Italian Neorealism

            Italian neorealism is a style of film movement that characterized by stories amongst the poor and the working class to shows the difficult economical and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy. This film movement was lasted from 1942 to 1952. During the World War II, most of the national cinemas were devastated and affected economic stability of the cinema industries. But Italy cinema industries were not affected too much due to their early surrender in War World II. During the period of fascist rule under Mussolini, the type of Italy cinema was being produced was different from the reality and concerned, but only a good image of Italy. The governments had decreed that negativity issues or immorality should not be screen on the cinema. However, some filmmakers took a moral and aesthetic stance against the fascism and the term to explain this style of film is neorealism. Cesare Zavattini was the one of the famous theoretical founders of neorealism in the Italian film industries. So in this essay, we would like to discuss about the characteristics and traits of the Italian Neorealism film movements and also the Italian neorealism film, Bicycle Thief.

            After the fascism, the Italy film industries started to import Hollywood films, rather than helping to re-establish the Italian national cinema. During this period, Italian filmmakers had no financial support, professional actors, and production studios to produce big-budgets films. These came to the point that the Italian neorealist cinematography emerged. Italian neo-realism focused on the immediate reality of social life which we have to look back the historical context of the particular era to understand the kind of societies portrayed after War World II. During the era, the neorealism films were produced without dealing with the issues of history but present, in which ordinary people, events, and situation take places. The used of non-professional actors, on shot location and original used of sound track which give the film a grainy, realistic look of senses that reinforces in its documentary verisimilitude (Hayward, p. 220, 2013). For an example, the uses of professional actors in the film Bicycle Thief was only the one who distribute the job to the others as he has a very good vocal pronunciation and stress on the words which suit the role of the character and which is not an easy performances for a non-professional actor. Therefore, they usually use unprofessional or professional but unknown actors in the films yet the shooting take place on the real life locations which able to preserve a kind of documentary value within the film. 

            Besides, an Italian neorealism was usually emphasizes on a deep-focus shots which the foreground, middleground and background can be seen by the audiences when they watch it. With the conventions of long shots in the mise-en shot of an neorealism film, the audiences can see the same scene for a minute. This convention of this long shots and deep focus shots is to allow the audiences to observe the entirely situation of the scene and understand the relations between the figures on both background and foreground. This gives an illusion of reality to the audiences. So this enhances the audiences experience in the particular timeframe of the film. 

Moreover, the theoretical founder of neorealism in 1942, Cesare Zavattini mentions the new form of Italian Cinema that practice the real people and locations to direct contact with the contemporary social reality of that era. He opposed the classical filmmaking principles of the Hollywood and emphasizes more on the social problems such as inequalities, injustices, unemployment and any related to social conscious issues. It also focused more on daily life stories of ordinary, lower class or under-privileged groups in the society. Next, he also mentioned that film neorealism film is not resembling reality, but turning reality into a version of a story. The film is not the reality of the society but it represents the reality as it totally was. He believes that film was not just function as a serving medium between art and life but a medium that able to possess a moral responsibility to voice out the hidden issues or problem to the public. For an example, people always see Italy as a beautiful country but they have not known the issues portrayed within the country such as unemployment, criminals and more. Therefore, Zavattini’s idea is to establish a communication with the segments of society or public through film. 

One of the famous films in the Italian neorealism film is Bicycle Thief. The story starred with Ricci, an unemployed man in the depressed post-World War II economy of Italy. He able to gets a good job but the condition is he needs a bike to hanging up the posters. Thing goes well as he gets his bicycle by selling some mattress. He started to work. But soon his bicycle is stolen. He and his son walk the streets of Rome, looking for the bicycle. Ricci finally manages to find the thief, but he has no proof to it. On their way home, he steals an unattended bicycle and he gets caught. He gets released as the bicycle owner feels compassion to him. In the end, Bruno and him walk toward the crowd and disappear.  

In the film Bicycle Thief, there are a few elements that can be analysed as a Italian neorealism film. Firstly, the convention of long shot is can be found in the film Bicycle Thief. The long shot used allow the audiences to observe the foreground, background of the scene so that the audiences able understand the environment and situation of the story more. For an example, there is a part where Ricci doing his work by pasting the poster on the wall. The long shot is taken in showing his action pasting the poster. Then, the audiences can realize and observe that a few suspicion men were standing behind Ricci and up to something. Then, the bicycle was stole by the thief and we know there is a man who acts like a good guy in helping him to find the thief was actually the thief’s allies. So this kind of mise-en shot allows the audiences to observe more in a scene instead of just watching what the actor’s action is. 

Next, the second element of Italian neorealism in the film is on place location. The scenery of the film used are usually a real location which means there are take places on location outside but not in the studio or set-up any similarity location. So that audiences able to know the situation and environment take place in the scene. For an example, when Ricci gets the jobs, he walks toward the water collect station to find his wife. As we can see the setting and the environment of the scene, we can know that the particular time-frame of that era is having a bad situation. We can observe the road of the scene is all rocky, dusty and tan in colour and the building apartment was all new and unpainted. We can understand that the story of the film is happened after World War II where everything previously was destroyed and they are having a reestablishment of the places. So that the real location of the scene shows us the situation and timeframe happened in the scene and it gives audiences a version of reality in the particular era. 

Lastly, the story of the film is mostly emphasize on the social problems such as bad economic, crimes and injustices that happened after the World War II. The film shows that the people in that particular timeframe are having unemployment and economic crisis. People are despair in having a job to earn money for their living. For an example, in the beginning of the film, everyone was crowded at the stairs to ask for any job opportunities to work. We can see how desperate the people are in getting a job in the era. Next, the film reflected the crime issues that happened in the society. Ricci’s bicycle was stolen and he has no way to find it back. This comes to the injustices issues happened in the film where the polices are not helping the Ricci in finding the bicycle because they treat Ricci as a lower classes people in the society and they don’t really care about a cheap bicycle get stolen. 

In a nutshell, Italian neorealism is mostly contending with the difficult economic and post-World War II Italy. It is also representing the changes in the Italian psyche and conditions of everyday life such as poverty, oppression, injustice, and desperation. Therefore, it is a film movement that shows awareness on these issues in the society that hidden by the majority group. This film movement also taught us that film is not just about entertainment; it also can be studies or self-review of the societies. 

References:

Hayward, S. (2013). Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (4th ed.). USA, New York: Routledge.