic style born out of the economic and political strife following the Second World War in Italy (Smith, 2013). The style generally depicts the hardships of average working-class people who are struggling due to forces outside of their control (Smith, 2013). The main goal of these films is not to embellish reality, but instead accurately depict life in Italy at this time. Often times sets are not used, as “location shooting” is utilized. This allows for the debris filled, hardship struck streets to become a huge part of the makeup of the films. Italian Neorealism films also generally have some stylistic tendencies. A documentary style shooting method is commonly used; that is one camera at eye level of the characters. There is typically no variation in the angles of the shots. Furthermore, editing and lighting are mostly avoided, allowing for a simplistic yet accurate take on reality.
In this essay I will look at the emergence of Italian neo-realist cinema and how Italian Neo-realism has been defined and classified in the film industry as well as how its distinct cinematic characteristics could only have been conceived in Italy and how these characteristics set the neo-realist style apart from other realist movements and from Hollywood.
For example Bicycle Thieves; the neorealist movement itself was a reaction to the horrific standards of living Italy was subjected to due to the disruption of war.
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