In the period between 1943 and 1950 Italian cinema was dominated by Neorealism which became the most significant film style of post-war Europe. Formation began back in 1936 when propagandists opened modern Cincitta studios and the film school name ‘Centro Sperimentaledi Cinematografia’. Along with the opening of schools such as this was a movement that placed a group of cinematographers under full-year contracts, among them was Carlo Montuori who used his classic techniques in creating ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948) one of the most well known films produced during the Neo-Realism movement. Perhaps also one of the most influential directors was Roberto Rossellini who directed Rome Open City at the end of WWII. Many directors and influential films such as this began to change and shape the way Italian films were made and what their relation to society was like.
The neorealist style was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine Cinema, despite a severe lack of funds and equipment the Neorealist film makers sought to reveal truth of the everyday life. Filming outdoors in natural light and starring nonprofessional actors, it was a return to the Lumiere ethic of framed reality. NeoRealism became a style of film which was characterised by stories that were set amongst the poor and working class people. Realism would always be emphasized, and performances were mostly constructed from scenes of ordinary people performing fairly uninteresting and everyday tasks, completely derived of the self-consciousness that a trained actor would usually produce. The films would generally feature children as the major role but they were usually more observational rather than engaging.
The film makers were heavily influenced...
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... in every sense "the father of the French New Wave". The opinion that Rosselini’s work had become the introduction to a new style of film was enforced by many of the up and coming directors of the time and his work is still appreciated in the modern film world.
When the economy began to improve and the rate of unemployment decreased people found Neorealism discouraging and began to favor light hearted American films which involved positive outcomes and happier endings than what the Italian people had come to know, with this change in favor came the end of the NeoRealism Era.
Nevertheless Italian NeoRealism was essential to Italy’s film industry at the time the war ended and while Europe was recovering from the war. Its impact on modern film has been monumental, not only in Italian film but also on French New Wave cinema, and ultimately on films all over the world.
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
Italian Neorealism, a movement that focused on the arts began in 19th century post war Italy and “became the repository of partisan hopes for social justice in the post war italian state.” (Marcus, xiv) Even before the war, Italy had been under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and his corrupt form of government, Fascism, which caused oppression throughout the country. Neorealistic films allowed filmmakers to use common styles and techniques to finally reveal the world filled with anguish and misery that Mussolini had created. These films allowed the rebirth of Italy with the new ideals of freedom and social order. Some directors choose to add melodramatic elements to their neorealistic film which goes against Neorealism’s goal to project the Italy in its real form. However, although Rome Open City by Roberto Rossellini and Bitter Rice by DeSantis have classic hollywood narrative characteristics, the portrayal of women and children represent neorealist principles that help us further understand the struggles and conflicts of women and children during post-war Italy.
Bondanella, Peter. (2009), A History of Italian Cinema, NY, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
Due to a federal antitrust law, production companies and distributors lost power and profits, and independent companies, such as the United Artists Corporation, gained traction. The antitrust law, combined with “the postwar downturn and above all the imperative of competing effectively with television,” led to the implementation of various widescreen formats, 3-D, and Technicolor in order to innovate film and engage the spectator. In doing so, this period imbalanced the emerging power of narrative with the resurgence of spectacle. Widescreen, especially, also contributed to a sense of realism, actively engaging the audience in the visual expanse of cinema. As a result, Some Like It Hot’s mode of spectatorial address, though not as focused on “attraction” as early cinem...
In 1959- early 1960 five directors released debut feature length films that are widely regarded as heralding the start of the French nouvelle vague or French New Wave. Claude Chabrols Le Beau Serge (The Good Serge, 1959) and Les Cousins (The Cousins, 1959) were released, along with Francois Truffauts Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959), Jean-Luc Godards A bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960) and Alain Resnais Hiroshima mon amour (Hiroshima my love, 1959). These films were the beginning of a revolution in French cinema. In the following years these directors were to follow up their debuts, while other young directors made their first features, in fact between 1959-63 over 170 French directors made their debut films. These films were very different to anything French and American cinema had ever produced both in film style and film form and would change the shape of cinema to come for years. To understand how and why this nouvelle vague happened we must first look at the historical, social, economical and political aspects of France and the French film industry leading up to the onset of the nouvelle vague.
... ed (BFI, 1990) we read … “contrary to all trendy journalism about the ‘New Hollywood’ and the imagined rise of artistic freedom in American films, the ‘New Hollywood’ remains as crass and commercial as the old…”
However, the eventual rising costs of American productions led to a much greater dependence on cheaper European imports, particularly from Italy. This led to an emergence of several Italian grindhouse sub-genres, including ‘Cannibal Films’, thus the creation of ‘Cannibal Holocaust’.
... always is going back to the same one person like a painting. This is an attempt to create an aura by making a film that shows one man that contains creative genius, originality and uniqueness. Therefore the mass gets one political, fascist meaning and the film manipulates the mass that is dependent on those ideas of the unique leader and originality. In addition, by emphasizing one political leader, fascist film retains some of its cult value over exhibition. Since the film is not built on the focus of entertainment, there can be no room for distraction. Moreover, time within these fascism films is never ending and elevates production that depends on these traditional concepts of art. The traditional concepts of art are experienced through contemplation through distance, but this has shifted to distraction through entertainment as a loss of space and time to think.
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
Following Mussolini’s fall from power in 1943 filmmakers had a new freedom, until then movies were heavily censored to project a positive image of Italy, now filmmakers like Roberto Rossellini (1906 -1977), Vittorio De Sica (1902 – 1974) and Luchino Visconti (1906 – 1976) were give freedom to explore social, political and economic problems faced by the population. Now began a new kind of cinema, capturing the realities of the people, ‘the basic tenets of this movement were that cinema should focus on its own nature and its role in society and that it should confront audiences with their own reality’ (Hayward, 1996, p. 192). Hayward goes on further to state ‘it should project a slice of life; it should appear to enter and then leave everyday life’. A cinema of truth and ideas was their goal, but with very little money and no studio backing they had to use their ingenuity to get the message across.
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 film industry continues to change and improve its self through technology, new uses of equipment and different styles of film. The classical Hollywood cinema is one of the earlier styles of film production and often obeyed a strict guideline when producing a film. This style of film used a narrative to tell its story and would have a clear beginning, middle, and end; with the ending generally providing a resolution to a problem introduced. With the war that had women involved in the workplace coming to an end, the Classical Hollywood Cinema portrayed its female leads being dependent on a man. On the other hand, Jean-Luc Godard has and brings a different outlook of film to the screen. Considered an Auteur, Godard goes against the Hollywood
The Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, the original title), is based on the story of Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), and his son Bruno Ricci (Enzo Staiola), in search of Antonio’s stolen bike. Italian Neorealism is applied to the creation of De Sica, where the essence of reality and authenticity is captured throughout the film. A key feature of Neorealism that is seen in this film is the use of nonprofessional actors. De Sica stated in an interview that he chose Lamberto Maggiorani, who was once a factory worker, because of the way he moved, sat, his hand gestures, everything about him was perfect and simply pure. De Sica had also gone beyond measures to prove that Hollywood stars and ‘real people’ in neorealist films can be easily distinguished. For example, a scene in The Bicycle Thieves showed Ricci being told not to cause creases to the Rita Hayworth poster. When in reality, real people are bound to have wrinkles.
Martini, G. (2013) I Festival sono ancora necessari?, Spec. Issue of 8 ½- Numeri, visioni e prospettive del cinema italiano (2013).