Italian Cinema
Throughout this unit we will look at two major genres of Italian Cinema: Neoralismo (Neorealism) and La Commedia All'Italiana (Italian Comedy)
Neorealism
Below is an introductory video about Italian Neorealism.
And the following presentation summarises the key characteristics of Italian Neorealism.
Italian Neorealism by Hazim Mohammad
If the slideshow above does not work, click here to view it.
As shown above, characteristics of neorealism are:
- The actors are just "people off the street", that is, unprofessional actors.
- The directors chose to use the streets as the sets and show what Italy was really like after the second world war, instead of using cinematographic sets. This was also because they could not afford to create and use cinematic sets.
- The films presented universal themes such as desperation, love, pain, hunger and poverty that many Italian were going through during the forties and focused on the working class.
Examples of neorealist films are:
- Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)
- Shoeshine (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
- Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
- Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica. 1951)
- Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
Important figures that contributed to Italian neorealism are:
- Vittorio De Sica
- Roberto Rossellini
- Luchino Visconti
- Federico Fellini
- Giuseppe De Santis
Italian Comedy
The following presentation gives a brief introduction to Italian Comedy.
If the slide show above does not work, click here to view it.
As shown above, Italian Comedy:
- followed after neorealism and began in the late fifties and continued through to the mid-seventies.
- Presented how the Italians lived during this time but in a comedic way.
- The films generally focused on Italian habits and customs, family, religion and love.
- While there was still an undertone of neorealism in these films (especially towards the end of the films) , they generally were filled with hope and prosperity, just like the lives of the Italians in the sixties thanks to the economic boom.
- Changes in the Italian life style were evident in these films, such as the use of cars and vacations.
Examples of Italian Comedy include:
- Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli 1958)
- Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 1961)
- The Easy Life (Dino Risi, 1962)
- Mafioso (Ablerto Lattuada, 1962)
- Traffic Jam (Luigi Comencini 1977)
Notable actors from this genre include:
- Vittorio Gassman,
- Ugo Tognazzi
- Alberto Sordi
- Nino Manfredi
Music
Like in all films, Music played an important role in neorealist and comedic Italian films. Below is an audio file from the film Bicycle's Thieves (Ladri Di Biciclette) composed by Alessandro Cicognini. While listening to the soundtrack, think about some of these questions:
- What is the mood of the song?
- How does it make you feel?
- At what point in the film can you imagine this song playing?
- Does the music change as it progresses?
Additional Material
More Information on Neoralismo and Commedia all'italiana can be found at:
Students Activity
Choose and Watch a movie that has been mentioned above. Use Jing to capture key points in the film that demonstrate neorealism/Italian Comedy and create a poster/presentation on Inspiration, Powerpoint or any other software you would like to use. Include in the presentation the images form the movie and a brief summary as to why you choose that moment and what it represents and how it relates to your chosen genre.
NOTE: I have copies of all the movies mentioned above with English subtitles, so please let me know if you would like to borrow one.
Please let me know via the comments section or email if you have any questions about the content for this week, the student activity or the final assessment.
Please let me know via the comments section or email if you have any questions about the content for this week, the student activity or the final assessment.
No comments:
Post a Comment