Storia damore e danarchia (strade bianche) (Italian Edition)

Mastorna, Fellini became seriously ill, suffering what was called a total physical collapse. He went back to work the following year, directing an episode in a three-part French production, Histoires extraordinaires , based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The most admired of the three episodes, it seemed to Penelope Gilliatt fluently comic, sober, barbed, a little desperate, with a droll and perfectly earnest belief in Heaven and damnation.

It includes a glimpse of what the uncompleted Mastorna might have been like, scenes from Fellini s Rome, a passage cut from Nights of Cabiria, Fellini s reminiscences of his childhood moviegoing, and a long concluding sequence showing a collection of bizarre characters auditioning for his next film, Satyricon. Fellini Satyricon is an uninhibited and extremely loose adaptation by himself and Bernardino Zapponi of Satyricon, the satirical romance written in the first century a. He has more consistently stressed the objectivity and detachment of the film, saying I have made no panoramas, no topography, only frescoes, and so the cutting is very fast.

It has no real time. It is like riffling through an album. There is no psychological movement in the characters. It is also a film made up of static shots no tracks, no camera movements whatsoever Most reviewers found something to praise sequences rich in Felliniesque humanity but many thought it too long and too diffuse. Richard Schickel said that he was tired of being fed Fellini s visions of Rome as combination brothel, freak show and symbol of the decline of the West. Dilys Powell called the film a huge dream, an offshoot from his Satyricon, grotesque, horrible, beautiful.

She hoped that Fellini might now find his way back to the mysterious organism, more complex than Rome the human being. This he did with considerable success in his next film Amarcord , which in the patois of his native Rimini means I remember a-m arcord. We are back in the provincial town of I Vitelloni, though this account of four consecutive seasons there during the Fascist s was shot mostly on vast sets constructed in the Roman studios..

Earning an Oscar as best foreign film, among many other awards, Amarcord was found uneven but rewarding, less strident, more mellow and affirmative than Fellini s other recent films. But the decline in his reputation continued with Casanova , freely drawn by the director and Zapponi from the memoirs of the famous Venetian libertine, and featuring in the title role the utterly un-italianate Donald Sutherland equipped with a strangely heightened forehead.

Fellini s conception of Casanova is as a victim of his own legend, a joyless coupler with everyone from a libidinous nun to the mechanical doll which seems to provide him with the greatest satisfaction. Three years elapsed before Prova d orchestra The Orchestra Rehearsal, I d like to do more little films, Fellini told an interviewer, but if I go to a producer with a very low-budget story, I see the lack of interest, the humiliation on his face.

For him Fellini should shoot a ten-million-dollar film. The film doesn t count at all, what counts is to build a business on me, the Fellini affair, and then to construct an immense financial edifice. And there I am, rooted in my film with all the problems it poses for me, and next to me is growing this huge labyrinthine construction to satisfy producers appetites, piranha-distributors who hope to make the deals of their lives.

I have the feeling that all my films are about women, Fellini declared at the time. Women represent myth, mystery, diversity, fascination, the thirst for knowledge and the search for one s own identity He is traveling in a train that unexpectedly stops and like a latter-day Alice, is lured through the fields to his Wonderland not by a clothed rabbit but by an exotic fellow-passenger. He described his film as a dream, an evocation of the subconscious. I want people to see it without trying to understand it.

Fellini s latest film, Ginger e Fred Ginger and Fred, unites Mastroianni, once again as Fellini s alter ego, and Giulietta Masina, Fellini s wife, for the first time in their careers. It reveals Fellini, now in his sixties, in a mood paradoxically both more sour and more mellow. Sour in the way he portrays television. Amelia and Pippo are two ex-variety artists who, long ago, were a touring team performing their mediocre imitations of the Astaire-Rogers routines. Lovers for a time, they had split up in the s and had never met since.

Now they are invited to make an appearance on a nostalgic TV Christmas Special, presided over by an unctuous veteran played by Franco Fabrizi, the shiftless young husband in I Vitelloni. Amelia is now a faintly prim provincial housewife in late middle age. Pippo has become a boozy, arthritic door-to-door salesman, and at their first meeting fails to recognize he. They find themselves in an alien city, rife with vagrants and junkies. The television show in which they are booked to appear is an assemblage of freaks, celebrity lookalikes, a levitating monk, and a miracle woman who has endured for three months the agony of not watching television.

When Amelia and Pippo eventually perform their dance routine it is, despite a stumble on his part and a studio blackout, strangely touching. For a brief moment the couple experience a flickering of their old intimacy before once more setting off on their separate ways.

Orson Welles said of Fellini in that his limitation which is also the source of his charm is that he s fundamentally very provincial. His films are a small-town boy s dream of the big city. His sophistication works because it s the creation of someone who doesn t have it. And so, fortunately, is Fellini. Does Fellini always make the same film? But the language of the different chapters of this unique film is incessantly renewed. It is precisely because it repeats recurrent motifs that Fellini s fantasy appears unsurpassed, Casiraghi writes very correctly. Edited by Constanzo Constantini.

In reality television has granted you a kind of License to kill, which in Ginger and Fred and Intervista you use freely and to the full, with rage, disdain and fury. Are you satisfied with Ginger and Fred? How do you place this film in the sphere of your filmography? Of all the films you have now made, which do you prefer? It s difficult for me to say, especially because I hardly ever watch my films again.

Every film corresponds to a precise moment, both objectively and subjectively. Ginger and Fred represents me as I am today. From first to last, I have struggled to free myself always from the past, from the education laid upon me as a child. At Guido Anselmi s signal, Boy Guido stations himself in front of a curtain, guardian of the revelation behind it. At another signal, the curtain parts, and we see GA s cast and crew descending the tower staircase en masse. The mood is light, relaxed; people are laughing, chatting, being their off selves. Yet the viewer s joy at this sight may be so acute, and his relief so profound, as to bring him to sobs.

Thus configured, the social field no longer looks terrifying, and GA readily joins the circle, treading the dance just like the others. Even now he takes the precaution of entering the circle as a married man, with Luisa in tow, as if his social integration might prove difficult without this entitlement, but he no longer objects to being a character, one among many. Life is a festival; let s live it together! It is this pageant os simplicity at last, in which the person is whole and the artwork complete that Boy Guido has been called upon to articulate. If the circus finale feels tacked on, that is because it was tacked on, being literally a trailer that Fellini had never planned as part of the film.

For that, as the published screenplay indicates, he had envisioned a different, darker ending. But once this ending had been filmed, it caused him such uneasiness that, late in editing, he replaced it with the trailer. Then, as if to leave no footprints, he destroyed it Self-referential enough, but only the beginning. Its surface flow of images dazzles us with sharp contrasts of black and white, startling eruptions from off-screen, unexpected changes of scene, and a virtuoso display of all the possibilities and effects of camera movement. We find almost a catalog of humanity in its stream of faces; some of them are momentary visions while others persist through the film and long after in our memory, such as Saraghina, that lumbering monster transformed into the embodiment of joyous life and movement.

But Fellini s brilliance reaches beyond the surface to include an intricate structure of highly original, highly imaginative scenes whose conjunction creates an unprecedented interweaving of memories, fantasies, and dreams with the daily life of his hero and alter ego, Guido Anselmi. In a film in which almost every scene is memorable, within its own pace and ambience, its characteristic forms of movement and emotional tone, some scenes are extraordinary: Federico Fellini began his career in the motion picture world in , as writer and assistant to the neo-realist director Roberto Rossellini, but by the time he directed his own first film his vivid imagination had begun to replace reality as the central source of his inspiration.

Through the s he explores the fantasies and illusions which both sustain and destroy us in films peopled with characters whose lives run outside the normal streams of everyday experience, circus performers, swindlers, prostitutes. Then La Dolce Vita, a huge, sprawling evisceration of contemporary urban highlife, made him an international celebrity and faced him with that most stultifying challenge for an artist: After such a success, what can you do next?

He made this an opportunity to probe the mystery of artistic creation and the problems of human relations created by a society whose traditional education portrays women as either sacred or profane, either mother or whore. Serious problems, but his film is comic. Hence none of the questions posed is ever really answered; for, as Guido tells us, he has nothing to say.

But his complete mastery of film technique and form speaks for him, shaping a purely formal solution for Guido in an imaginary dance of acceptance and communion which leaves us, the spectators, feeling a glow of happy resolution as young Guido, now dressed in white, leads his clown band into the darkness.

Say the magic words, then when the picture moves its eyes, we ll all be rich. The words derive from a children s game, like pig latin, in which one takes a word, doubles each of its vowels and then puts the letter s between the two. So, run backwards, the root word is anima, the Italian word for soul or spirit. Daumier dismisses all this as another idle childhood memory, devoid of all poetic inspiration.

Yet in the film the utterance of asa nisi masa works like magic, releasing the marvelous flow of joyful life of the farmhouse scene. I, Fellini Reprise from I, Fellini by Charlotte Chandler, Our minds can shape the way a thing will be, because we act according to our expectations. The hard thing is beginning.

The point of departure for the journey I must begin for each film is generally something that really happened to me, but which I believe also is part of the experience of others. The audience should be able to say, Oh, something like that happened to me, or I m glad it didn t happen to me. They should identify, sympathize, empathize. They should be able to enter the movie and get into my shoes and the shoes of at least some of the characters.

I first try to express my own emotions, what I personally feel, and then I look for the link of truth that will be of significance to people like me. The picture I make is never exactly the one I started out to make, but that is of no importance. I am very flexible on the set. After the first weeks, the picture takes on a life of its own. The film grows as you are making it, like relationships with a person.

I must keep a closed set, though I make many exceptions and welcome good spirits, as long as there aren t too many of them. But if I become conscious of one wrong person watching me, my creativity dries up. I feel it physically. My throat becomes dry. It s insidiously destructive to work when there are long faces. Understanding what makes a thing difficult doesn t make it less difficult, and understanding how difficult it is can make it more difficult to attempt. Pictures do not get easier for me to make, but more difficult.

With each one, I learn more of what can go wrong, and I am thus more threatened, Its always satisfying when you can turn something that goes wrong into something that is even better. If I saw that an actor like Broderick Crawford was a little drunk on the set, I tried to make it part of the story.

If someone has just had an argument with his wife, I try to use his upset state as part of his character. Bruce Jackson the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: First Instant Words the had out than of by many first and words then water a but them been to not these called in what so who is all some oil you were her sit that we would now it when make find he. The words are listed in rank order. What is the Life after Death Like? Father, you sent your Word to bring us truth and your Spirit to make us holy.

Set 1 The people Write it down By the water Who will make it? You and I What will they do?

We had their dog. What did they say? When would you go? No way A number of people One or two How. What are you worried about? Looking Deeper Looking Deeper What are you worried about? Some of us lie awake at night worrying about family members, health, finances or a thousand other things. Jesus knows all about us and He loves us. Jesus the Magnificent Scripture: God is all Powerful! Jesus is coming again. If you are a teenager right now, let me just say, You are amazing! You are so full of dreams, willing to try.

You can t read a sentence or a paragraph without knowing at least the most common. Evaluation Essay Movie Review Everybody goes to the movie, it seems, to be entertained, but how many go to study movies as works of art. That is what movie reviewing involves: Story Idea Workbook For use with coming up with screenplay ideas and reminding ourselves of how a story is put together.

A story idea may come from personal experience, a newspaper article, inspiration. The importance of Prayer life Prayer means communication with God. Prayer will lead us into dependence upon God. A person completely declared before God I am nothing and God is supreme. We need to completely trust in Jesus. Matthew Kassovitz was awarded Best Director and five times as many copies of the film were produced as would.

Most of us know these techniques, and. I don t know who first said this, but I certainly believe it to be true. God wants us to trust Him. Dear Billy, I am writing to let you know how much I am missing you. I have some good news. I am going to be an auntie. I am so excited about finding out what my sister is having. I am very proud of you,. Since then the story has been retold and adapted for the stage, on film, on radio, on television and in comics. Coraline Study Notes Directed by: Fry Instant Phrases The words in these phrases come from Dr.

My Fresco Snapshots from Today 1. High School Snapshots for Tomorrow 4. Who was born in Bethlehem? By George Karanastasis, M. Poems and Essays by Family Caregivers Each meeting has a suggested prompt, or idea, for people to write about. Everyone is free to interpret that prompt however they d like.

That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet II. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower us. Sermon Ascension Text: Power As we come to the day of the Ascension we celebrate the second to the last key transition in the ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ: The following is an interview with Sarang and her mother regarding all Sarang saw.

Jesus always has time for us! God s Fellowship Text: How many Gods are there? How many Persons are there in God? Three persons in God. What are their names? Preface Alcoholism is a disease of many losses. For those of us who are the relatives and friends of alcoholics, these losses affect many aspects of our lives and remain with us over time, whether or not.

How does Nick describe himself at. And Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. So far the text. The glory of God has been revealed,. Why Do Bad Things Happen? Bible with marked scripture! Play Doe for each child! Various items you purchased at a store! Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens. God desires for us to demonstrate His love!

Spettatori e spettatrici

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now I m found; was blind, but now. Junior Soldiers Unit 3: For children to explore and begin to understand that Jesus was both truly human and truly divine at the same time. The purpose for this. We can always trust Jesus. Medjugorje visionary, Ivan, speaking to several thousand pilgrims today, August 18, Ivan was given special instructions from Our Lady concerning the youth and family. Being married to an American. This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme.

You re listening to The Reading Group. We are asking you to play the role of storyteller. Yours and ours Theme: People who hear the story of Jesus must choose how they will respond to him. The soft, slow opening lines of the Largo-Allegro began. Lesson 3 Worship in Prayer In Lesson 1 we learned that worship is fellowship and communion with the Lord. This is why God made us. He wanted to share His love with people who could love Him in return.

What does Nick find appealing. Handouts for Mary, Mother of Jesus Session 1. The Perfect Life 3. Fruit of the Womb 4. Mary in Luke 5. Mary in Mark and Luke 6. Mary s Gifts 8. We cannot give strong support unless we become mighty men. None of us should fail because this is God s plan. God wants us to. What do you think of when you hear the word love? Questions to consider when watching a film These questions are from Appendix 1 of Focus: The Art and Soul of Cinema Damaris, They are intended to help you organise your thinking as you watch a.

Why has Christian come to the play? What concern does he express to Ligniere? Prior to his entry on stage, what do we learn of Cyrano s. Jesus is our cornerstone! A beautiful expanded collection of messages inspired from the daily Angel Wisdom that Sharon Taphorn channels and shares with thousands of readers around the world. Each message contains thought provoking. Ordinary Moments of Grace To everything there is a time and a season for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to sow and a time to reap.

A time to laugh and a time to. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being. Jesus at the Temple at age 12 Teacher Pep Talk: Twelve sounds so grown up, especially when you are a Little Guy! But to us adults, 12 seems really young to be doing some of the things Jesus was doing. And could it be God could God be using. God is Worthy of Our Praise Psalm Some theologians consider this to be his favorite Psalm of praise.

There are many others that lift praise. Tradition is an important part of identity. There are different traditions for. Thank you Thanksgiving Day has always been one of. How You Can Use. The birth of Jacob and Esau, twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah, continues the story of the descendants of. Lewis The Weight of Glory is a series of essays and talks that Lewis wrote over a long period roughly between and Today is Father s Day.

O come, let us adore him. This Lord s Day follows a devastating. A family Christmas KS 1 Aim: To review the different. How does Nick describe himself at the beginning of the novel? How do East and West Egg compare? During what period is the novel set? Assunta is identified with the bare streets of Naples often appearing under a portrait of the Madonna with child in her room. She is deceived and brutalized by the immature males in her life and responds with self-sacrificial fatalism. After WWI the Italian film industry lost its position in world markets, a fate shared in countries like France, which also had vibrant prewar film industries.

Mussolini assumes responsibility for the Matteotti murder, further steps to dictatorhip Autarkical economic system: The political and economic situation was extremely tense with strikes, demonstrations, and the reduction of the value of middle-class savings between and When universal male suffrage was granted in Italy in and competition began for the new voters. However the events that would bring Italy under Fascist totalitarian rule were already in motion.

In the political uncertainty and civil unrest following WWI, Mussolini formed his own organization, the Fascist Party, which eventually aligned with the nationalists. The election saw gains for the Socialists and the Catholic Popolari. Yet the two parties were unable to form a coalition.

For the next election, Mussolini moved further to the political Right so that his platform had more in common with the policies of a conservative, moderate government—fiscal restraint, law and order and a nationalist foreign policy. Mussolini also made concessions to the Socialists by promising to form Fascist worker and farmer unions in order to position his Fascist Party for a dominant role in Italian politics.

In and the economic crisis that had followed the end of the war worsened and the continuing strikes and political unrest were not suppressed by the last moderate government. The Socialists feared Allied military intervention in the event of a Marxist revolution as had occurred in Russia in According to Fascist propaganda between and , Mussolini prevented a Bolshevik-style totalitarian revolution from taking place in Italy. In reality, Fascism brought the end of representative parliamentary government and the institution of Fascist totalitarian dictatorship.

Of course it is easy to dress up in philosophical and cultural terms what may have actually been a generational conflict between Fascist black shirt squads whose fight song Giovinezza Youth was directed against their aging liberal, Catholic, monarchist or Socialist fathers. But a series of rifts in the Socialist leadership led to the formation of the Italian Communist Party in by Antonio Gramsci — The division of the Italian Left into opposing factions rendered it incapable of profiting from the political and economic situation.

The middle and property-owning classes were fearful that these difficult economic and political conditions could lead to a revolution patterned on the Russian Bolshevik revolution. The situation was ripe for an opportunistic and decided leader like Mussolini to impose his will and his Fascist Party on the nation.

A pivotal event was the decision by the Fascist leadership to march from their party congress in Naples to Rome in October Once in Rome, parading Fascists occupied the post office and other government buildings. Support for the Fascists grew and in October of Mussolini was asked by the king to replace Luigi Facta as prime minister, perhaps unaware that he had just invited in a dictatorship that would last 21 years. An important first step in the Fascist promulgation of the totalitarian state was the Acerbo Bill, which guaranteed the party receiving most votes in an election two-thirds of the seats in parliament.

In , the Fascists attained a majority in parliament using a proportional representation law, which in various guises has continued sporadically to be a feature of the Italian parliamentary system. In a speech to parliament in , Mussolini accepted responsibility for Fascist violence, a moment that commentators have seen as the moment of the beginning of Fascist totalitarian dictatorship. After surviving the crisis in —25 involving the murder of Matteotti, Mussolini unhesitatingly asserted his power, reducing government to single-party rule and establishing the OVRA Opera Vigilanza e Repressione Antifascista , a secret police service charged with repressing anti-Fascists in the country and abroad.

Yet Mussolini was careful not to alienate the previous governing establishment, and to this end the Fascist Party slowly purged itself of its most violent black shirt, revolutionary elements. The Fascist system of Corporatism, which developed gradually and finally crystallized into the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations in , professed to be a system in which political representation was based not on residence, but on occupation whether in agriculture, transport, manufacturing, or self-employed professionals.

Supposedly such a system would have eliminated class conflict. But in practice Corporatism allowed the Fascist Party to maintain rigid control over the unions eliminating Catholic and Socialist union groups , while favoring business interests. The Fascist years did bring changes for large segments of the population, particularly in demographic and economic terms.

Despite the restrictions of the regime, the s evidenced a movement toward urban, modern life characterized by a growth in consumer culture and sports attitudes perhaps best reflected in the romantic comedies directed by Mario Bonnard or Mario Camerini. Sociologically these trends began with the movement toward the cities, an internal migration away from the countryside caused by demographic increases. Mussolini did achieve some successes in controlling the economy during the Great Depression.

Fascism awarded a structural bureaucratic approach to economic and social wealth. It was the culture of clientilismo political patronage rather than the entrepreneurial verve that had characterized Italian economic development in the early part of the century by bourgeois industrialist families. The world economic crisis of the s brought even more state control with the formation of large state-run industrial holding companies the IMI, the IRI, postwar ENI , and a national pension system the INPS created in to the point that by the late s Fascist Italy rivaled Soviet Russia for the level of state involvement in the economy.

In response to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the League of Nations instituted economic sanctions on trade with Italy. The regime policy of national economic self-sufficiency or autarky had already been evoked in attempts to resolve a grain shortage with the Battle of Grain in , even turning some city parks into grain fields. The Battle of the Lira and the freezing of exchange rates for the Italian lira with major currencies such as the British Sterling at quota novanta ninety lire per British pound and the Battle of Gold were further autarkic attempts to stop the rienforce the national currency, the lira.

There were even limits put on the amount of real estate that an Italian Jew could possess in his own country. When university professors were required to sign a loyalty oath and join the party, few gave up their chairs and refused. Some intellectuals who rose to prominence in the postwar period have subsequently been embarrassed by the reappearance of sycophantic letters to Mussolini or by evidence of concrete ties to the regime, although many cultural figures including Luigi Pirandello, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Carlo Emilio Gadda were at times supporters of the regime during periods of the ventennio.

Once in power, Mussolini was careful not to alienate the upper class and the establishment. By the s, Fascist high functionaries aspired to noble titles to legitimize their position in society. The position eventually came a separate ministry, the Ministry of Culture and Propaganda Miniculpop , which oversaw an agreement reached with the United States for the limitation of Hollywood film exports to Italy to films per year.

Despite the desire of Fascist officials for aristocratic legitimacy, the regime did have an anti-aristocratic policy, at least linguistically. The campaign to require the second person plural voi as the common form of address instead of the feudal and feminine third person singular Lei was at its height in with complete substitution promulgated in This linguistic policy aimed to democratize Italian speech and create a Fascist culture that would not accept the feudal feminine forms of address. Between and and after , Italian regional dialects were featured and even encouraged in films.

The Italian practice of dubbing foreign films, rather than distributing them with subtitles began in shortly after the introduction of sound technology to film. Italian intellectuals such as Elio Vittorini and Cesare Pavese cultivated an image of America as a source of anti-Fascist culture. There was a demographic campaign of tax benefits for large families. In order to instill a sense of national identity and prestige in Italian popular culture, children and teenagers were enlisted in youth groups such as the Balilla, the figli e figlie della lupa sons and daughters of the she wolf , Avanguardisti for teenage males , and Giovani Italiane young Italian girls.

With a boxing heavyweight world champion, Primo Carnera in , and two World Cup soccer victories in and , Mussolini trumpeted the return of the ancient virtue of the Italian people and commissioned stadiums and public sports culture. There was also interest in the record setting and technological culture. Minister Italo Balbo made a record setting flight by piloting a squadron to Chicago in Tazio Nuvolari — had a remarkable career as a race car driver in the increasingly popular formula 1 and Mille Miglia automobile rally races around the Italian peninsula. Sporting events were transmitted by the Italian state radio instituting a popular element in national culture.

Equally important for his controversial views of the world and of man in this particularly critical time of Italian life is Luigi Pirandello — , a true innovator in world theatrical history. Pirandello won the Nobel Prize for literature in His strong philosophical pessimism, by which human unhappiness is not so much a consequence of the social system, but of human nature, brought him to accept Fascism and dictatorship as the least possible evil in order to control the evil of human nature.

Pirandello saw man as unable to break out of his tragic solitude or to communicate with others or even with himself. The only way of escape is either madness or a painful form of resignation. Another important writer was the Trieste-born author Italo Svevo — who dabbled in psychoanalysis and took English lessons from a young James Joyce, then living in the Adriatic port city of Trieste. For many of these authors the Fascist period was a period of reflection and preparation for intellectual production after WWII. Other artists, like still life painter Giorgio Morandi — , who also enjoyed increased recognition after WWII, kept to their craft choosing subject matter which could not provoke the regime.

During the Fascist period, it remained possible for authors to write and publish even if they were not open supporters of the regime, as long as their works did not contain explicit political attacks. The outbreak of WWI in interrupted this vital period of Italian filmmaking and initiated a critical period of stasis so that in the s Italy lost much of its prewar international market share. American film studios began to arrive in Italy to make their films on location and to take advantage of Italian expertise and craftsmanship.

MGM filmed the first version of Ben Hur in the Cines studios in Rome and other Hollywood film studios also opened production and distribution offices in Italy.

1. The Juice and Other Stories?
2. World Weary?
3. Love on the Run;
4. Les Pisseuses: Poème (Bibliothèque Galante) (French Edition).
5. WHEN THE COBRA STRIKES.

Unlike Russian dictator Joseph Stalin or German dictator Adolf Hitler who had moved to support filmmaking, Mussolini was initially interested in newsreels for the propagation of his personality cult. It was also the year of the lowest production 14 features since the early days of the cinema. The regime also added the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia CSC film school in Rome in order to further develop the national film industry.

Joining him in lecturing were Umberto Barbaro —59 , Alessandro Blasetti —87 , and Francesco Pasinetti — The Italian professional cinema of the late s became a training ground for postwar Italian film directors. In only 32 films were produced in Italy and Hollywood studios enjoyed nearly three-fourths of the Italian market, compared with only 13 percent for Italian productions. With trade barriers against Hollywood films, by , the number of Italian films produced increased to with Italian production accounting for over 50 percent of the domestic market.

On the whole, the regime encouraged Italian directors to make films that depicted Italian life in a positive light. However intellectuals including Luigi Chiarini, Umberto Barbaro, and Francesco Pasinetti were able to continue their discussions of film theory in journals like Bianco e nero.

Alessandro Blasetti One avenue by which directors could avoid explicitly criticizing Fascism was the historical or pseudo-historical spectacular film, a genre with a long tradition in Italy, going back to Cabiria and The Last Days of Pompeii. Probably the best representatives of the s historical dramas trumpeting the heroic and nationalistic values dear to Fascist culture ministers are the early films of Alessandro Blasetti. Like many Italian directors Blasetti started his career as a critic and journalist.

Blasetti was influenced by the reaction against the Idealist philosophy of Benedetto Croce, which criticized technical elements in artistic expression. Once Blasetti became a director, he borrowed from the formalists, particularly in terms of camera angles and shots that depicted a strong relationship between characters and their natural surroundings.

Sole was hailed as a rebirth for Italian cinema. The film focused on seemingly nonprofessional actors and popular themes, techniques that would become trademarks of the famed neorealist period in the s. After his silent debut with Sole, Blasetti made Nerone a collection of the work of comedian Ettore Petrolini — , which included the Bravo, grazie!

Well done, thank you! In Carmelo makes a similar voyage into northern Italy, first to Civitavecchia and later to Genoa. Catholics, republicans, monarchists, and above all the different regions of Italy identified by accent and mannerism. Garibaldi as men of providence whose charisma could unify the diverse forces behind a common cause. The film focuses on a small town split between Fascist and anti-Fascist factions culminating in the death of Mario, a twelve-year-old boy at the hands of anti-Fascists, an event which Blasetti presents as a part of the build up to the Fascist March on Rome in In fact the film was released because Mussolini apparently enjoyed the film immensely.

The fact that Old guard received a lukewarm government reception is indicative of some of the changes and contradictions undergone by Fascism and the party since the radical revolutionary period of portrayed in the film. The case of Old Guard gives an idea of the line to be treaded by directors during the Fascist years, even by those making pro-Fascist films such as Blasetti. Direct portrayals of Fascism were actually somewhat rare in s Italian cinema. In this film, an Italian communist deserter in WWI changes his politics and sacrifices himself for the Fascist cause just before the March on Rome.

The small number of dramas directly portraying Fascism indicates that filmmakers and producers prudently preferred to dress political themes in historical garb. Indirect portrayals of the regime blurred the manner in which the Fascists attained power and helped to avoid the threat of censorship. Mario Camerini and White Telephone Comedies The Italian professional cinema of the s also developed the so-called telefono bianco white telephone romantic comedies26 influenced by the light comedies of the s.

Le viste logiche

Although many directors worked in the genre, the director most identified with this type of film is Mario Camerini — However it was in the romantic and sentimental comedies that Camerini made his mark. In Camerini wrote a brief article that recommended using inexperienced actors because of their tendency to follow direction more closely than professional actors. Thus Camerini had direct contact with the Hollywood style and cultural conventions centered on the sentimental treatment of a good deed rewarded with a happy ending.

Mussolini wanted to prohibit the release of the film, but after the intervention of culture minister Alessandro Pavolini and severe cuts, the film was released in a minute version. De Sica developed the Camerini romantic comedy model with his career-long collaborator, screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, another figure of pivotal importance in postwar Italian cinema, whose career began with Camerini.

In Doctor Beware, three love interests vie for the attention of an irresponsible pediatrician played by De Sica. Anna Magnani plays Loretta, a fast talking and fast living show girl. The film has undertones of real social commentary. Precursors of Neorealism Some films of the s had a production style and thematic content that presaged many pre-neorealist themes of the s, especially those deriving from the naturalistic or verismo currents in Italian literature.

One of the most important innovations of the journals Bianco e Nero and Cinema was that they both called for a more realistic film style in articles theoretical enough to avoid censorship. By the early s, the idea of neorealism as a style of cinema was gaining a strong foothold. Such films did not accept distinctions between documentary and fictional film narratives. Visconti was born into the Milanese aristocracy in The Visconti name stands alongside other great ruling families in Italian history such as Della Scala and the Medici.

Luchino enthusiastically developed his cultural and artistic interest in theater and opera. Before long, Visconti was attracted to film and traveled to France to assist Jean Renoir on Toni , a film about an Italian immigrant in France whose unhappy marriage and involvement in a violent and tragic love triangle has been seen as a precursor of the Italian neorealist style for its spare photographic imagery, multilinguistic cast, and gripping storyline about the passions of humble people.

The film evidences the early contrast between melodrama and the fatalism that would become a part of the Italian art cinema decades later. Yet such rebellious or antisocietal roles for females were not unusual in the Fascist-era cinema. In both these films the heroines come from a foreign national and political culture, Russian Bolshevism, and their role was to present the evils of the alternate totalitarian political system.

This early reference to Boccaccio gives an indication of the continuing importance of female roles in the Italian cinema, a tradition from the days of the diva-like Francesco Bertini, which would continue after the war. In Hollywood musicals of the s, the kicking rockette choruses mimicked the lever actions of factory machine and fused female sexual energy with the machine imagery.

Overall the s and early s were an incredibly vibrant period for the Italian cinema, which like French cinema under Nazi Vichy rule, enjoyed increased production due to autarkic policies that kept Hollywood films out of theaters. The strength of Italian production in comedies, biopics, and even historical epics evidence continuity in the Italian cinema and the development of a cadre of professionals who would take the lessons learned during the s and early s into the postwar period.

Of course production decreased due to the interruption of the war, whose end in meant the beginning of the next step in the realist movement: The tide of the war began to turn against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan by the fall of with Allied victories on the North African front and the Russian counteroffensive. On July 10, , Allied armies landed in Sicily reportedly aided by informants connected to imprisoned Sicilian mafia bosses from New York. Ciano was always a bit at odds with the utopian, anti-bourgeois attitudes, or memories, of his maximalist father-in-law.

The tension between the aristocratic status quo and Fascist iconoclasts was never fully resolved. On the pretext of a meeting, Italian king Victor Emmanuel III reportedly had Mussolini arrested and taken to prison reportedly in an ambulance! Victor Emmanuel then appointed WWI hero and conqueror of Abyssinia, General Badoglio — , as head of an interim government before fleeing to Puglia, a region in southeastern Italy not under German or Anglo-American military control. Between July 25, , and September 8, , the Italian peninsula reeled in political instability. General Badoglio secretly negotiated an armistice with AngloAmerican forces.

On September 12, Mussolini was rescued by German paratroopers from the prison-fortress at Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi region. Thus from until , Italy was effectively divided in half. The Anglo-Americans controlled much of the south. Following instructions from Moscow, Togliatti had announced the svolta di Salerno the Salerno about face , which instructed Communist Party members and sympathizers to cooperate with monarchists and other anti-Fascist forces.

The success of the underground Resistance added significantly to the prestige of the Italian Communist Party, which had provided important members of the Resistance leadership. In March of , the CLN mobilized general strikes in the north calling for an end to the war. Catholic forces joined in the Resistance as the Vatican began to position itself for a postwar world to defer embarrassment regarding the perceived inaction of Pope Pius XII — against Nazi—Fascist policies.

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By the end of the war there were popular uprisings in Milan, Domodossola, Turin, and Genoa. Allied liberators not only had to expel the Nazi German troops, but also disarm the victorious Resistance fighters and control their own often undisciplined multinational forces. By April , the war entered its final stages in Europe. Mussolini tried to escape incognito into Switzerland but was captured, killed near Dongo, and brought back to Milan and hung by his feet with his faithful mistress Clara Petacci and others at Piazzale Loreto, the site of an earlier Fascist atrocity.

The myth of the Resistance allowed Italians to attenuate the level of war guilt felt in Germany, for example, for the industrial scale of the atrocities committed against Jews and other ethnic groups in the Holocaust.

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Another often overlooked aspect of the period was the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousand of Italians from the coast of Istria in contemporary Slovenia and Croatia. The process of establishing a post-Fascist order was not entirely smooth and gave rise to the term camaleontismo turncoatism to describe the opportunism of exFascists to identify with the new political order. There was also a certain cynicism in the electorate exemplified by the short-term rise of the Fronte del Uomo Qualunque The Whatever Man Front led by writer Guglielmo Giannini — The Cultural and Literary Roots of Neorealism Although the term neorealism was coined in the early s, the postwar moment of neorealism has deep roots in Italian culture.

Manzoni was in turn influenced by eighteenth and nineteenth-century currents in realism such as the work of the English novelists Daniel Defoe — or Henry Fielding —54 , who like later French authors, such as Stendhal — , portrayed middle, and lower-class characters in stories that reflected the social and economic conditions of their time. Verga emphasized the strong primitive impulses and passions of Sicilian peasants in their natural environment in a linguistic style that pretends that the author is absent and reality is portrayed objectively.

Instead of describing the inner feelings and thoughts of the characters—as any omnipresent and omniscient author usually does—Verga presents WORLD WAR II 43 only what can be seen or experienced from the point of view of an objective observer, a style that had great influence on the Italian cinematic style of neorealism.

Many Italian authors in the s read American literature as a form of protest against the Fascist dictatorship. The Italians admired the spare, nonrhetorical style of the American authors and their frank treatment of all subject matter, regardless of how common, grim, or violent. Partly influenced by these American writers, Italian writers such as Pavese and Vittorini refused to follow government directives asking for propaganda writings that would convey a rosy or exalted view of life under Fascism.

Neorealist prose developed as the successor of verismo and was characterized by a low-key opposition to Fascism, a concern for the problems of industrial workers and peasants and lower class as opposed to aristocratic heroes. Several of the neorealist literary works achieved international fame. Silone wrote two anti-Fascist novels that enjoyed great success also in the United States: These novels described the poverty and ignorance that afflicted southern Italy in an objective manner that contrasted with the style of overt anti-Fascist propaganda or self-indulging moralistic rhetoric.

That attitude includes a strong desire to uncover the truth about the widespread suffering in Italy, and to identify with the plight of the victims. According to Cesare Zavattini, the screenwriter for Vittorio De Sica and a chief theoretician of neorealism, many social problems persist because of a lack of awareness of the plight of others.

Neorealism wants to help overcome this barrier by showing how others live, suffer, and hope. Then let us show our rags to the world. Then let us contemplate our disasters. So we owe them to the Mafia? Then let us pay all our debts with a fierce love of honesty, and the world will be moved to participate in this great combat with truth. Another statement by Zavattini is revealing: Neorealist directors hoped that, by identifying with victims of suffering and injustice, they could instill in their viewers a positive response, a movement toward reform. That they were able to seek such a response without turning their films into propagandistic documentaries is to the credit of neorealism.

Never before had a realist movement in film or literature been so attached to the contemporary political situation as to actually encourage reform. The greatness of neorealism lies in the fact that it managed a detailed portrayal of the contemporary Italian sociopolitical situation. In this spirit of renewal and experimentation, the practical reality of the Italian cinema in the immediate postwar period was that many stylistic similarities among the WORLD WAR II 45 neorealist films were determined by the lack of funds.

Part of the vibrancy of the neorealist films may be explained by the fact that often the directors produced their own films on very limited budgets. Directors used cost saving measures that actually have been recognized as a style of filmmaking with the use of on-location shooting in authentic settings, nonprofessional actors, an emphasis on popular speech, a rejection of elaborate or contrived plots, frequent employment of improvisation, and a reliance on post-synchronous sound, a technique that would actually characterize much of postwar Italian production.

Some of the neorealistic techniques were developed out of necessity due to a lack of resources like functioning studios or even a steady supply of electricity. This combination produced films of great power and beauty. The neorealist film movement rushed into Italy on the heels of the departing Nazi troops. The sense of relief coming from the realization that Mussolini, the Fascists, and the Nazis had been defeated was matched only by a conviction that the story of widespread suffering needed to be filmed immediately.

Roberto Rossellini and Open City War films from the Fascist period may be divided into several categories. The third current was the documentary drama featuring the Italian armed forces such as Uomini sul fondo and Alfa Trau directed by Francesco De Robertis, who also released a war dramas started during the war, Uomini e cieli after Open City has enough thematic and stylistic elements in common with Man of the Cross for Open City to be considered its remake.

Rossellini left Rome for the Abruzzian countryside and Tagliacozzo, to prepare for this film and be closer to the Allies and perhaps to sort out his personal situation given his track record making Fascist-era war films. In September , German troops occupied Rome and would remain until Anglo-American troops liberated the city in June The title is an ironic testimony to the violence that marked the occupation period with a story of attempts of the Nazi occupation forces to capture CLN members carrying out guerrilla warfare. Nazi troops occupied Rome, and the Gestapo Headquarters in Via Tasso was full of prisoners being interrogated, tortured, and killed.

A climax was reached in March with the fosse ardeatine massacres, when Nazis executed Italians, including women and children, in retaliation for a bombing in Via Rasella, which claimed the lives of 33 Nazi soldiers. Events like the fosse ardeatine massacres or the round up of Jews from the Roman Ghetto for deportation to Auschwitz gave neorealist directors a sense of mission about the sort of films they should make after the war. However, Rossellini had Catholic backers who were interested in making a film about the life of Don Morosini —44 , a priest among the executed during the Ardeatine caves massacres.

The character Pina, played by Anna Magnani, was based upon the story of Teresa Gullace —44 , a pregnant mother of five reportedly shot by Nazi guards as she attempted to throw food to her detained husband. The plot revolves around a couple prevented from marriage by a foreign occupier. Rossellini did rely on the so-called methodological signatures of neorealism such as popular dialects, on-location shooting, non professional actors, and postsynchronous sound. Rossellini reportedly acquired film stock on the black market with bits spliced together giving the film a documentary, newsreel feeling.

The natural lighting acclaimed in Open City is a result of the lack of studios and a shortage of electricity, which the troupe allegedly pilfered from an American army club where they met an officer in the U. Actually the lack of conventional resources may have been a blessing in disguise, for without them Rossellini was better able to recreate reality in the bare terms idealized by the Cinema group. The neorealist casting of non professional actors was actually a practice followed more rigorously by Vittorio De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini than by Rossellini in Open City.

Rossellini cast Roman showgirl Anna Magnani and Roman comedian Aldo Fabrizi, both established box office draws in the Italian cinema before the decline in production due to the war figures 3. Fabrizi also brought his gagman, the future director Federico Fellini, to the production as screenwriter.

The genius of Open City is the manner in which Rossellini and Amidei were able to combine such stories under extremely difficult conditions into a coherent film that has come to exemplify the near mythology created around the Resistance period. In Open City the Italians are involved in two struggles; one against the Nazis and the Italian Fascists; the other against a severe shortage of food and essentials. The film opens with documentary-style footage showing Nazi troops searching for Giorgio Manfredi, a Communist member of the CLN forced to remain in hiding near the Spanish steps, a landmark that evokes memories of the German and Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War, where Manfredi had fought on the republican side.

Meanwhile, the children of the neighborhood where Manfredi is hiding gamely form their own Resistance troop and stage bomb attacks against German positions. Eventually both Manfredi and Don Pietro are apprehended and put to death by the Nazi forces, Manfredi after grisly torture and Don Pietro at the hands of the hungover German officer Hartmann commanding a reticent Italian firing squad.

Open City is by and large a story of defeat.



Rossellini boldly embraced a realist style, taking the cameras into the misery-stricken streets and homes of the capital with wartime life in all its grimness, tragedy, and humor. Rossellini recreated the wartime suffering and tension so accurately that many viewers thought that they were actually seeing documentary footage. Yet Open City allows a measure of optimism by stressing the cooperation between seemingly unlikely allies such as the Communist Manfredi and the Catholic priest Don Pietro. The film effectively deals with issues of German war guilt in the drunken tirade of the German officer Hartmann, who eventually kills Don Pietro.

Hartmann decries the results of the violence of two world wars that produced a harvest of hatred. With his able characterizations of both sides, Rossellini reveals an ability to use a few short sequences to convey entire historical issues from the Resistance period. The film ends with a message of Catholic consistency. The last characters seen in the film are the children as they march toward a panorama of Rome dominated by the dome of St. In fact, postwar Italy would be dominated by the Christian Democrat Party. These films, which have an undercurrent of independence from the Fascist regime, could be read as an attempt to reposition the Church for a post-Fascist Italy.

These films were coscripted by Diego Fabbri, an author with close ties to the Vatican, who also worked on Giorgio W. However if Open City is compared to other Italian films, it did well, although the box office data for is a matter of some controversy. Some sources have Open City finishing first among Italian domestic films of Paisan is a collection of six episodes that trace the northward movement of the Allied forces in Italy from to in Sicily, Naples, Rome, Florence, the Apennine Mountains, and the Po River Delta.

The Sicilian episode depicts the battle for Sicily between Nazi and Allied forces, and the reaction of the native Sicilians to the American troops. The final sequence in Naples offers a haunting view of the cave dwellings of those left homeless by the war. The plot revolves around the attempt of an American nurse to get news about an Italian partisan leading CLN attacks behind enemy lines.

The fifth episode written by Federico Fellini allows a respite from the war. Three American Army clergymen—a Jew, a Catholic, and a Protestant—visit an isolated monastery in the Apennines and are surprised by the otherworldly outlook of the monks in the midst of the war. The sixth and final episode returns to warfare with a depiction of the efforts of American OSS the precursor of the CIA commandos and partisan forces facing defeat from a better-equipped and better-organized German army in the Po river valley of northern Italy. Paisan is somewhat less optimistic than Open City.

Most of the episodes end in defeat with less emphasis on hope for the future. This is particularly evident in the roles of children who, rather than being symbols of hope as in Open City, are tragic victims of the military and economic consequences of warfare.

Nevertheless, the love stories in several episodes remind that even in the midst of war, hope survives in the strength of human emotions. For instance, rather than the single opposition of good and evil Partisans versus Nazis in Open City, in Paisan a new force, the American army, is introduced and portrayed in ambiguous terms. The Americans are usually generous and goodwilled, but because of their lack of exposure to foreign cultures they can also be insensitive to the fears and anxieties of the war-weary Italian population.

The victory for a republic demonstrated not only a desire for a break with the past but also some of the divergences between the north, which favored the republic, and Rome and the south, which favored a monarchy. Liberation began in July of with the Anglo-American invasion of Sicily, with northern Italy remaining under Nazi occupation longer than the south.

In Southern Italy the monarchy was identified with political stability and a continuation of the political patronage system, a traditional source of employment. There was even a short lived movement to have Sicily join the United States after the war. The Christian Democrats presented the elections as a choice between Western-style capitalism and Communism in anticipation of the coming Cold War between the Soviet block of Iron Curtain nations under Russian occupation in Eastern Europe and the countries in Western Europe liberated from the Nazis by Anglo-American forces.

The Christian Democrats relied heavily on their identification with the anti-Communist policy of the United States. Over the reconstruction period the Italian government followed policies based on classical liberal economic theory with an emphasis on free trade, attenuation of state participation, and mobility of labor.

Postwar unemployment remained high through until the postwar boom. But there were also concessions to the Left such as legislation regarding minimum wage, holidays, and costof-living adjustments. Despite the changes the new Italian republic remained under a system of legal statutes made by the Fascist regime.

In an attempt to bridge the gap between northern and southern Italy, in the government instituted the Cassa del Mezzogiorno public works project. But the funds of the Cassa were tied to the political patronage system. These practices were a continuation of the clientellismo political patronage culture, which had perpetuated under Fascism but whose roots were actually centuries old.

Lottizzazione division of government contracts by party loyalty and clientelilismo characterized the Italian political talent for trasformismo status quo politics. However there were also protests in southern Italy when sharecropping or dispossessed peasants occupied arable lands during — The DC reacted to the increase in civil strife with marginally successful land reforms, causing a backlash from their own supporters.

Alcide De Gasperi, the Christian Democrat leader, hoped to avoid future DC losses by an attempt to reintroduce proportional representation with what has come to be known as the legge truffa swindle law , echoing the Acerbo proportional representation law of passed under Mussolini. However after the proportional representation law was passed in , the DC coalition with the monarchists and the neo-fascist MSI narrowly missed the required 50 percent needed to attain seats through the proportional representation law.

These political battles demonstrate how the wartime coalition of the Resistance came to mirror the Cold War bipolarism that dominated international politics after WWII. The success of the wartime CLN Resistance coalition had created a national desire for moral, political, and economic renewal. In the postwar period, Italian culture came under the influence of the dictates of the Soviet Union, the Vatican, and the United States in popular and economic culture.

The Communists clung to the image of the Soviet Union as a societal model. In an effort not to repeat the mistake of when Communist maximalists split with the Socialists, which helped the Fascists attain power, Communist leader Togliatti opted to tone down revolutionary rhetoric. Catholic elements supported the Christian Democrats who were willing to incorporate the main points of the Concordat into the post war constitution.

The third influence economically and culturally came from the United States, which in the postwar period exercised varying degrees of cultural and political hegemony over Italy and Western Europe.

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America provided a powerful model for the development of an international consumer culture driven by a mass media. These three cultural and ideological forces Church, Soviet Union, United States were also well represented in the cinema and popular culture. The Italian Communist Party did the same at their network of Casa del popolo house of the people recreation centers.

After WWII these authors offered a new tone to Italian culture that sought to break with the rhetoric of the past. All of these novelists shared a commitment to the portrayal of grim, exploitative situations from which rebellious protagonists gain a renewed sense of humanism and meaningful action. Giovanni Guareschi —68 with his Don Camillo series wrote comic tales, adapted with great box office success for the Italian cinema, that depicted the geopolitical cultural split between Catholics and Communists in the Cold War in the microcosm of a small town in the Po valley.

Italo Calvino wrote a foundational novel depicting the Resistance period, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno There was also international recognition for the vibrancy of Italian postwar literature as poet Salvatore Quasimodo —86 won the Nobel Prize for literature. During the war Visconti was an active participant in the Resistance and was eventually captured and imprisoned in Rome by the Nazis, who planned to execute him. He managed to escape from prison just before the American Fifth Army entered Rome in After the war, Visconti returned to theater productions in Rome.

Antonio decides to take out a loan with the family house as collateral in order to buy his own boat. But the project ends in failure because Antonio is unable to enlist the support of the other fishermen in Aci Trezza. Incidentally the language used by actors is different enough from standard Italian that when the film was released in Italy, occasional voice-over commentary by Visconti was added to help non-Sicilians follow the story. The Earth Trembles is a convincing portrayal of a social struggle that fails to produce significant change.

Nevertheless, at the end of the film it is evident that despite his defeat, the main character, Antonio, is still determined to overcome the exploitation in his village. In practical terms, the film was one of the first box office disappointments of the neorealist period. The film starring Massimo Girotti, is in the neorealismo nero vein similar to the gangster film genre and reveals the the struggles between friendship, collaboration, and political duty during the Resistance.

De Santis depicts sequences of the indigenous culture, such as the call and response songs of the mondine rice pickers while also displaying an understanding of pop culture in the early postwar years. He recognizes the attraction of American popular boogie woogie culture with the sexually charged performance of actress Silvana Mangano emblematic of the the natural background of the rice fields within a community of hard-working and sexually vibrant women rice pickers.

Silvana also represents the desires of the Italian working classes for a life removed from hard work and the threat of poverty. She yearns for the materialism of consumer culture and admires foto-romanzi pulp magazines like Grand Hotel. In Bitter Rice, Walter is a contrast to the model of solidarity and hard work from the suitor Silvana rejects, the goodhearted soldier Marco, played by Raf Vallone.

De Santis remained a committed leftist even after the Soviet suppressions of popular revolts in Hungary and Czechoslovakia Bitter Rice was also influential for the manner in which it conveyed an ideal of female physicality, which incidentally provoked threats of censorship in the United States. Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini6 Vittorio De Sica —74 appeared as the male lead in comedies of the s including the so-called telefono bianco white telephone comedies directed by Mario Camerini such as Men What Rascals!

Rather than representing a break with the past, the films De Sica and Zavattini made during their neorealist period develop themes that were staples of their earlier collaborations with Camerini, in which De Sica starred as leading man and Zavattini was the scriptwriter. But the trajectory from from Camerini to De Sica and Zavattini is most clearly evident in their use of plot elements. In Men What Rascals! In each film the theft of a class-related object car, outfit, camera , makes the masquerade credible.

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By the time that De Sica directed The Bicycle Thief, a film in which an unemployed Roman searches for his stolen bicycle, he had been involved in at least eight films that centered on a class-identifying object. Mariuccia accepts a ride from Bruno in Men What Rascals! Despite sexual elements that are central to the plots of their films, both Camerini and De Sica limit female displays. However, each display scene is presented as if Anna were being violated.

Also, Anna, displays her legs involuntary, because she is caught in a thorn bush, and she is forced to parade in a swimsuit because of pressure from her boss at the circus. Such female imagery continues during the scenes when Antonio works pasting posters of Rita Hayworth around Rome. In the basement vaudeville sequence, the rehearsing dance girls are dressed in everyday attire rather than in titillating costumes. The female imagery is similarly unprovocative in the casa chiusa bordello, where the thief seeks refuge.

Although the wallpaper is of female nudes, the images are barely distinguishable and without great voyeuristic appeal in a full shot of a dining room. By the late s, there were restrictions on foreign goods in Italy, including the luxury items favored by the leisure classes. These class status objects and behavior are juxtaposed with what the patterns and what the working-class newspaper vendor protagonist of Im Signor Max is supposed to desire.

In The Bicycle Thief, there is a shortage not only of luxury goods but also of basic necessities. In Reconstruction Italy, the borsa nera black market was an important source of all goods, including basics. When Antonio finally finds the thief in the Via Panico neighborhood, a mob forms, led by a figure wearing classic mafia style dark glasses and talking in a southern accent. The film depicts the fascist OND Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro —working-class, adult versions of youth groups such as the balilla and giovani italiane, which promoted the autarkic program of the regime.

The root of the mendacity is that Gianni is not even an official member of the OND chorus, limited to public transportation workers like his uncle. The Bicycle Thief continues the depiction of proletarian unions or political institutions along lines established in Il Signor Max. Antonio searches for his friend Baiocco in a casa del popolo basement meeting hall, where the local cell of the Communist Party holds a meeting. A bespectacled, Antonio Gramsci-like figure explains the communist interpretation of the unemployment situation in terms of the necessity for public work projects with the Ministry of Labor.

His audience is the same intent, male, working-age group that had stormed the job placement office and perhaps attended the Party rally. Antonio interrupts the meeting, but the communists, like the police, tell him to be quiet and leave. The earnest OND chorus from Il Signor Max is replaced by a mistimed vaudeville whose female dancers are twirled like puppets by an incompetent singer.

If the Party really loved Antonio they would offer him more help. Instead, the communists and the vaudeville troupe argue about who has the right to use the stage, leaving the impression that like the vaudeville troupe, the communist cell is only interested in putting on a show. However, their honest approach to report the serial number to the police is naive.

As in Il Signor Max the strength of proletarian unions and political groups is not found in values of collective justice and worker solidarity but in their favor-mongering willingness to evade or subvert the enforcement of legality. The redemption and forgiveness that resolve the misunderstandings separating the young lovers reiterate regime- and Church-ordained dogma on family stability. The resolution of every Camerini comedy is the creation of a stable pair bond. After the suffering of the war the family was simply one of the few universally accepted and viable institutions in Italian life.

In The Children Are Watching Us, the priests who run the orphanage for the abandoned boy, Prico, are rare, stable characters in the film. There is also an Azione Cattolica undertone concurrent with the Vatican shift from Concordat politics to a tepid anti-Fascism after the Allied invasion in After unsuccessfully pursuing the thief for a second time, Antonio accosts, attempts to bribe, and finally threatens the beggar at a church where the THE LATE S 63 needy attend a service before receiving a ration of pasta and potatoes.

A man in bourgeois coat and tie, not a priest, reads a liturgy on spiritual serenity. Antonio is repaid when he steals a bicycle and is caught and beaten by an angry crowd. However, the brand name of the bicycle, fides, faith or trust, points to a Catholic reading. After finally finding work after a two-year wait, Antonio dreamed of prosperity. In the restaurant he drunkenly calculates the economics of happiness in terms of wages, overtime, and a family allowance. However, one day on the job and a weekend in Rome teach the supremacy of the black market model.

Divine Providence imparts a further lesson in humility, redemption, shame, and forgiveness. Italian films before the war relied on the popular tradition of the hero as defender of the weak. These films were part of the schoolgirl comedy genre, in which a gender shift occurs as heroes become heroines and hegemonic positioning is challenged. This thread continues in the postwar Shoeshine and especially The Bicycle Thief where Bruno, the only employed member of his family, assumes the heroic role by rescuing his father at the last minute from the black market and vigilante mobs see figure 4.

Cabiria centered on the rescue of a lost girl. There is a melodramatic undercurrent in The Bicycle Thief whereby the Ricci family struggles against a hostile world to achieve economic security. All factions of Italian society treat Antonio disrespectfully: Yet the chief candidate for villain in the film is the Italian state as the collective expression of society.

Also like Camerini, by targeting extra-governmental officials, De Sica revealed the abuses of a bureaucratic mentality without risking state censorship.