Italian
neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...
. They are filmed
on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They primarily address the difficult economic and moral conditions of
post-World War II
The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (US ...
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, representing changes in the Italian psyche and conditions of
everyday life, including
poverty,
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination ...
,
injustice
Injustice is a quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. The term may be applied in reference to a particular event or situation, or to a larger status quo. In Western philosophy and jurisprudence, injustice is very commonly—but n ...
and desperation.
History
Italian neorealism came about as
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
ended and
Benito Mussolini's
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
fell, causing the Italian film industry to lose its centre. Neorealism was a sign of cultural and social change in Italy. Its films presented contemporary stories and ideas and were often shot on location as the
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
film studios had been damaged significantly during the war.
The neorealist style was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine ''Cinema'', including:
*
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
*
Gianni Puccini
Gianni Puccini (9 November 1914 – 3 December 1968) was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He wrote for 32 films between 1940 and 1967. He also directed 18 films between 1951 and 1968.
Selected filmography
* '' Ossessione'' (1943)
* ...
*
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, ...
*
Giuseppe De Santis
Giuseppe De Santis (11 February 1917 – 16 May 1997) was an Italian film director. One of the most idealistic Neorealism (art), neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote and directed films punctuated by ardent cries for social ...
*
Pietro Ingrao
Pietro Ingrao (30 March 1915 – 27 September 2015) was an Italian politician and journalist who participated in the resistance movement.
For many years he was a senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
Political career
Ingrao was bo ...
Largely prevented from writing about politics (the
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
of the
magazine was
Vittorio Mussolini
Vittorio Mussolini (27 September 1916 – 12 June 1997) was an Italian film critic and producer. He was also the second child of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. However, he was the first officially acknowledged son of Mussolini, with his secon ...
, son of
Benito Mussolini), the critics attacked the ''
Telefoni Bianchi
''Telefoni Bianchi'' (; white telephones) films, also called deco films, were made by Italian film industry in the 1930s and the 1940s in imitation of American comedies of the time in a sharp contrast to the other important style of the era, cal ...
'' ("white telephone") films that dominated the industry at the time. As a counter to the popular mainstream films, some critics felt that Italian cinema should turn to the
realist writers from the turn of the 20th century.
![Bruno Caruso - Suonatori ambulanti - 1953](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Bruno_Caruso_-_Suonatori_ambulanti_-_1953.jpg)
Many of the filmmakers involved in neorealism developed their skills working on
Calligrafismo
Calligrafismo (, "caligraphism") is an Italian style of filmmaking relating to some films made in Italy in the first half of the 1940s and endowed with an expressive complexity that isolates them from the general context. Calligrafismo is in a sh ...
films in the early 1940s (though the short-lived movement was markedly different from neorealism). Elements of neorealism are also found in the films of
Alessandro Blasetti and the documentary-style films of
Francesco De Robertis
Francesco De Robertis (1902–1959) was an Italian screenwriter, film editor and director. His semi-documentary film-making style of the early 1940s has been credited as an influence on the development of Italian neorealism.Bondanella, p. 32
Se ...
. Two of the most significant precursors of neorealism are
Jean Renoir's ''
Toni
Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name.
In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni.
In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwe ...
'' (1935) and Blasetti's ''
1860
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
* January 10 – The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusett ...
'' (1934). Both Visconti and
Michelangelo Antonioni worked closely with Renoir.
In the spring of 1945, Mussolini was executed and Italy was liberated from German occupation. This period, known as the "Italian Spring," broke from old ways and fostered a more realistic approach to making films. Italian cinema went from utilizing elaborate studio sets to shooting on location in the countryside and city streets in a realist style.
Although the true beginning of neorealism has been widely contested by theorists and filmmakers, the first neorealist film is generally thought to be Visconti's ''
Ossessione
''Ossessione'' (, English: ''Obsession'') is a 1943 Italian film based on the 1934 novel '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' by James M. Cain. Luchino Visconti’s first feature film, it is considered by many to be the first Italian neorealist fi ...
'', released in 1943, during the occupation. Neorealism became famous globally in 1946 with Roberto Rossellini's ''
Rome, Open City
''Rome, Open City'' ( it, Roma città aperta, also released as ''Open City'') is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Sergio Amidei, Celeste Negarville and Federico Fellini. Set in Rome in ...
'', when it won the Grand Prize at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
as the first major film produced in Italy after the war.
Italian neorealism rapidly declined in the early 1950s.
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
and
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
parties were having difficulties presenting their message. The vision of the existing poverty and despair, presented by neorealist cinema, was demoralizing a nation anxious for prosperity and change. Additionally, the first positive effects of the
Italian economic miracle
The Italian economic miracle or Italian economic boom ( it, il miracolo economico italiano) is the term used by historians, economists, and the mass media to designate the prolonged period of strong economic growth in Italy after the Second Worl ...
periodsuch as gradual rises in income levelscaused the themes of neorealism to lose their relevance. As a consequence, most Italians favored the optimism shown in many American movies of the time. The views of the post-war Italian government of the time were also far from positive, and the remark of
Giulio Andreotti, who was then a vice-minister in the
De Gasperi cabinet, characterized the official view of the movement: Neorealism is "dirty laundry that shouldn't be washed and hung to dry in the open".
Italy's move from individual concern with neorealism to the tragic frailty of the human condition can be seen through
Federico Fellini's films. His early works ''
La Strada
''La strada'' () is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman ( Giulietta Masina) bought from her mothe ...
'' (1954) and ''
Il bidone
''Il bidone'' (, "The Drum .html" ;"title="ontainer/nowiki>">ontainer/nowiki>"; also known as ''The Swindle'' or ''The Swindlers'') is a 1955 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini from his own screenplay co-written with Ennio Flaiano and Tu ...
'' (1955) are transitional movies. The larger social concerns of humanity, treated by neorealists, gave way to the exploration of individuals. Their needs, their alienation from society and their tragic failure to communicate became the main focal point in the Italian films to follow in the 1960s. Similarly, Antonioni's ''
Red Desert'' (1964) and ''
Blow-up
''Blowup'' (sometimes styled as ''Blow-up'' or ''Blow Up'') is a 1966 mystery drama thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and produced by Carlo Ponti. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film, and stars David Hemming ...
'' (1966) take the neorealist trappings and internalise them in the suffering and search for knowledge brought out by Italy's post-war economic and political climate.
In the early 1950s the neorealist torch was picked up by artists like Sicily's
Bruno Caruso
Bruno Caruso (; 8 August 1927 – 4 November 2018) was an influential Italian artist, graphic designer and writer who spent much of his adult life working in Rome.
Caruso's work focused on the moral, political and ethical flaws of the 20th ...
, whose work focused on the warehouses, shipyards and psychiatric wards of his native
Palermo.
Characteristics
Neorealist films were generally filmed with nonprofessional actors, although in a number of cases, well-known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types in front of a background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film.
They were shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in rundown cities as well as rural areas.
Neorealist films typically explore the conditions of the poor and the lower working class. Characters often exist within a simple social order where survival is the primary objective. Performances are mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, devoid of the self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films often feature children in major roles, though their characters are frequently more observational than participatory.
''Open City'' established several of the principles of neorealism, depicting clearly the struggle of normal Italian people to live from day to day under the extraordinary difficulties of the German occupation of Rome, consciously doing what they can to resist the occupation. The children play a key role in this, and their presence at the end of the film is indicative of their role in neorealism as a whole: as observers of the difficulties of today who hold the key to the future.
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
's 1948 film ''
Bicycle Thieves
''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post- World ...
'' is also representative of the genre, with non-professional actors, and a story that details the hardships of working-class life after the war.
![Umbertodi2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Umbertodi2.jpg)
In the period from 1944 to 1948, many neorealist filmmakers drifted away from pure neorealism. Some directors explored allegorical fantasy, such as de Sica's ''
Miracle in Milan'', and historical spectacle, like ''
Senso'' by Visconti. It was also the time period when a more upbeat neorealism emerged, which produced films that melded working-class characters with 1930s-style populist comedy, as seen in de Sica's ''
Umberto D
''Umberto D.'' () is a 1952 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti who plays the title role of Umberto Domenico Ferrari, a poor elderly man in Rome who is despe ...
''.
At the height of neorealism, in 1948, Visconti adapted ''
I Malavoglia
''I Malavoglia'' () is the best known novel by Giovanni Verga. It was first printed in 1881.
Background
The readers' good reception of the short story ''Nedda'', published in 1874, encouraged the project of a "sea sketch" entitled ''Padron 'N ...
'', a novel by Giovanni Verga, written during the 19th century realist
verismo movement, bringing the story to a modern setting, which resulted in remarkably little change in either the plot or the tone. The resulting film, ''
The Earth Trembles'', starred only nonprofessional actors and was filmed in the same village (Aci Trezza) in which the novel was set.
More contemporary theorists of Italian neorealism characterize it less as a consistent set of stylistic characteristics and more as the relationship between film practice and the social reality of post-war Italy. Millicent Marcus delineates the lack of consistent film styles of neorealist film. Peter Brunette and Marcia Landy both deconstruct the use of reworked cinematic forms in Rossellini's ''Open City''. Using
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
, Vincent Rocchio characterizes neorealist film as consistently engendering the structure of anxiety into the structure of the plot itself.
Impact
The period between 1943 and 1950 in the history of Italian cinema is dominated by the impact of neorealism, which is properly defined as a moment or a trend in Italian film rather than an actual school or group of theoretically motivated and like-minded directors and scriptwriters. Its impact nevertheless has been enormous not only on Italian film but also on
French New Wave cinema, the
Polish Film School
Polish Film School ( pl, Polska Szkoła Filmowa) refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1956 and approximately 1963. Among the most prominent representatives of the school are Andrzej Wajda, And ...
, Brazilian
Cinema Novo
Cinema Novo (), "New Cinema" in English, is a genre and movement of film noted for its emphasis on social equality and intellectualism that rose to prominence in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s.Dixon & Foster, 293. Cinema Novo formed in respo ...
and ultimately on films all over the world. It also influenced film directors of India's
Parallel Cinema
Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema.
Inspired by Italian Neorealism, Parallel Cinema ...
movement, including
Satyajit Ray (who directed the award-winning ''
Apu Trilogy
''The Apu Trilogy'' comprises three Indian Bengali-language drama films directed by Satyajit Ray: '' Pather Panchali'' (1955), ''Aparajito'' (1956) and ''The World of Apu'' (1959). The original music for the films was composed by Ravi Shankar ...
'') and
Bimal Roy
Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as '' Do Bigha Zamin'', '' Parineeta'', '' Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas'', ''Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' ...
(who made ''
Do Bigha Zameen
''Do Bigha Zamin'' () is a 1953 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Bimal Roy. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's Bengali poem " Dui Bigha Jomi", the film stars Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy in lead roles. Known for its socialist theme, it is ...
''
953
Year 953 ( CMLIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Battle of Marash: Emir Sayf al-Dawla marches north into the Byzantine Empire an ...
, both heavily influenced by
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
's ''
Bicycle Thieves
''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post- World ...
'' (1948).
Furthermore, as some critics have argued, the abandoning of the classical way of doing cinema and so the starting point of the French New Wave and the
Modern Cinema can be found in the post-war Italian cinema and in the neorealism experiences. In particular,
this cinema seems to be constituted as a new subject of knowledge, which itself builds and develops. It produces a new world in which the main elements have not so many narrative functions as they have their own aesthetic value, related with the eye that is watching them and not with the action they are coming from.
Although ''Umberto D.'' is considered the end of the neorealist period, later films such as
Federico Fellini's ''
La Strada
''La strada'' () is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman ( Giulietta Masina) bought from her mothe ...
'' (1954) and De Sica's 1960 film ''
Two Women
''Two Women'' ( it, La ciociara , rough literal translation "The Woman from Ciociaria") is a 1960 war drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica from a screenplay by Cesare Zavattini and De Sica, based on the novel of the same name by Alberto ...
'' (for which
Sophia Loren won the Oscar for Best Actress) are grouped with the genre. Director
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
's first film, ''
Accattone
''Accattone'' is a 1961 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Despite an original screenplay, the film is often perceived as a cinematic rendition of Pasolini's earlier novels, particularly '' Ragazzi di vita'' (''The R ...
'' (1961), shows a strong neorealist influence.
The Neorealist period is often simply referred to as "The Golden Age" of
Italian cinema
The cinema of Italy (, ) comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film ha ...
by critics, filmmakers and scholars.
Significant works
Precursors and influences
![Uominichemascalzoni-1932-DeSica-Franca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Uominichemascalzoni-1932-DeSica-Franca.png)
The extent to which Italian neorealism was truly innovative continues to be debated among film historians. Despite its wide influence, some have argued that it was more a revival of earlier Italian creative works than a groundbreaking movement. Important forerunners of Italian neorealism include:
* The ''
verismo
In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini.
''Verismo'' as an ...
'' literary movement, characterized by the works of
Giovanni Verga
Giovanni Carmelo Verga di Fontanabianca (; 2 September 1840 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian realist ('' verista'') writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, especially the short story and later play ''Cavalleria ...
and
Luigi Capuana
Luigi Capuana (May 28, 1839 – November 29, 1915) was an Italian author and journalist and one of the most important members of the ''verist'' movement (see also ''verismo'' (literature)). He was a contemporary of Giovanni Verga, both having ...
*
Poetic realism
Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s. More a tendency than a movement, poetic realism is not strongly unified like Soviet montage or French Impressionism but were individuals who created this lyrical style. Its leading filmm ...
* ''Lost in Darkness'' (
Nino Martoglio, 1912)
* ''
What Scoundrels Men Are!
''What Scoundrels Men Are!'' ( it, Gli uomini, che mascalzoni!) is a 1932 Italian " white-telephones" comedy film directed by Mario Camerini.
The film was a great success, De Sica and Lia Franca became stars and the song ''Parlami d'amore Mari ...
'' (
Mario Camerini
Mario Camerini (6 February 1895 – 4 February 1981) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
The cousin of Augusto Genina, he made the most well-known films in Italy during the 1930s, most of them comedies starring Vittorio De Sica. H ...
, 1932), the first Italian film shot entirely on location
* ''
1860
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
* January 10 – The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusett ...
'' (
Alessandro Blasetti, 1934)
* ''
An Inn in Tokyo
is a 1935 silent film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. The film is Ozu's last extant silent film.
The screenplay is credited to Uinzato Mone or Winthat Monnet ("Without Money"). In fact, the screenplay was written by Ozu, Masao Arata and Tadao Iked ...
'' (
Yasujirō Ozu
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...
, 1935)
* ''
Toni
Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name.
In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni.
In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwe ...
'' (
Jean Renoir, 1935)
* ''
Men on the Sea Floor'' (
Francesco De Robertis
Francesco De Robertis (1902–1959) was an Italian screenwriter, film editor and director. His semi-documentary film-making style of the early 1940s has been credited as an influence on the development of Italian neorealism.Bondanella, p. 32
Se ...
, 1941)
* ''
The White Ship'' (
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
, 1941)
* ''
Aniki-Bóbó
''Aniki-Bóbó'' is a 1942 Portuguese film directed by Manoel de Oliveira. It is his first feature-length film. The actors are mostly children from Oliveira's hometown, Porto. The script was adapted by Manoel de Oliveira from a short story by J ...
'' (
Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
* ''
People of the Mountains
''People of the Mountains'' (Hungarian: ''Emberek a havason'') is a 1942 Hungarian drama film directed by István Szőts and starring Alice Szellay, János Görbe, Péterke Ferency. The film is set in the Székely woodcutting community of Tran ...
'' (
István Szőts
István Szőts (June 30, 1912 – November 6, 1998) was a Hungarian screenwriter and film director. He was born in Szentgyörgyválya (now Valea Sângeorgiului, Călan, Romania), and later moved with his father to Hungary. Szőts studied fine ...
) 1942
* ''
Four Steps in the Clouds
''Four Steps in the Clouds'' () is a 1942 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Alessandro Blasetti, starring Gino Cervi and Adriana Benetti. It tells the story of a married man who agrees to act as the husband of a young pregnant woman who has ...
'' (
Alessandro Blasetti, 1942)
* ''People of the Po Valley'' (
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1947), filmed in 1943
Main works
![TerraTrema-famiglia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/TerraTrema-famiglia.jpg)
* ''
Ossessione
''Ossessione'' (, English: ''Obsession'') is a 1943 Italian film based on the 1934 novel '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' by James M. Cain. Luchino Visconti’s first feature film, it is considered by many to be the first Italian neorealist fi ...
'' (
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
, 1943)
* ''
The Children Are Watching Us
''The Children Are Watching Us'' ( it, I bambini ci guardano) is a 1943 Italian drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Plot
Pricò is a young Italian boy who lives with his parents in a middle-class household. His mother, Nina, takes him to a ...
'' (
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
, 1943)
* ''
Rome, Open City
''Rome, Open City'' ( it, Roma città aperta, also released as ''Open City'') is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Sergio Amidei, Celeste Negarville and Federico Fellini. Set in Rome in ...
'' (
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
, 1945)
* ''
Shoeshine'' (Vittorio De Sica, 1946)
* ''
The Last Shoeshine'' (
Gibba
Gibba (pen name of Francesco Maurizio Guido; 18 December 1924 – 7 October 2018) was an Italian animator who did several erotic cartoons in the 1970s and 1980s.
He died, aged 93 on 7 October 2018 in Albenga.
Filmography
*''Scandalosa Gilda'' ( ...
, 1946), The only Animated example of Neorealism.
* ''
O sole mio
"O sole mio" () is a well-known Neapolitan song written in 1898. Its Neapolitan language lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurro and the music was composed by Eduardo di Capua (1865–1917) and Alfredo Mazzucchi (1878–1972).. The title tran ...
'' (
Giacomo Gentilomo
Giacomo Gentilomo (5 April 1909 – 16 April 2001) was an Italian film director and painter.
Biography
Born in Trieste, at very young age Gentilomo moved to Rome, where at 21 years old he entered the cinema industry, working as a script survivo ...
, 1946)
* ''
Paisan
''Paisan'' ( it, Paisà ) is a 1946 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. In six independent episodes, it tells of the Liberation of Italy by the Allied forces during the late stage of World War II. The film premier ...
'' (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
* ''
Germany, Year Zero
''Germany, Year Zero'' ( it, Germania anno zero) is a 1948 film directed by Roberto Rossellini, and is the final film in Rossellini's unofficial war film trilogy, following ''Rome, Open City'' and ''Paisà''. ''Germany Year Zero'' takes place in ...
'' (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)
* ''
Bicycle Thieves
''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post- World ...
'' (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
* ''
The Earth Trembles'' (Luchino Visconti, 1948)
* ''
Bitter Rice
''Bitter Rice'' ( it, Riso Amaro ) is a 1949 Italian film made by Lux Film, written and directed by Giuseppe De Santis. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone, Doris Dowling and Vittorio Gassman, ''Bitter Rice'' was ...
'' (
Giuseppe De Santis
Giuseppe De Santis (11 February 1917 – 16 May 1997) was an Italian film director. One of the most idealistic Neorealism (art), neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote and directed films punctuated by ardent cries for social ...
, 1949)
* ''
Stromboli'' (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
* ''
Bellissima'' (Luchino Visconti, 1951)
* ''
Miracle in Milan'' (Vittorio De Sica, 1951)
* ''
Rome 11:00'' (Giuseppe De Santis, 1952)
* ''
Europe '51
''Europe '51'' ( it, Europa '51), also known as ''The Greatest Love'', is a 1952 Italian neorealist film directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman and Alexander Knox. The film follows an industrialist's wife who, after the death ...
'' (Roberto Rossellini, 1952)
* ''
Umberto D.'' (Vittorio De Sica, 1952), filmed in 1951, but released in 1952. Many film historians date the end of the neorealist movement with the public attacks on the film.
* ''
Journey to Italy'' (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
Major figures
![S Kragujevic, Vittorio De Sica, 1959](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/S_Kragujevic%2C_Vittorio_De_Sica%2C_1959.JPG)
*
Giuseppe De Santis
Giuseppe De Santis (11 February 1917 – 16 May 1997) was an Italian film director. One of the most idealistic Neorealism (art), neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote and directed films punctuated by ardent cries for social ...
*
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
*
Federico Fellini
*
Alberto Lattuada
*
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
*
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
*
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, ...
*
Suso Cecchi D'Amico
Suso Cecchi D'Amico (21 July 1914 – 31 July 2010) was an Italian screenwriter and actress. She won the 1980 David di Donatello Award for lifetime career. She worked with virtually all of the most celebrated post-war Italian film directors, and ...
*
Bruno Caruso
Bruno Caruso (; 8 August 1927 – 4 November 2018) was an influential Italian artist, graphic designer and writer who spent much of his adult life working in Rome.
Caruso's work focused on the moral, political and ethical flaws of the 20th ...
(Art)
See also
*
Cinema of Italy
*
French New Wave
*
Kitchen sink realism
Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" w ...
(British New Wave)
*
Indian New Wave
*
Japanese New Wave
The is a group of loosely-connected Japanese filmmakers during the late 1950s and into the 1970s. Although they did not make up a coherent movement, these artists shared a rejection of traditions and conventions of classical Japanese cinema in ...
*
Iranian New Wave
Iranian New Wave refers to a movement in Iranian cinema. It started in 1964 with Hajir Darioush's second film ''Serpent's Skin'', which was based on D.H. Lawrence's '' Lady Chatterley's Lover'' featuring Fakhri Khorvash and Jamshid Mashayekhi. ...
*
L.A. Rebellion
The L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to the new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in ...
*
Polish Film School
Polish Film School ( pl, Polska Szkoła Filmowa) refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1956 and approximately 1963. Among the most prominent representatives of the school are Andrzej Wajda, And ...
*''
My Voyage to Italy''
References
Further reading
*
External links
GreenCine primeron Italian Neo-Realism
*
ttps://vimeo.com/68514760 Video-Essay explaining Neorealism based on the two versions of
Terminal Station
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...
{{Authority control
Neorealism
Movements in cinema
Realism (art movement)