Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism

Description

The movement known as neorealism lasted seven years, generated only twenty-one films, failed at the box office, and fell short of its didactic and aesthetic aspirations. Yet it exerted such a profound influence on Italian cinema that all the best postwar directors had to come to terms with it, whether in seeming imitation (the early Olmi), in commercial exploitation (the middle Comencini) or in ostensible rejection (the recent Tavianis). Despite the reactionary pressures of the marketplace and the highly personalized visions of Fellini, Antonioni. And Visconti, Italian cinema has maintained its moral commitment to use the medium in socially responsible ways--if not to change the world, as the first neorealists hoped, then at least to move filmgoers to face the pressing economic, political, and human problems in their midst. From Rossellini's Open City (1945) to the Taviani brothers' Night of the Shooting Stars (1982). The author does close readings of seventeen films that tell the story of neorealism's evolving influence on Italian postwar cinematic expression. Other films discussed are De Sica's Bicycle Thief and Umberto D. De Santis's Bitter Rice, Comencini's Bread, Love, and Fantasy, Fellini's La strada, Visconti's Senso, Antonioni's Red Desert, Olmi's Il Posto, Germi's Seduced and Abandoned, Pasolini's Teorema, Petri's Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion, Bertolucci's The Conformist, Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli, and Wertmuller's Love and Anarchy, Scola's We All Loved Each Other So Much provides the occasion for the author's own retrospective consideration of how Italian cinema has fulfilled, or disappointed, the promise of neorealism. Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface Introduction PART I: Neorealism Proper 1. Rossellini's Open City: The Founding 2. De Sica's Bicycle Thief: Casting Shadows on the Visionary City 3. De Santis's Bitter Rice: A Neorealist Hybrid 4. De Sica's Umberto D: Dark Victory for Neorealism PART II: Transitions 5. Comencini's Bread, Love, and Fantasy: Consumable Realism 6. Fellini's La strada: Transcending Neorealism 7. Visconti's Senso: The Risorgimento According to Gramsci 8. Antonioni's Red Desert: Abstraction as the Guiding Idea PART III: Return to Social Commentary 9. Olmi's Il Posto: Discrediting the Economic Miracle 10. Germi's Seduced and Abandoned: Inside the Honor Code 11. Pasolini's Teorema: The Halfway Revolution 12. Petri's Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion: Power as Pathology PART IV: Fascism and War Reconsidered 13. Bertolucci's The Conformist: A Morals Charge 14. Wertmuller's Love and Anarchy: The High Price of Commitment 15. Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli: A Tale of Two Italies 16. The Taviani Brothers' Night of the Shooting Stars: Ambivalent Tribute to Neorealism 17. Scola's We All Loved Each Other So Much: An Epilogue Bibliography of Works Consulted Index