Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism / Millicent Marcus

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marcus, Millicent, author.

Contributor:

Marcus, Millicent Joy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Italy.

Motion pictures.

Realism in motion pictures.

Umberto D. (Motion picture).

Teorema (Motion picture).

Strada (Motion picture).

Senso (Motion picture).

Sedotta e abbandonata (Motion picture).

Roma, città aperta (Motion picture).

Riso amaro (Motion picture).

Posto (Motion Picture).

Pane, amore e fantasia (Motion picture).

Notte di San Lorenzo (Motion picture).

Ladri di biciclette (Motion picture).

Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Motion picture).

Film d'amore e d'anarchia (Motion picture).

Deserto rosso (Motion picture).

Conformista (Motion picture).

Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Motion picture).

C'eravamo tanto amati (Motion picture).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 443 pages) : illustrations

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton U.P., 1987

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The movement known as neorealism lasted seven years, generated only twenty-one films, failed at the box office, and fell short of its didactic and aesthetic aspirations. Yet it exerted such a profound influence on Italian cinema that all the best postwar directors had to come to terms with it, whether in seeming imitation (the early Olmi), in commercial exploitation (the middle Comencini) or in ostensible rejection (the recent Tavianis). Despite the reactionary pressures of the marketplace and the highly personalized visions of Fellini, Antonioni. And Visconti, Italian cinema has maintained its moral commitment to use the medium in socially responsible ways--if not to change the world, as the first neorealists hoped, then at least to move filmgoers to face the pressing economic, political, and human problems in their midst. From Rossellini's Open City (1945) to the Taviani brothers' Night of the Shooting Stars (1982). The author does close readings of seventeen films that tell the story of neorealism's evolving influence on Italian postwar cinematic expression.Other films discussed are De Sica's Bicycle Thief and Umberto D. De Santis's Bitter Rice, Comencini's Bread, Love, and Fantasy, Fellini's La strada, Visconti's Senso, Antonioni's Red Desert, Olmi's Il Posto, Germi's Seduced and Abandoned, Pasolini's Teorema, Petri's Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion, Bertolucci's The Conformist, Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli, and Wertmuller's Love and Anarchy, Scola's We All Loved Each Other So Much provides the occasion for the author's own retrospective consideration of how Italian cinema has fulfilled, or disappointed, the promise of neorealism.

Contents:

1. Rossellini's Open City: The Founding

ǂt 2. De Sica's Bicycle Thief: Casting Shadows on the Visionary City

ǂt 3. De Santis's Bitter Rice: A Neorealist Hybrid

ǂt 4. De Sica's Umberto D: Dark Victory for Neorealism

ǂt 5. Comencini's Bread, Love, and Fantasy: Consumable Realism

ǂt 6. Fellini's La strada: Transcending Neorealism

ǂt 7. Visconti's Senso: The Risorgimento According to Gramsci

ǂt 8. Antonioni's Red Desert: Abstraction as the Guiding Idea

ǂt 9. Olmi's Il posto: Discrediting the Economic Miracle

ǂt 10. Germi's Seduced and Abandoned: Inside the Honor Code

ǂt 11. Pasolini's Teorema: The Halfway Revolution

ǂt 12. Petri's Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion: Power as Pathology

ǂt 13. Bertolucci's The Conformist: A Morals Charge

ǂt 14. Wertmuller's Love and Anarchy: The High Price of Commitment

ǂt 15. Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli: A Tale of Two Italies

ǂt 16. The Taviani Brothers' Night of the Shooting Stars: Ambivalent Tribute to Neorealism

ǂt 17. Scola's We All Loved Each Other So Much: An Epilogue

ǂt Bibliography of Works Consulted

ǂt Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [423]-436) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Includes biliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691209470

0691209472

OCLC:

1227050372