Lecture will outline history and context leading up to Italian Neo-Realism screening of Bicycle Thieves thursday. Please journal this week about your understanding of these terms as they may be defined or relate to Italian Neo-Realism. (look them up if you're not sure)
Fascism, Marxism, & Humanism.
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The Italian Neo-realism movement was an anti fascist movement. Fascism is being revolved around one powerful leader and a strong sense of pride or supremacy in the nation. The Italian neo-realism was the opposite of that, because it was more about the collectivity rather than an individual leader. Because Italy had broken free of a fascist form of Government, the neo-realism movement was occupied with the countries fascist past despite being very anti-fascists films. You could say they related well with a Marxist view because they didn't use actual actors or stages. They used real places and real people to play the part. This relates to a marxists way of thinking in that the acting wasn't left up to actors but distributed among the people to fill the rolls. The Italian neo-realism movement was also a humanistic view on film. They focused more on emotions and solving real human problems rather then focusing on the supernatural or fantasy. This can also be said with the production of the film. They used very primitive, human, techniques. There was no fancy editing or camera work, it was just the simple, non-fantasy, style that plays into the humanistic tone of the films.
First of all, it was wonderful to see a film that had no actors. Neo-realism in Italy meant finding average Joes on the street and giving them a few bucks to do what they normally do, or at least in the way you'd like them to. It broadened the number of different demographics that film could reach out to, since real life (realism) is in fact, everywhere. It was life on film, thus everyone could appreciate it. Too often in modern movies do people have to solve an international drug smuggling ring or stop an assassination or save the world from a cosmic death ray. Bicycle Thieves was about a man and his boy, looking to keep a job. That's all it was. That's all it had to be. I loved it.
Without a doubt, there were hints of anti-fascism throughout Bicycle Thief. The key to fascism is national pride and a sort of unity amongst all people of the same national origin. However, the only time in the movie the Italians seemed to be united was with the Mafia. If the movie was to rouse fascist sentiments, then I would think the movie would show the people of Rome uniting together to find the bicycle and they would blame it on another country. Instead, the main character was on an island and no one would help him. The Italians depicted in the movie seemed the complete opposite of a fascist nation; they were rude and unwelcoming to one another.
The humanism located in the film seemed to only be evident in the relationship between the main character and his son. There was a sincerity of right and wrong struggling with the man and boy. Throughout the movie, the father was trying to teach his son. At one point he hit him and afterwards ended up taking him out to eat as a way to make it up to him. Aside from that there were no clear ethical qualities at display in the movie. Most of the characters expressed little rationality for their behavior; it certainly seemed that they were acting as a result of their environment. However, if the Italy was fascist nation, then wouldn’t they work together to help one another? This concept vacant and on purpose because it meant to show there was no idea of right or wrong in the state the country was in. The one area where humanism was evident happened in a sort of supernatural way like Matt alluded to. When the main character was forced to steal a bicycle of his own in front to the futbol game, he was caught. However, the victim allowed him to go without repercussions. This was at the end and gave hope that the society could show allegiance and moral judgment.
The amazing aspect of this movie was how it was able to stay neutral when aligning itself with the right and left wing politics. I did not see at any one point that there was a belief that the power and wealth should be given to the people. They did document the helplessness of the lower classes and the need to help them, but they did not explicitly say communism is the path to do that. The only hint for uniting this theme is the police officers. Every time a police officer was introduced they seemed very normal and able to relate to the poor class. They treated everyone fairly and used their best judgment. They were always level headed and this proved that everyday people have the capabilities of being in a position of power and they should distribute it to the proletarian class. This needs to be inferred though and is why the movie stayed neutral. In fact, the police officers presence throughout the movie gave hints of fascism, humanism and communism all in one and they seemed to be the permanent theme in the movie. The officers acted as the foundation to De Sica being able to capture everything that was wrong with his country, everything they need to improve it and hope that it’s on its way to recovery.
Vittorio De Sica's film Bicycle Theif/Theives provided an incredibly in depth look at life during this tumultuous time in Italy's history. We see a world were poverty is the norm, work is scarce, and the entire world seems to revolve around having a bicycle.
In looking at this film we see a man, his wife, his son, and his job all thrown into a terrible situation when his bike is stolen. Everything that this man represents seems to be embodied by this singular bicycle and he will stop at nothing to get it back. We see him scour every inch of this city to find his bike and all the while going through some incredibly intense changes.
We see him enlist the help of his friends in raiding a market where stolen bikes are sold to the public. It gets to the point where all hope seems to be lost and the bike has been chopped up and sold in it's individual pieces. We then see him go to the ghetto and harass a boy there, and nearly get himself into quite a bit of trouble there.
All this while, De Sica makes an interesting choice in that he allows us to see this film through the mirror of our main characters son. All these actions, the father's insanity over the lost bike, the sheer madness that begins to consume him is all reflected through his son. There is even one point in particular when we see the son debate whether to go with his father or leave him after he attacks the boy in the ghetto. This is such a wild idea and I am so very glad De Sica decided to use it.
The reality of the movie is stunning. The film has such a sense of the decade it was shot in. For the modern audience this can either be taken as a shock or brushed off. By "brushed off" I mean that our culture as a whole has been so subjected to the many different pitfalls of man, we've been de-sensitized. Not to say we are not shocked by the content, but we look past it. The unemployment, the ram shackled living, the protective attitudes of everyone against anyone who causes problems for them, the distance between rich and poor. Many of us just accept this as history, as something that has happened. Kind of like saying, "Oh that must have been awful back then." It just doesn't hit home for us. For myself, Bicycle Thieves really blew that mindset away. In an Italian Neo-Realism style the cast consisted of your average Italian Joe. This gave the film a very different feel, you felt like you were really viewing a day in the life. All the poverty isn't explained, it there in plain view for the view to see. It touches on Marxism because the film, although it has a protagonist, move with a group. Or more over, the group moves against the protagonist. This is what moves the film through its stages. Its almost like as the main characters move they clash with there environment. Lastly the ideal of being rational, which is being upheld by the main character, is an idea of Humanism. The film focus's on a journey of self determination but it also defies the idea of humanism because of the blind faith that the movie runs on. Although his search is helpless, yo still root for him. But after a while its hard to understand why your rooting for him. His character begin to change and his creditability is doubted by the audience. In the end his self realization is very powerful, you almost wish you could help him. You hope that his troubles will end, but you never know.
Italian fascism lasted for over twenty years and ended in the early 1940's. This political movement led by Benito Mussolini left Italians in shambles. Poverty was very high. The Italian Neo-Realism film movement was a response to the fascism that gripped their country. It showed realistic stories ad used everyday people as actors. This was unlike Hollywood films of the time which utilized name-brand actors and almost always had happy endings.
Marxism is like the original form of socialism founded by Karl Marx. This idea of Marxism relied upon people working together for the good of the community. This relates well with the Neo-Realism movement because their movies relied upon common people working together to say something through the medium of film. In Hollywood the idea was to make money and for that money to be distributed unevenly (depending on what your position was) to the people who worked on the movie.
Humanism is the philosophy that asserts all humans have worth and searches for the truth through human investigation. It rejects the supernatural and divine texts. Humanism can be found in Italian Neo-Realist films, and definitely in Bicycle Thieves. It dealt with very relatable topics and common problems such as being poor in a era of depression and what people tried to do about it. It was also very humanistic that everything was filmed in real life locations with real people and not on sets with actors.
I real appreciate the Italian Neo-Realism film movement and its mission. Although they are not my favorite films to watch, they are very respectable and promote humanism and marxism.
Italian Neo-Realism was much more than just an attempt to defy fascism. It took a folklorists approach to storytelling and depicted in-your-face, social realities. There are no metaphors or varied interpretations. The only aesthetic was to simply tell it how it was with no bells or whistles; to be completely and brutally honest. It is one of the most original and effective forms of film making.
The films have are very defined ideologically and stylistically. As seen in Bicycle Thief they are typically based on the lives and struggles of ordinary, working-class people. Compassionate people who live based on morals and religion. Often the films combine views of Christian humanism based on emotions and social interactions as opposed to abstractions. Marxist ideologies such as class consciousness and historical materialism were often depicted. Both were used in Bicylce Thiefs with the depictions of lower-class struggles and the dependence on material items such as bicycles.
Italian Neo-Realist films used a unique style in reaction to popular conventions and to portray a realist message. The idea was to make the films lack style altogether because any use of style would distract from the realism. The objective was to make everything about the film seem as real as possible. That means they shot in real locations instead of built sets. They spent little time on plot building and instead let the plot kind of build itself. As seen in Bicycle Thief's, they use real people instead of actors who often over-dramatize characters. They focus less on written dialogue and more on conversational speech.
This is possibly my favorite type of film. I enjoy and respect the message that the directors were using. The fact that these films are able to tell interesting stories whose purpose is not to give the viewer an escape from reality but to bring it to their front door.
I thought bicycle thieves was a very strange movie, for one thing the ending was unexpectedly abrupt and lacked the typical 'happy' endings we are used to seeing.
Other than this peculiar finish the movie had me very involved, I related to the character of the father and hoped he would find his bike.
What truly intrigued me was the use of real people in the place of actors, it was and still is considered a unique form of theater. It is a shame that this art form is not experimented with more frequently today.
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