Lecture Fourteen:
Italian Neorealism
11/22/2005

The Bicycle Thieves is perhaps the canonical film of the neorealist period.  Director Vittorio De Sica is implementing the theory of Marxist screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, who famously described the “ideal film” as “ninety minutes of the life of a man to whom nothing happens.”

Italian Neorealism was born as a rejection of such contrived plots and artificial stories of the national Italian cinema that was established under Mussolini in 1935.  Popular Italian films of the late 1930’s were called white telephone films (telefono bianco).   These American style romantic comedies were escapist in the sense that they distracted audiences from unpleasant social realities.

Narrative/Thematic Characteristics of Italian Neorealism

1. interest in everyday life, particularly that of the working class: The drama of these films is the drama of ordinary events which happen to ordinary people—vs. Hollywood (and other nations’) films’ focus on the             rich, heroic, or exceptional
2. presentation of real social conditions and a call to reform: In all Italian Neorealist films, failures of both individuals and institutions (such as the Police, Labour, and the Church) are presented as both conditional and systematic. Italian Neorealist films implicitly ask their viewers to ponder what can be done to alleviate these failures.
3. the use of a serial protagonist: Think of a serial protagonist as a roving camera lens—in many Italian Neorealist films, there is no clearly defined protagonist and we abruptly shift attention from one character to another. Even when the focus is on one individual character, he or she is representative of a large class of characters.
4. a bleak, but not entirely pessimistic tone: These films often are searching for a way to marry Humanist and Marxist concerns, to reconcile individual and group needs.
5. a lack of narrative resolution, intentionally open endings

Formal Characteristics of Italian Neorealism:

1. location shooting (biggest film studio, Cinecitta, damaged during war)
2. rough, unpolished look
3. use of unknown, non-professional actors
4. unglamorous: ambient lighting, little make-up, etc.
5. post-synchronized sound (sound dubbed after filming, even dialogue)
6. long takes, tracking shots, negative space

Films from which clips were taken this week:

• Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)
• The Player (Robert Altman, 1992)