Comparative study
ITALIAN NEOREALISM
italian neorealism context
- Post WWII - Essentially European Economies were stuffed, whilst the US economy was as strong as ever
- America flooded the market with not only film, but money (Marshall Plan) and influence in Europe
- Eventually, Europe had enough of US dominance and began to show some resistance - Numbe rof American films that could be shown were cut. AFter 1950 Britain, France and Italy began to focus on their own cinema upon which each movement flourished
- Italian Neorealism
- La Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) and
- British Realist Cinema
modernism
- Growing young audience interested in less mainstream
- Modernist ideas abound - arguably German Expressionism can be considered part of the wider movement (influential)
- Dire political circumstance deemed some sort of response.
- Objective Realism - "...episodic, slice of life narratives that avoided Hollywoods tight plots" (Bordwell and Thompson)
- Subjective Realism - An attempt to delve below the surface and explore psychological life of characters (similar to German Expressionism)
- Authorial Commentary - films have a message
- Ambiguity - Often no particular heroic characters, no neat Todorovian conclusions
examples
- Bicycle Thieves - Sica, 1948
- Rome, Open City - Rossellini, 1945
- Umberto D - Sica - 1952
cesare zavattini
Main points:
- Art should imitate life
- Narrative will engage people more than documentary
- Art has a moral purpose
- Art should be about real people and real problems
- Film needs to be democratized - less technical, less expensive - and only then will it be open to individual (rather than group) creativity
"Cinema du papa"
- Historical epics were popular
- Generic
- Expensive
- Studio system dominated
- Contemptuously named "Cinema du papa" by Francois Truffaut
cahiers du cinema
- Principal FNW directors started (and continued) as critics
- Best known journal was Cahiers du Cinema
- Most famous for initiating and establishing the auteur theory
- Actively intended to change cinema; called themselves, 'a band of outsiders' to mark themselves as new and different
auteur theory: astruc
- Francois Truffaut (1954)
- Characterises the 'best' contemporary French cinema - made in the so-called 'Tradition of Quality' - as generic, formulaic, and phony
- Objects to the conception of film as a sub-literary form
- Objects to dominance of scriptwriters
- Argues for film as a new, visual form
- Suggests directors, not writers, are the 'auteurs'
- Says a new auteur-based cinema cannot co-exist with 'The Tradition of Quality'
SHEP​
- FNW coincided with the American youth culture explosion created by rock and roll.
- Many New Wave films spoke to young audiences about their lives. They were shot in the present day and applicable to modern issues, unlike the outdated costume dramas churned out by the 'cinéma de papa'.
In Short:
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Realism: How things really look
Classicism: How things should look
Formalism: How things feel