Editing Italian neorealism (section)

== Characteristics ==

[[File:A Screen Shot of the movie Bicycle Thieves.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Bicycle Thieves]]'' by [[Vittorio De Sica]] (1948)]]

Neorealist films were generally filmed with nonprofessional actors, although in a number of cases, well-known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types in front of a background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film.

They were shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in rundown cities as well as rural areas.

Neorealist films typically explore the conditions of the poor and the lower working class. Characters often exist within a simple social order where survival is the primary objective. Performances are mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, devoid of the self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films often feature children in major roles, though their characters are frequently more observational than participatory. These characters are both sympathetic and cynical, constantly portraying the pain, misfortune, social struggles, and working-class struggles in social life, with the aim of criticizing the injustice of the real social system and resisting reality.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walsh |first=Dr Aoiffe |title=Italian Neorealism {{!}} Definition, Key Characteristics & Examples |url=https://www.perlego.com/knowledge/study-guides/what-is-italian-neorealism/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Perlego Knowledge Base |language=en}}</ref>

In terms of production, the new realism film adopts a documentary format, striving to showcase historicity, and striving to use the least cutting and video editing techniques, as well as tolerance for filming equipment.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Italian Cinema - Neorealism |url=https://www.aber.ac.uk/language-centre/euro_lang/interdisc/eurofilm/Neo_pres_new.htm |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=www.aber.ac.uk}}</ref>

''Open City'' established several of the principles of neorealism, depicting clearly the struggle of normal Italian people to live from day to day under the extraordinary difficulties of the German occupation of Rome, consciously doing what they can to resist the occupation. The children play a key role in this, and their presence at the end of the film is indicative of their role in neorealism as a whole: as observers of the difficulties of today who hold the key to the future. [[Vittorio De Sica]]'s 1948 film ''[[Bicycle Thieves]]'' is also representative of the genre, with non-professional actors, and a story that details the hardships of working-class life after the war. This movie focuses on exploring the concerns and behaviors of struggling working-class characters through the presentation of outstanding non professional actors.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Bicycle Thief |url=http://filmphest.com/Films/bthief.htm |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=filmphest.com}}</ref> The light portrayal of events reveals the indifference, dirtiness, and violence of society, showcasing the conflict between public and private perspectives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marcus |first=Millicent Joy |title=Italian film in the light of neorealism |date=1986 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-05489-6 |location=Princeton, N.J}}</ref>
[[File:Miracolo a Milano 15.png|thumb|''Miracle in Milan'' by Vittorio De Sica (1951)]]
[[File:Umberto D Ospedale4.png|thumb|''Umberto D.'' by Vittorio De Sica (1952)]]
In the period from 1944 to 1948, many neorealist filmmakers drifted away from pure neorealism. Some directors explored allegorical fantasy, such as de Sica's ''[[Miracle in Milan]]'', and historical spectacle, like ''[[Senso (film)|Senso]]'' by Visconti. It was also the time period when a more upbeat neorealism emerged, which produced films that melded working-class characters with 1930s-style populist comedy, as seen in de Sica's ''[[Umberto D]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=Kristin|last2=Bordwell|first2=David|title=Film History: An Introduction|publisher=McGraw Hill|chapter=Postwar European Cinema: Neorealism and Its Context, 1945–1959|year=2010|page=333|isbn=978-0070384293}}</ref>

At the height of neorealism, in 1948, Visconti adapted ''[[I Malavoglia]]'', a novel by Giovanni Verga, written during the 19th century realist [[Verismo (literature)|verismo movement]], bringing the story to a modern setting, which resulted in remarkably little change in either the plot or the tone. The resulting film, ''[[La terra trema|The Earth Trembles]]'', starred only nonprofessional actors and was filmed in the same village (Aci Trezza) in which the novel was set.

More contemporary theorists of Italian neorealism characterize it less as a consistent set of stylistic characteristics and more as the relationship between film practice and the social reality of post-war Italy. Millicent Marcus delineates the lack of consistent film styles of neorealist film.<ref>{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=Millicent|title=Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0691102085}}</ref> Peter Brunette and Marcia Landy both deconstruct the use of reworked cinematic forms in Rossellini's ''Open City''.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Brunette|first=Peter|title=Roberto Rosellini|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0195049893}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Sidney |last=Gottlieb|chapter=Diverting clichés: femininity, masculinity, melodrama, and neorealism in Open City|title=Roberto Rosellini's Rome Open City|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0511617133}}</ref> Using [[psychoanalysis]], Vincent Rocchio characterizes neorealist film as consistently engendering the structure of anxiety into the structure of the plot itself.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rocchio|first=Vincent|title=Cinema of Anxiety: A Psychoanalysis of Italian Neorealism|publisher=UT Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0292771017}}</ref>