Italy and Neorealism
Italy and Neorealism
THE ORIGINS OF ITALIAN NEOREALISM
- Recall the Historical Super spectacles (1911-1914) to World War I
(multi-hour, vast crowd scenes, impressive cinematography emphasizing camera work and optical effects covering the elaborate sets)
WATCH: Cabiria – sacrifice to Moloch
- 1922, – Fascist Mussolini’s surprising “contributions” to restore Italian cinema to former glory via built the vast Cinecitta studio (largest in the world w. 16 sound stages),
est a film school and allowed the publication of a Marxist-oriented film journal.
****Paid for by heavy tax on foreign films which had to be dubbed (and “dangerous” ideas censored)
- Prior to World War II, Italy specialized in pro-Fascist films and escapist entertainment – ‘white telephone’ films of the 1930s in which glamorous characters suffered from rarified passions in swanky apartments which featured white (vs. usual black) telephones (similar in tone to the Astaire/Rogers films of 30s ).
Discontent critics and filmmakers under Fascist rule championed the idea that the Italian cinema needed to leave behind such contrived and mindless triviality and focus on a new realism…one reflecting pressing social concerns–especially poverty and injustice.
WATCH: Life as it Is: The Neorealist Movement in Italy
In 1943 Luchino Visconti made the first attempt at this cinema with the release of his OSSESSIONE which showed the gritty reality—the downside of life under Mussolini—and the film was banned!
WATCH: Ossessione pt 12 – Gino confrontation