Estimated reading time: 26 minutes
Editor's note: Film Appreciation magazine, issued by the National Film Center of Taiwan (then the National Film Library), launched the feature "Italian New Reality Film" in the 25th issue (1987), which was an important window for Taiwanese film fans to understand the new reality of Italy in their early years. This issue of the Weekly Screening features a translation of an article written by film scholar Roy Armes, which has been edited and shared with readers. Other articles on this topic are titled" "Before and After Italian Neorealism", "The Philosophical Basis of Italian Neorealism", "The Confessions of Italian Neorealists", and there is also a "Neorealism and Phenomenology" in the 26th issue, which also welcomes interested readers to dig for treasures.
True neorealism, from Roma, città aperta (1945) to Umberto D. (1952), lasted only 6 years, and then faded as Italy built itself from the ashes of war into one of Europe's prosperous states. Its disappearance is not surprising, because no great film movement—such as the Swedish film wave, German Expressionism, soviet russian film movement, french pre-war poetic realism—could last long. André Bazin notes that the film "is still too young to make any assessment of its own development." 5 years of film development is equal to the generation of literature. In this short period, Neorealism produced true masterpieces, as well as many enterprising and uncompromising films. In the future development of global films, it has left an indelible mark. As we have seen, neorealism relies on multifaceted sources, combines the qualities of many people, and never has a goal-oriented manifesto or an aesthetic standard that is universally accepted. It is a reaction of many, deriving a moral force from the harsh environment of war and fascist decline, regardless of their religious and political leanings. When the environment gradually transforms into another stage, the movement naturally declines, and moral commitment is replaced by other factors. There are also aesthetic elements.
Neorealism's approach to reality is complex and differs in many views, but they share a basic belief that cinema is, in essence, an attempt to reconcile contradictions. For example, a documentary film that is purely realistic (not artistic), a narrative that is storytelling (not real). The neorealist view does not render meaning to the traditional idea that cinema is a real recreation. It is simply a new way of expressing itself from traditional ideas that are more convincing and vivid to the viewer. Many important directors share the belief that film is not simply about recording reality, that it is the responsibility of the film artist to let go of himself from the shackles of obsolescence, and that he wants to capture not the old formulas and ideas, but the beating life around him.
From the point of view of film historians, neorealism has been seen as a movement. However, the workers involved in this movement lacked a coordinated pace as a whole, relying on a tacit understanding, each according to their own preferences and techniques, dealing with "real materials". From this point of view, neorealism is in fact a belief that prompts them to face the urgent problems of Italy after the war, to provide a rich field for the current state of society to be opened up, but in the end neorealism reaches a dead end, in which they are trapped and unable to extricate themselves. Directors who believe in the new reality of socialism, in order to break free from this limitation, turn their attention to the agricultural problems in the south, and as a result they go to another dead end, ignoring the industrial problems that are directly visible in the cities. Neorealist activist Alberto Lattuada argues that neorealism should open up other avenues: satire, sex, or a vision of the world to come.
Moreover, they insisted on this style of photography, which greatly limited themselves in their creation, abandoning the use of imagination, suppressing creativity, and sacrificing the skillful operation of photography, just to maintain a convincing realist surface and commitment to society. For example, in La terra trema (1948), there is a lack of dramatic tension; Tears of the Wind and Candles suppresses the imagination in order to obey the neorealist grid. On the contrary, senso (1954) is a rich form of expression that fully expresses the artistic personality of Luchino Visconti than "The Earth is Fluctuating", but at the same time, it also represents a breakthrough in the simplicity and simplicity of neorealism. Similarly, the fifties directors Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni instinctively sought the representation of the visual imagination, even if they were divorced from the belief in realism (free and direct live reporting). Fellini has a different argument for neorealism: "Why should people go to the movies?" If a movie has to be true through a calm and objective eye, it should be visible on the street without having to go to the theater! ”
Although the first generation of directors remained faithful to neorealism, they moved towards an unavoidable reality: they began to detach themselves from the people and things they had previously dealt with. Film sociologist George Huaco made it clear that neorealism has survived since Rome, the Undefended City, thanks to support from abroad, especially in the United States. Great works such as "The Earth is Fluctuating" and "Wind Candle Tears" have been acclaimed and sold abroad, and at the domestic box office, they are extremely miserable. From this fact, it can be seen that the Italian public is either completely hostile or indifferent. We understand that Vittorio De Sica can feel the needs of the audience, adjust his artistic standards, and thus get the applause of the audience. A filmmaker who sincerely believes in realism also needs to recognize the flaws in the aesthetic concept of realism. For in a wealthy society, if hunger and unemployment are still dealt with, it is no longer appropriate, and the most important thing now is how to achieve an emotional and creative life goal in a utilitarian environment. In this view, in The reaction of La Tourwada, he felt that neorealism had become a formula in its later period: "After Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Desica, etc., all the prescriptions: the poor, the people, the miserable people, the people who cried out in the countryside, this set of prescriptions no longer arouses the interest of the audience." In the beginning, the audience watched the neorealist film to find a deep emotion, they admitted their own problems, their own bitterness, and later the audience no longer cared about these problems, even if "Wind Candle Tears" was filmed well, they could not lift their energy. ”
Whatever the real reason for the decline of neorealism, Italian filmmakers saw 1950 as an important watershed. Cesare Zavattini, a spokesman for the Neorealist movement, said in an article on Italian cinema: "The year 1950 is worth thinking about, not only because it shined, but also because it ended certain film eras." Later looking back at the neorealist movement, director Giuseppe De Santis noted: "At the end of the War, there was a 'burst' in everyone, so neorealism was found as a way of catharsis, but from 1950 onwards, neorealism was seen as a dangerous cinematic trend. La Tourwada also saw that in the early fifties, Italian cinema found a new direction, and LaTuwada used his own film as an illustration: "I believe that from the beginning of the film 'Il cappotto( 1952) we gradually moved away from the realist route, not only in terms of story, but also in terms of 'real'". This shift can be seen in Rossellini's Rome, the Undefended City to Europa '51 (1952). Rome, the Undefended City (1946) was Rossellini's first film to be released in New York, and the famous film critic James Agee wrote a passionate review. In his commentary, he said he could understand (which most Italians were not aware of at the time) the contradictions between the adjustment of communist and Catholic ideologies. Aigie writes, "I see very little of the contradictions between leftism and religion, too few to measure the incompatibility between them and the rest of the world." But I have to doubt the original and ultimate business motives of the Christian Church; that leftism could be accepted by many. In this context, I think religious and leftist audiences, especially religious and leftists, who make up the majority of italy's population, so there are many films that target these populations. For this film, the Italian is not as good as Aighi, a foreigner, who understands the incompatibility of these two ideologies. The ignorance of Italy at that time reflected a new self-consciousness through all of Rossellini's works 6 years later. In Europe 1951, he analyzes the dilemmas of Western civilization with what he observes, while showing the antagonism between Christianity and communism. A saint can only record this, but he cannot reconcile them with each other.
In the development of Neorealism, one thing is worth mentioning: Christian films replaced the original social concern with religious belief. Rossellini was always a pioneer in leadership, and in 1949 he filmed Francesco, giullare di Dio ,The Flower of St. Francis, depicting St. Francis and his 11 disciples. Like Zawattini's Miracolo a Milano (1951), it retains its mythological color and pits holy heroes against evil tyrants. The film was not a success in Italy, but was warmly welcomed by critics in France, and the success of The Flower of St. Francis unforgettable captures true humility and the sincere belief of St. Francis and his disciples in religious truth.
The growth of the Italian religious genre reflects the growing power of the church, a phenomenon linked to the overwhelming victory of the Christian Democrats in 1948. In the following two years, two well-known films were made, that is, the trend of religious films as an example, showing the decline of neorealism and reflecting the emerging trend of religion and reality. Augusto Genina's 1949 cielo sulla palude depicts the life of Saint Maria Goretti, using real scenes throughout the film and as an amateur actor. Filmologist Raymond Borde told André Bouissy about what the film considered "beautiful Eisensteinian photography and depictions of everyday life in the untapped parts of Italy." Curzio Malaparte's 1950 Il Cristo proibito is a more interesting work in which the director mixes theatrical style, symbolism and realism into a marvelous work, a violent myth in which bruno seeks out someone who sold his brother to the Gestapo to settle accounts. He meets in the countryside a carpenter who is almost a saint, who puts the burden of sin on his shoulders, and when the carpenter dies, his exemplar of sacrifice and dedication turns Bruno's vengeful desire into peace. "Forbidden Christ" has many shocking scenes, especially excellent actor performances and on-the-spot landscapes, but in connotation it is far from the neorealistic grid.
If we think that after Tears of the Wind candle, these works that follow the neorealist discipline were abruptly interrupted, it would be a wrong judgment. Because from DeSica's Il tetto in 1956 to Mario Monicelli's "I compagni" in 1963, it is still typical of neorealism. But from 1951 onwards, Italian cinema did undergo a great shift in style. The main directors of the new reality films, who realized the need to broaden their creative horizons, began to collaborate with Hollywood, so many of the films of the fifties were directed by Italian directors and performed by American movie stars — Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman; Desica directed by Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. (Stazione termini, 1953); Senso (1954), directed by Visconti and starring Alida Valli and Farley Granger. Italian directors also found that they had to find another way to express their artistic ideas beyond the neorealist grid: the use of professional actors, such as DeSica's work from The Gold of Naples (1954); the combination of literature and opera, like Visconti's Sengoku and Leopard (1963); an in-depth exploration of individual psychological and social phenomena such as Rossellini's Fear (La Paura, 1954) and La Tourwada's Coat. The trends described above are not absolute breakthroughs, and they still incorporate neorealistic patterns (e.g., Desika shoots on location with big stars), but new ideas gradually take advantage.
Neorealism did not fade with the transformation of the first generation of directors, it also produced new directors of the fifties, such as Carlo Lizzani, Fellini, and Antonioni, all of whom had deep ties to the movement: Lizzani and Antonioni wrote film reviews for Cinema magazine in the early 1940s; Lizzani and Fellini were also screenwriters of neorealist films; Antonioni was a documentary writer. But he was involved in the production of an important film, Caccia tragica (1947). Their beliefs in neorealism were unanimous, and when Antonioni spoke of his first documentary, Gente del Po (1947), he compared it to the basic idea of neorealism: "At the same time and in almost the same scenes, Visconti was busy making the first truly Italian neorealist film, Ossessione (1943), and I can safely say that we had the same discoveries in the same place, at the same moment. Visconti is making feature films, and I'm making documentaries, and we're wondering, how should cinema in post-war Italy be? A similar situation occurred in Fellini and Rossellini's Paisà (1946). At that time, Rossellini taught him "what is a humble life", and as a director, you should "communicate with all kinds of people and all kinds of things with a tolerant confidence", so that you can understand the meaning of the work of "director". Fellini firmly considered himself the successor of neorealism and claimed that all his works "distinctly had a neorealist style". His definition of "neorealism" is: "to see the truth without prejudice, without traditional psychological barriers, to put yourself in front of the truth, without any preconceived prejudices.".
Neorealism has a clear correlation in the themes of the 1940s and 1950s: Fellini carried roserini's style forward; Rossellini's representation of socialism was as politically committed as Aldo Vergano and De Santis; Antonioni's exploration of loneliness was attributed to the particular conceptions of Desika and La Tourvada. But these three new directors are able to keenly distinguish the difference between their works and neorealism. Fellini, for example, showed a broad vision in the fifties; "Neorealism, which sees facts with a sincere eye, should not only be the real face of society, but also the true emotions of everyone's heart". In his works in the 1950s, Antonioni has a more penetrating view of the exploration of the mind: "Post-war society is changing rapidly, and the real environment is very sharp, so post-war films should focus on the relationship between the character's heart and society, which is very important." And thus create a 'cinema of situations'. On the other hand, after a flurry of wind, the reality has been standardized, and for me, I am more interested in exploring the real world inside the characters." Antonioni cites Ladri di biciclette (1948) as an example, pointing out that "a film like this, losing a bicycle, seems unimportant today ... the protagonist is far more important than the 'fact' of the bicycle being stolen." In the 1950s, bicycle theft was no longer a problem, and most importantly, after losing his bicycle, he still had wartime and post-war experience in his heart, and many things that happened in China affected him, how he had to adjust his mood."
In the early fifties, Lizzani's Cronache di poveri amanti (1954), Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953) and Antonioni's Le Amiche (1955) all showed ambition to go beyond the neorealist grammar and a desire to expand into Italian cinema. The narrative line of the above three works mainly lies in the description of the personality of the characters, taking the first step for a more complex way of film expression. Two of them were influenced by literature, with Lizzani's films being based on the novels of Pratolini, who drew inspiration from pavese's stories. But Lizzani's "Suffering Couple" was not successful, and it is clear that the original book is a rich and powerful novel, but the film has many shortcomings of the adaptation, such as: the feeling of overly laid out design, the visual expression of the relationship between the characters is not clear, and the plot is superfluous. To compensate for these deficiencies, Lizzani was technically strict in the media, ideologically reinforcing the political message, and the prevailing anti-fascist sentiments of the time. But in the end, the work didn't really break through.
Fellini and Antonioni prepared a way out for introspective cinema, and "The Wanderer" and "Girlfriend" were as connotative as Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia (1954). In these two films, the director no longer portrays the relationship between the characters and society, but places the relationship in the meaning of modern people's pursuit of survival. For example, the unemployed vagabonds in Fellini's films and the social characters in Antonioni's films are not only concerned with the current state of society, but also strive to pursue spiritual life in order to find the true meaning of survival. The expression of the inner situation of the characters in these two films hints at their alienation from the people and things around them through the environmental landscape. For example, the desolate autumn seaside of "Girlfriend" and the midnight wind blowing square of "Wandering Child" all have the same symbolic effect. Both films have a rich and strong style of photography, from which we can foresee the precursors of Fellini's later novelty works, and the way Antonioni arranged the characters in the scene. These performances are different from the rustic video style of neorealism.
The influence of Neorealism continued into subsequent stages, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ermanno Olmi, Elio Petri and Vittorio De Seta, the work of the new directors in the sixties, compared to the overly laid-out and deliberate works of Antonio and Fellini, and returned to the rustic style of Neorealism in the 1940s. This was a valuable asset left by Neorealism, allowing them to discover the importance of combining with social change. Their work retains the signs of social consciousness and the intention of realism. For them and their predecessors, Jean Cocteau's purely mystical works, such as Orphée (1950) or Alain Resnais's L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961) with Alain Robbe-Grillet, are hard to believe.
When the italian realism reached the heyday of the trend, and the new directors of the sixties were increasingly mature, Pasolini pointed out: "The artists who grew up in that period chose the medium of 'cinema' to express themselves, which was the medium that was most likely to excite them at that time". The fame of directors of Rossellini's generation is enduring, as Bedoulli wrote in 1962: "Many great neorealists still have important ideals and arguments." If we mention the contribution to art culture from the post-war period to the present day, and the awakening of Italians to self-consciousness, the names of the directors of the 1940s immediately come to mind." The Neorealist movement, as Pasolini put it, "rediscovers the realities of everyday life, all the real details of society emerge from the italian wars." This view has a favorable impact on young new directors. Some particularly talented directors are also inevitably intoxicated. In the case of Dessetta, whose work may prove that he is the successor to the films of the 1940s, his choice of themes: "The impoverished South, immigrants from south to north, the various adaptations to the modern world"; the way in which the work is handled, leaving a "basis for particularly realistic details". Desetta's first work, Banditi a Orgosolo (1960), was a combination of touchingly real footage. But Visconti has a different view of the film: "It's not enough for me, and it doesn't satisfy me anymore, because we've already done it all."
From the mainstream point of view of the sixties, Desetta was a very important author, such as Antonioni and Lizzani. The three of them had worked hard and painstakingly to promote the neorealism they sincerely admired. Again to quote Bertoli: "The neorealist tradition is very precious and opens a window of mind and reality for people", but "the exploration of neorealists must discard some of the problems they have exposed in order to absorb more psychic activity". In the case of the new thematic content in Bedoulli's work, I giorni contati (1962) is a deeper development of the character's personality: "Today, the worker of this 'bicycle stealer' must not only adapt to the society on which he depends, but also adjust his own mentality." Ormi's films, Il Posto (1961) and I fidanzati (1963), follow the neorealist pattern and "search for poetry through the truth... without the influence of symbolism and literature." But with his films, Olmi built a new content for himself: "The changing world, the changing people, I will never get tired of capturing the special theme of life". Like Pasolini and Rossi, they believed that in the 1940s and 1960s, there should be different understandings of production attitudes and environments, which was very important. On the issue of fascism and the underground anti-riot movement, Pasolini believes that after 20 years of transformation to today, our approach to the problem has found a better way of expression, and has changed a lot of things. In the 1940s, for example, it was an outburst of protesting emotions that has now entered a "real process of prudence and objectivity from the roots of neorealism."
Pasolini argues that this change is like what he calls "the new realism." In fact, new ideas are by no means the prerogative of young people. Beginning in 1959, the re-inventory of fascism was undertaken by the Italian director Rossellini and others, including Rossellini's Il generale della rovere (1959) and Era notte a roma (1960), Andriti's masterpiece on historical reconstruction, Il processo di verona (1963), There are also rookie works such as Florestano Vancini's La lunga notte del ' 43 (1960) and Gianfranco De Bosio's Il terrorista (1963). Rossi was one of the most important figures throughout the Neorealist movement, having been an assistant director of Visconti's The Earth is Fluctuating, and two of his own works, Salvatore Giuliano (1962) and Le mani sulla città (1963), are truly powerful works in the social examination and indictive genre. Many corrections have been made compared to the past, which could not be done in the 1940s: "The difference between my approach to the problem and the neorealists is mainly due to the inherent difference in the event. In post-war Italy, the most urgent task was social reconstruction. When the directors felt that they had solved some basic problems and gradually found that the way they dealt with the problems needed to change, they extracted the more distinctive characters from the neorealist films, concretized them, and explored their inner world in a deeper way. ”
When discussing the fundamental roots of neorealism, we can find interactions in many places, such as Visconti to Jean Renault, Desica to Charles Chaplin, Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran (1934) and Visconti's The Earth is Fluctuating. It can be understood that neorealism is not a unique event in the history of Italian cinema, but a film movement that developed under the influence of the entire trend of cinematic reality. In fact, neorealism has a place in the mainstream of realism, and the struggle of Italian filmmakers should not be regarded as isolated. Other directors around the world pursued similar creative experiences during the same period. For example, Akira Kurosawa particularly praised "The Man Who Stole a Bicycle", and Rashomon's acceptance speech said: "If I use the technique of "The Bicycle Thief" to make a film that reflects the current situation in Japan today, if I win the award for this, it will be more meaningful to me and make me happier."
The Neorealist movement had a deep influence on cinema outside Italy, as young filmmakers around the world were fascinated by the trend. For example, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut of France are well known for their admiration for neorealism; Visconti and Renault are well known for their obvious similarities. And in filmmakers in smaller or less backward countries, the astonishing influence of neorealism can be seen. Greece's Michael Cacoyannis, for example, lacked his own film tradition and was forced to look for foreign trends to make his own films. Spain's directors Juan Antonio Bardem and Luis García Berlanga fell into the same situation, with the Spanish cinematographer Marcel Oms once pointing out: "Franco's Spain and fascist Italy are very similar, and these two same backgrounds make the films of the two countries move in the same direction". Thus, infected by neorealist theorists (Zawatini, Guido Aristarco, de Santis, Lizzani, etc.), and influenced by Italy's post-war film experience, Spain's emerging directors hope to be able to use their own history of struggle to shoot classic works similar to Italian films.
Another special example influenced by neorealism is the Indian director Satyajit Ray. In 1950 he went to London, where he spent five months, during which time he watched about 95 films, including Jean Renault's La Règle du jeu (1939) and many of Vlahadi's classics. But what really influenced him was the "Bicycle Thief" he watched on the night he went to London. Ray said: "The film is about a man who can think of what he wants today? The film deeply affected me, and I was delighted and surprised to discover that Desica could shoot on location in all locations, using non-professional actors. Despite the difficulties in recording, I believe it can be done in Italy and well in Bangladesh. Then I watched Miracle of Milan, and I loved it at first, and a long time later I saw Rossellini's film and Visconti's The Earth Is Fluctuating in Paris. When Ray had confidence after watching The Bicycle Thief in London, he decided to shoot Pather Panchali (1955), based on a neorealist approach. This article was written after Ray returned to Kolkata in October 1950.
From the perspective of the development of the whole world film, Italian neorealism is like the Soviet film 20 years ago, the new wave of France 10 years later, they have changed the consciousness of our film art, neorealism bears the influence of some realistic trends, combined with economic forces, and finally broke the Hollywood studio system, and has now formed a part of our film culture. From its broadest point of view, the real subject of neorealism is not only the claim of field shooting, the use of non-professional actors and improvisation, but also the fact that it injects the principles of realism and authentic content into the film, establishing a good model. Whether it was Visconti, Rossellini, DeSica and their successors, although each with a different artistic personality, they were still true neorealists, who made important contributions to cinema. Because a realist doesn't use a camera to simply record the truth on everything OK. As the filmologist Nathalie Sarraute put it, "No matter how much effort a realist has devoted to pleasing his fellow citizens, to transform them, to guide them, or to fight for their freedom from their shackles; he must express his true self, never obliterate the complexity of reality in order to conceal contradictions, do everything in his power to capture the true nature of things, and with his keenest vision, to unearth the truths presented to him." ”
| Translation: Jing Meiguang transcript of |: Xie Jiajin | Image: Courtesy of the Executive Committee of Jinma and Hong Kong
< h1 toutiao-origin="h3" > correlated</h1>
British film studies scholar and author.
No Newer Articles