.

Andre Bazin &

Italian Neorealism

.

Siefried Kracauer (1889-1966)

CINEMATIC REALISM : Philosophy

Critic of “modernity” (Frankfurt School)

Human condition characterized by alienation

Mass culture/society manipulates individuals

Materialistic values have replaced religion, metaphysical, romantic convictions, resulting in disenchantment

People live distracted lives

Film as a “redemptive” experience that can show man damaged condition of modernity and help him transcend materialism

.

Siefried Kracauer (1889-1966)

CINEMATIC REALISM

Foreshadowed and predicted dehumanizing power of mass media

“Mass ornaments”--film, military parades and sporting events

“Real” world of the individual desubstantiated by spectacle and empty rituals

Film must “reengage” individual with nature and the Kantian real world

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Views cinema as a “redemptive” art

The role of cinema is to help man in his search for truth and understanding in an ambiguous and uncertain world

Man can transcend alienation and modernity

Film can be a religious experience

“Love” and “state of grace”

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Bergson’s concept of “creative evolution”

Close experiential scrutiny reveals deep structures/meanings behind phenomena

Under scrutiny of inquiry [artistic analysis]these deep structures are brought into the light

Cinema and photography are media that an artist can utilize to review the deeper meanings behind the phenomena of existence

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

We know that under the image revealed there is another which is truer to reality and under this image still another and yet again still another under this last one, right down to the true image of reality, absolute, mysterious, which no one will ever see.

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Film image “embalms” time & wrenches phenomena from the flux of life

Symbolic power of cinematic imagery combined with empirical density of cinematic realism

The spirit behind the “real” object

The “long hard gaze”

Disliked over-expressive, over-ornamental, or overuse of montage

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

“Montage...chops the world up into little fragments, and disturbs the natural unity in people and things.”

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

“German expressionism did violence to the image by ways of sets and lighting.”

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Liked films that focused on everyday psychological experience

Italian neorealism (The Bicyle Thief)

Disliked modernist, expressionistic

Disliked films that imposed a political ideology on the viewer

Long takes, of surrounding environment

Impact of environment on people(French determinism)

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Francois Truffaut

Erich von Stroheim

Roberto Rossellini

Vittorio De Sica

Robert Bresson

Jean Renoir

Orson Welles

William Wyler

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Depth of focus

Respect for the continuity of dramatic space and the flow of time

Composition in depth

“Dramatic effects for which we had formerly relied on montage were created out of the movements of the actors within a fixed framework.”

Ambiguity of expression closer to reality; viewer must choose

.

Cinematic Realism & Marxism (1930-present)

Film as a reactionary medium

Expose the shallowness of modern capitalistic society

Real-life problems of the common man

Poverty, crime, social injustice common themes

Italian Neorealism

British Social Realism

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

1937-1945: Fascists controlled cinema(founded Cinecitta--largest studio in Europe)

Propaganda films

After WWII, Socialists and Communists in government tolerated Neorealism’s left-wing ideology (former resistance movement)

Economy in shambles

Cost of studio production, film, lighting, etc.became prohibitive

Reflected desire for social reform

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

Response to artificiality of cinema of the Fascist period

Influenced by French poetic realism and American literary naturalism (e.g., Hemingway)

Experiences of poor and socially marginalized

“Slice of life”; things and facts in time and place (versimo)

Ambivalence of everyday experience

Some took strong social political stance

Marxist, with a hopeful, humanistic dimension

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

CHARACTERISTICS

On-location shooting

Long takes

Natural light

Medium and long shots

Non-professional actors

Working class protagonists

Environment as important as actors

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

CESARE ZAVATTINI

Three basics tenets of neorealism

1. Portray real or everyday people, using nonprofessional actors in real settings

2. Examine socially significant themes

3. Promote the “organic” development ofsituations--the “real flow of life”--in which

complications are rarely resolved

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

CESARE ZAVATTINI

“Some Ideas on the Cinema” (1953)

1. Portray real or everyday people, using nonprofessional actors in real settings

2. Examine socially significant themes

3. Promote the “organic” development ofsituations--the “real flow of life”--in which

complications are rarely resolved

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

CESARE ZAVATTINI

“Identification with the common man in the crowd.”

“Take dialogue and actors from the street.”

“Reality in American films is unnaturally filtered.”

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

CESARE ZAVATTINI

“The world goes on getting worse because we are not truly aware of reality.”

The job of the director is to “observe reality, and not extract fictions from it.”

“The frequent habit of identifying oneself with fictional characters will become very dangerous.”

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

CESARE ZAVATTINI

“The world goes on getting worse because we are not truly aware of reality.”

The job of the director is to “observe reality, and not extract fictions from it.”

“The frequent habit of identifying oneself with fictional characters will become very dangerous.”

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

Criticized for negative depiction of Italy

Lack of positive heroes

Negative displays of human flesh

Catholic Church: “forbidden for believers”

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

Not the most popular cinema of the times in Italy

People didn’t want to be reminded of problems

Hollywood and “capitalist” system of filmmaking an overpowering force

BUT the movement did influence the French New Wave, Hollywood and TV

.

Italian Neorealism (1940-50s)

Roberto Rossellini

Luchino Visconti

Guisippe DeSantis

Giovanni Verga

Vittorio De Sica

Federico Fellini

Michelangelo Antonioni

Bernardo Bertolucci

Francesco Rosi