For the goal of today’s journal, we will brief more about
one of the famous national film movements – Italian Neorealism. Through this
journal and so called briefing, we can know more about Italian Neorealism in
the history of film arts. The term “Neorealism” has somewhat diffuse origins,
and the label is first appeared in the writings of Italian critics of the
1940s. This national film movement was shown in pre-war Italian Cinema under
Benito Mussolini. It is usually used as propaganda, with limitations and forces,
for educating Italians with documentaries and new-streets. Later on, Cinecitta studios is set in Rome.
In 1937, he took charge of studios and doubled Italian production in a year. To
discuss it with example, I will take Bicycle
Thieves as an example of film that shows the movement, Italian Neorealism.
In the
film movement, Italian Neorealism, current trends like regional dialect comedy
and urban melodrama encouraged directors and scriptwriters to turn toward
realism. It is usually spurred by foreign influences and indigenous traditions,
and the postwar period will discover that several filmmakers aiming to reveal
contemporary social conditions. As for the actors, they are not professional
actors, but just real people. The theoretical founder, Cesare Zavattini looked
at plot as fake structure of “everyday’s life”. He used real people and
locations so that direct contact is established with contemporary social
reality. In a Neorealist film, it is mostly shot-on-location, in the ruins of
post-war era. The film is usually shoot with grainy film stock, giving it its
newsreel look. For the sound, the sound is actually recorded and added after
the shoots. The point of view in the film is also socially-conscious and
humanistic. Last but not least, these films consist of melodramatic aspects,
for motivating to rebuild national reputation. For example, the first
Neorealist film that was invented in the past is Rome, Open City.
Additionally,
I will give a slight brief about the term Neorealism. As what I said earlier,
it is a type of national film movement. Another than that, this movement show
cinema of poverty and pessimism to the audiences. However, it is declined in
the fifties. Neorealism movement is also revolutionary, and it happened during
a time of non-revolutionary transition towards prosperity and affluence. Sadly,
it is not economically profitable, unpopular in Italy, and dependent of foreign
appreciation. After these explanations, let’s get into the movie film that we
are going to discuss further, which is Bicycle
Thieves. Bicycle Thieves is a
1948 Italian Neorealist film, directed by Vittorio De Sica. It is adapted by
Cesare Zavattani from a novel by Luigi Bartolini.
:::SYNOPSIS:::
In the
post-World War II society at Rome, a man Antonio Ricci, who was desperate for a
work, was given a job for posting advertising bills with the need of a bicycle.
His wife managed to get him a bicycle as he was so desperate for the work by
redeemed Antonio’s pawned bicycle from a pawn shop. It all went find until one
day, when he was pasting a poster, a young man snatched his bicycle. As Ricci
knew that without a bicycle he couldn’t have the job for sooner works, he
brought his son, Bruno to search for his bicycle. He found the young man who
snatched his bicycle, but it did not happen well due to lack of evidences. He
became more depressed, he even try to snatch a bicycle from nowhere. He failed
for the theft and ended up going back with his son holding his hand, without a
bicycle.
Through
analysis, Bicycle Thieves definitely
shows the elements in Italian Neorealism. Firstly the storyline. The storyline
did flashback-ed the post-World War II scenarios. In Bicycle Thieves, the way how the casts, especially main character
Ricci shows the desperateness for searching a job, portrays the images of baby
boomers. In that generation, people are most likely to have hardship, including
the difficulties to find a job that can help earning and raising a family.
Through the movie, the sadness of Ricci when losing his bicycle portrays the
desperateness of society in post-World War II era.
Secondly,
the mise-en-scene. In Bicycle Thieves,
the settings are all real locations, without any single edited “fake” location,
along with the props. The costumes and makeover of the casts are also
signifying the poorness of the society in that era, which they are torn, old,
Italian outfits. Besides, the actors’ movements and facial expressions are
real, which means they did not try to act out either fake or bombastic actions
or expressions, while they still play their roles successfully. With this “real”
effect, Ricci and his son, Bruno, are able to reenact the sadness and
desperateness towards the hard condition after losing the bicycle, along with
Ricci’s work as well.
Thirdly,
the traits of each characters. As Italian Neorealist film reenact the scenarios
of post-World War II, the character traits that can be seen in the casts are
also showing the images of baby boomers during the past. To elaborate more with
an example, I would take Ricci as the character that I would like to elaborate
with. As a man and husband, he knew that he should have a job as soon as he
could in order to raise his family and encounter the hardship he faced.
Unfortunately, he needed his wife to help him get a bicycle by redeemed his
pawned bicycle with bed sheets. Despite this, he was very passionate on his job
after he get the opportunity to work, with the aid of having a bicycle. Things
do not went well as he wished for, his bicycle was snatched by a young man, yet
he still asked for help from other people: include friends and the seer.
Through this trait of being a coward and relying person, it actually shows a “failed”
baby boomer that supposed to be independent after a war. For the second trait
that can be seen from Ricci will be his tension for finding his bicycle. After
losing his bicycle, he did not gave up his hope. He even search for his bicycle
for days. Ricci was so desperate, that he tried to stole a bicycle randomly from
a sideway without consider about his son’s feeling when he saw the scene. He
knew that stealing is a deviance act, but he have no choice to get a bicycle
from nowhere in order to continue his job. As we know that job is very
important to men in the post-World War II era compared to now, all Ricci did is
just to find the bicycle in order to get back the opportunity to work again.
To
conclude the whole journal, this film, Bicycle
Thieves, did show the elements of an Italian Neorealist film through
storyline that portrays the post-war scenarios, mise-en-scene, and also the
character traits. In my opinion, this movie film is an interesting film to
watch; not just how the film portrays Neorealism, but also the plot of the
movie. It shows the pity scenarios of a helpless man for claiming back his job
during the hard moment – post-War season.
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