Film Industry: Melodrama in Roma Città Aperta and Riso Amaro

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Recommended: Cinematic characteristics of the italian neo-realist film movement

To begin with, the occurrence of melodrama in these canonical neorealist films may seem surprising, because neorealism is often classified as a reaction against the melodramas of the time. Before the Second World War, Italian melodramas, created in an attempt to steer the Italian public away from imported American films, dominated the market at all levels and in all regions in Italy. These films followed classical narrative techniques and did little to reflect the reality of working class Italians. After the war, the problem multiplied as Hollywood imports, known for glamour and melodrama, threatened to monopolise the Italian consumer market. Neorealism was born out of a response to the overwhelming amount of melodrama as well as an attempt by Italian filmmakers to corner the domestic market with new, culturally honest films. Not only did this new movement focus on the plight of the everyday person rather than the glamorised drama of the bourgeoisie, but it also brought revolutionary changes to the formal elements of film. To name some of these introduced formal elements, neorealist films feature on-location filming, understated expressionism of lighting, eye-level camera placement, non-professional actors, and dialectical dialogue.
Clearly, these qualities contrasted with the contrived sentiment and showy formal techniques of Hollywood imports and the previously popular Italian melodramas. This raises the question not only of how elements of melodrama can coexist so well in neorealist films such as Roma città aperta and Riso amaro, but also of why the directors made the choice to incorporate those elements into their films. Some critics, such as Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, explain the appearance of melodramatic elements in the...

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... Millicent. "Pina's Pregnancy, Traumatic Realism, and the After-Life of Open City."Italica 85.4 (2008): 426-38. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. “Introduction.” Hollywood and Europe: Economics, Culture, National Identity: 1945-95. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Steven Ricci. London: British Film Institute, 1998. 1-18. Print.
Paisà. Dir. Roberto Rossellini. Organizzazione Film Internazionali, 1946. DVD.
Riso Amaro. Dir. Giuseppe De Santis. Perf. Silvana Mangano, Doris Dowling, and Vittorio Gassman. Lux Film, 1949. DVD.
Roma Città Aperta. Dir. Roberto Rossellini. Perf. Aldo Fabrizi and Anna Magnani. Excelsa Film, 1945. DVD.
Wagstaff, Christopher. “Italian genre films in the world market.” Hollywood and Europe: Economics, Culture, National Identity: 1945-95. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Steven Ricci. London: British Film Institute, 1998. 74-85. Print.

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