Realism in European Cinema Italian Neorealism French New Wave British Social Realism

.

Realism in European Cinema

Italian Neorealism French New Wave British Social Realism

.

“European cinema’s defining aesthetic is realism.[It] has pre-cinematic origins in the nineteenth century European realist novel and in pre-twentieth century Western visual arts…as progressive attempts to represent a concrete ‘reality.’ The ideology of ‘realism’ is one of the means by which European cinema has traditionally sought to differentiate itself from Hollywood.”

--Shohini Chaudhuri, Contemporary World Cinema

.

Cinema Verite

A French word that literally means "true cinema" or "cinema truth"; a

method or style of documentary movie-making with long takes, no

narration and little or no directorial or editing control exerted over the

finished product; usually made without actors, and often with a

minimum of film equipment, a small film crew (camera and sound),

impromptu interview techniques, and a hand-held camera and

portable sound equipment; sometimes used to loosely refer to a

documentary-style film or minimalist cinema; popularized in the 1950s

French New Wave movement; now widely used (often inappropriately)

to refer to the popular, artsy trend of using hand-held camera

techniques; also termed free cinema (UK) or direct cinema (UK).

Source: http://rhodywood.com/filmterms5.html

.

John Grierson (1889-1972)

MODERN DOCUMENTARY REALISM

Father of the documentary film

Film as an effective means of communications between individual and the state

Purpose is to create social unity and encourage reform

.

John Grierson (1889-1972)

MODERN DOCUMENTARY REALISM

Focused on poverty, hunger, unemployment, and other social problems

Intuitive/experiential films can enable people to understand social issues better than rational, cognitive analysis

Use of realistic and naturalistic images to signify abstract realities

Launched British Documentary Movement(1940s--100 plus films)

.

Social Realism in Crime Films

Opening scene

.

The Origins of Realism

(It’s a European thing)

.

History of European Art

Rooted in the “classics” and Scripture (metanarratives)

Formal and stylized

“High art”

Modernist, rational view based upon the principles of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment

Depictions of the ideal

God at the center

.

The Modernist View

God, reason and progress

Twin pillars of the Judeo-Christian tradition and Greek-Roman culture

There was a center to the universe.

Progress is based upon knowledge, and man is capable of discerning objective absolute truths

Modernism is linked to capitalism—progressive economic administration of world

Modernization of 3rd world countries (imposition of modern Western values)

.

Liberal Humanism: View of Literature & Art

Good literature is of timeless significance.

The text will reveal constants, universal truths, about human nature, because human nature itself is constant and unchanging.

Good literature is honest and sincere.

Art is to be respected, and belongs on a pedestal.

There are accepted traditional standards for different art forms & genres that should be obeyed and respected.

.

Late 1800s

Industrialization of Europe

Rise of naturalism and realism in the arts

Questioning of tradition values

Focus of art shifts from “kings and rulers” to the common man

Themes of alienation, oppression, dehumanization, poverty

Birth of existentialism

.

Early 1900s

World Wars I & II

Marxist challenge to capitalism

Oppression of workers and lower class

Imperialism and colonialism

Questioning of traditional worldviews in the arts and science (Darwin, Marx, Freud and Einstein)

.

A Questioning of Modernity

“ Things fall apart,The centre cannot hold,Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

--Yeats, “The Second Coming”

.

Realism & Naturalism

Naturalism: The idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world.

Influenced by Darwinism

Focus on common people

Victims of industrialized society

Abandonment of artificial literary conventions

Loss of decorum (sexuality)

Pessimism

.

Italian Neorealism

.

Italian Neorealism (1944-50s)

HISTORICAL-POLITICAL BACKGROUND

Overthrow of Mussolini’s fascist regime

Monarchy abolished in June of 1946

Battle for power:- Italian Communist Party (PCI) - Italian Socialist Party (PSI)- Christian Democratic Party (DC)

Divided country:- North – Republicans- South – Monarchists (migration north)

.



Christian Democrats won 1946 general election

Italian Communist & Italian Socialist parties united in 1948 to form Popular Democratic Front (FDP)

Europe & US feared Italy would become Communist

US National Security Council & CIA launched propaganda campaign

10 million letters from Italian Americans

.



Christian Democrats won 1948 general election

Strong support in rural areas by Vatican

Communists still had supporters in Northern industrial areas (working class)

“Miracolo economico” of the 1950s: extraordinary economic reforms

US/European aid sped recovery

Socialist Party continued to play role inItalian politics

.


HISTORICAL ZEITGEIST

Economy in shambles; high unemployment (25%)

Thousands of orphaned children

Emergence of Socialist and Communist parties

Terrorism and extremism

Corruption

“Extremely distrustful and fatigued public”

.


ITALIAN FILM INDUSTRY

1937-1945: Fascists controlled cinema(founded Cinecitta--largest studio in Europe)

Government-funded film school

“White telephone films”—American-style, escapist romantic comedies

Propaganda films

Mussolini issued imperial edicts commenting on aspects of Italian life he did and did not like

.


ITALIAN FILM INDUSTRY

After WWII, Socialists and Communists in government tolerated Neorealism’s left-wing ideology (former resistance movement)

Cost of studio production, film, lighting, etc.became prohibitive

Reflected desire for social reform

.


Response to artificiality of cinema of the Fascist period (white telephone films)

Influenced by French and American literary naturalism (e.g., Dreiser, Zola)

Impact of urban/industrial environment

Experiences of poor and socially marginalized

“Slice of life”; things and facts in time and place (versimo)

Ambivalence of everyday experience

Some took strong Marxist stance, with a hopeful, humanistic dimension

.


Infused by a “democratic spirit”

Focus on ‘the value of ordinary people”

Compassionate point-of-view

Refusal to make moral judgments on behavior of common people as they deal with life’s struggles

Often anti-authority (bureaucracy of the church, government, politics)

“The tawdry, the ordinary, the insignificant”

.


CINEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS

Environment as important as actors

Sense of actuality and immediacy

On-location shooting

Natural light

Long takes and pans

Medium and long shots

Tracking shots

Negative space

.


CINEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS

Rough, unpolished look

Unknown, non-professional actors

Ordinary events, ordinary people

Representative of a class of people, not individual heroes

Loose, unresolved plots

Conversational speech, not literary dialogue

Post-production dubbing

.


CESARE ZAVATTINI:

“Some Ideas on the Cinema” (1953)

1. Portray real or everyday people, using nonprofessional actors in real settings

2. Examine socially significant themes

3. Promote the “organic” development ofsituations--the “real flow of life”--in which

complications are rarely resolved

.


CESARE ZAVATTINI:

“Identification with the common man in the crowd.”

“Take dialogue and actors from the street.”

“Reality in American films is unnaturally filtered.”

.


CESARE ZAVATTINI:

The ideal film:

“Ninety minutes of the life of a man to whom nothing happens.”

.


CESARE ZAVATTINI:

“The world goes on getting worse because we are not truly aware of reality.”

The job of the director is to “observe reality, and not extract fictions from it.”

“The frequent habit of identifying oneself with fictional characters will become very dangerous.”

.

Italian Neorealism

DE SICA:

“Film makers, when they depict human social problems, instinctively seek the causes and effects of the disequilibrium in human relationships. They are led to conclusions, a sort of commentary in images, which are more or less partisan. There is none of this in my work.”

.

Italian Neorealism

DE SICA:

“My films are a struggle against the absence of human solidarity. . .against the indifference of society towards suffering. They are a word in favor of the poor and unhappy."

.

The Bicycle Thief

Awarded honorary Academy Award in 1949 (US trailer)

Inaugural issue of Sight and Sound (BFI journal, now on Web) called it “the greatest movie ever made”

Sergio Leone was an assistant directorFistful of DollarsGood, Bad and UglyOnce Upon A Time in America

.


Roberto Rossellini

Luchino Visconti

Guisippe DeSantis

Giovanni Verga

Vittorio De Sica

Federico Fellini

Michelangelo Antonioni

Bernardo Bertolucci

Francesco Rosi

.

Italian Neorealism

.


The pregnancy caused a huge scandal in the United States. It even led to her being denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate by a Democratic senator, who referred to her as "a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil." In addition, there was a floor vote, which resulted in her being made persona non grata.

.


.


.

End of Italian Neorealism

Criticized for negative depiction of Italy

Lack of positive heroes

Negative displays of human flesh

Catholic Church: “forbidden for believers”

Leaders disliked desolate images portrayed by neorealism

Giulio Andreotti, vice-minister in the De Gasperi cabinet:

“Dirty laundry that shouldn't be washed and hung to dry in the open”

Leftists: Do not go far enough in suggesting social reforms

.


Leftist parties defeated at the polls

Massive US aid speeded recovery

Democracy took root

Personal income surpassed pre-War levels

Italians liked American cinema & optimism

Only 10% of the 800 films made in Italy between 1945 and 1953 were Neorealist

.


New focus on “the inner man”:

Moral and spiritual decline

Alienation

Psychology of relationships

BUT the movement did influence the French New Wave, Hollywood and TV—even today

On the Waterfront (1954)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Mean Streets (1973)

.

Neorealism Today

Influence of Italian Neorealism

French New Wave

British Social Realism

Scorcese: New York street life

Mike Leigh & Ken Loach: UK working class

Common Topics

Immigrant experience in U.S.

Exposure of social injustices

Oppression of working class

Crime and corruption

.

Neorealism & Marxist Tradition

Film as a medium for social reform

Expose the shallowness of modern capitalistic society

How people exploited by the system

Real-life problems of the common man

Poverty, crime, social injustice common themes

Ideal society is classless

Social change requires mobilization of groups of workers, minorities, etc.

.

Cinematic Realism & Marxism (1930-present)

Film as a reactionary medium

Expose the shallowness of modern capitalistic society

Real-life problems of the common man

Poverty, crime, social injustice common themes

Italian Neorealism

British Social Realism

.

Andre Bazin & Italian Neorealism

.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

Liked films that focused on everyday psychological experience

Italian neorealism (The Bicyle Thief)

Disliked modernist, expressionistic

Disliked films that imposed a political ideology on the viewer

Long takes, of surrounding environment

Impact of environment on people(French determinism)

.

Siefried Kracauer (1889-1966)

CINEMATIC REALISM : Philosophy

Critic of “modernity” (Frankfurt School)

Human condition characterized by alienation

Mass culture/society manipulates individuals

Materialistic values have replaced religion, metaphysical, romantic convictions, resulting in disenchantment

People live distracted lives

Film as a “redemptive” experience that can show man damaged condition of modernity and help him transcend materialism

.

Siefried Kracauer (1889-1966)

CINEMATIC REALISM

Foreshadowed and predicted dehumanizing power of mass media

“Mass ornaments”--film, military parades and sporting events

“Real” world of the individual desubstantiated by spectacle and empty rituals

Film must “reengage” individual with nature and the Kantian real world

.


Views cinema as a “redemptive” art

The role of cinema is to help man in his search for truth and understanding in an ambiguous and uncertain world

Man can transcend alienation and modernity

Film can be a religious experience

“Love” and “state of grace”

.


Bergson’s concept of “creative evolution”

Catholic phenomenologist

The liminal image

Close experiential scrutiny reveals deep structures/meanings behind phenomena

Under scrutiny of inquiry [artistic analysis]these deep structures are brought into the light

Cinema and photography are media that an artist can utilize to review the deeper meanings behind the phenomena of existence

.


“We know that under the image revealed there is another which is truer to reality and under this image still another and yet again still another under this last one, right down to the true image of reality, absolute, mysterious, which no one will ever see.”

Michelangelo Antonioni

.


Film image “embalms” time & wrenches phenomena from the flux of life

Symbolic power of cinematic imagery combined with empirical density of cinematic realism

The spirit behind the “real” object

The “long hard gaze”

Disliked over-expressive, over-ornamental, or overuse of montage

.


“Montage...chops the world up into little fragments, and disturbs the natural unity in people and things.”

.


“German expressionism did violence to the image by ways of sets and lighting.”

.


Depth of focus & long takes

Respect for the continuity of dramatic space and the flow of time

Composition in depth

“Dramatic effects for which we had formerly relied on montage were created out of the movements of the actors within a fixed framework.”

Ambiguity of expression closer to reality; viewer must choose

.


“The principle responsibility is to document the world before attempting to interpret or criticize it. For Bazin, this moral duty is ultimately a sacred one—the photographic media are, in effect, preordained to bear witness to the beauty of the cosmos.”

Peter Matthews, Sight and Sound, August 1999

.


“Bazin distrusted montage on the grounds that its dynamic juxtaposition of images hurtles the viewer along a predetermined path of attention, the aim being to construct a synthetic reality in support of a propagandist message.”


.


“De Sica…humbly renounced the hubristic display of authorial personality and thus enabled the audience to intuit the numinous significance of people and things.”


.


“At no other period in its history has cinema been so enslaved by escapist fantasy—and never have we been less certain of the status of the real. Now the digitization of the image threatens to cut the umbilical cord between photograph and referent on which Bazin founded his entire theory.”


.


“At no other period in its history has cinema been so enslaved by escapist fantasy—and never have we been less certain of the status of the real. Now the digitization of the image threatens to cut the umbilical cord between photograph and referent on which Bazin founded his entire theory.”


Kracauer: “Mass ornaments distracting society.”

Baudrillard: “Americans live in a state of hyperreality.”

.

US All-Time Box Office

1. Avatar (2009) $760,505,8472. Titanic (1997) $658,672,3023. The Avengers (2012) $623,279,5474. The Dark Knight (2008) $533,316,061

5. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $474,544,677

6. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665

7. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) $448,130,642

8. Shrek 2 (2004) $436,471,036

9. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459

10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) $423,032,628

11. The Lion King (1994) $422,783,777

12. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) $420,021,917

13. Toy Story 3 (2010) $414,984,49714. Iron Man 3 (2013) $408,992,272

15. The Hunger Games (2012) $407,999,255

16. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,37517. Jurassic Park (1993) $402,348,347

18. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) $402,076,689

19. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) $380,955,61920. Finding Nemo (2003) $380,838,870

All-Time USA Box office

Documents

Realism in European Cinema Italian Neorealism French New Wave British Social Realism