The Relation of Italian Neorealism, French New Wave and New German Cinema (Part 1)

             Imagine if you are in a studio with an expensive set, filming a luxurious Hollywood story that can entertain the world. You are in L.A with good sunrays, full of camera supported machines just to capture certain shots, if you like filmmaking, this might be your dream come true. In addition, there will be a credit title like Scorsese, or Tarantino, which might sound good for your future career. Of course, you might get an awesome benefit from income, trust by people for applying creativity, and fame. But what if making films indicate something more about that? These film styles proves further filmmaker to go beyond the comfort zone. Films don’t have to be made inside a studio, or must put special effects just to make scene transitions. Moreover, you don’t have to think hard about depicting stories. Making films don’t have to tell stories about luxurious life; instead, these film styles tried to discover different angles of stories, takes, messages in order for people to enjoy, and understand the connections of film and socio-political aspects. Italian Neorealism, French New Wave and German New Wave were the answer. Starting 1940’s until 1960’s, these film styles were a huge breakthrough for youth and the history of cinema industry (Hitchman, 2008). From these styles, it can be shown that making films can be brought into a new angle, which is realism and new takes, which will be explained further.

                Let’s flash back to the decade of Italian Neorealism during 1943. The term ‘neorealism’ was applied by Antonio Pietrangeli to one of Luchino Visconti’s films, Ossessione (1943), then some famous neorealism filmmakers such as Roberto Rosselini, Visconti and Vittorio De Sica, which were Rome, Open City (1945), Shoeshine (1946), Paisan (1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948) and The Earth Trembles (1948) in order to convey messages on the voice of poor working class (Hitchman, 2008). It all began when Italy was under Benito Mussolini in World War II. Mussolini has controlled the country since 1924, and also the censorship of films. During that time many Italians enjoyed Hollywood film, and these films successfully ‘doctrine’ Italians by picturing the admiring life of Hollywood. Since more Italians put attention on Hollywood films, Mussolini created censorship rules through dubbing control, as well as creating LUCE (L’unione Cinematografica Educativa 1925-1929) which produce movies that educates national politics and Italian culture with the intention of shifting Italians’ interest from Hollywood movies, and also to persuade Italians for further weapons before continuing World War II (‘The Cinema under Mussolini’, n.d). One year later, in 1943, Luigi Freddi led Direzione Generale per la Cinema, a state funded and controlled censorship institution, held up by Fascists and War Minister Officials. Their job was to examine scripts, award filmmakers who won films in a Fascism cause, and monitor the importation of foreign films (‘The Cinema under Mussolini’, n.d). The objective of this institution was like in Suharto’s regime. They want to ban Hollywood films due to the negative influence on their country’s nationalism, and additionally, Italian filmmakers could not make films that oppose Mussolini’s ideology of fascism. As a result, many Italian workers were depressed due to the lack of entertaining movies and the lacking of economic structure because of war. Therefore, Mussolini conducts ENIC (Ente Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche) bought up a movie theater chain. In 1938, the ENIC expanded to re-regulate the number of foreign films. This channel may lead to the increase of viewers as long as the importation was still limited. In addition, Mussolini established Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, a professional film school which still functions today (‘The Cinema under Mussolini’, n.d). More importantly, Mussolini opened up Italy’s first film studio, Cinecitta in 1937, to help filmmakers produce movies consist of Fascist messages. By the time Mussolini held the grand opening, April 21st, was very impactful that it was the day believed to be the founding of ancient Rome, thereby drawing a connection between the greatness of ancient Rome and that of Italian Cinema. Mussolini named himself the principal orchestra in Italian Cinema by placing a picture of himself behind a film camera with a spin-off of Lenin's quote , “Film is the most powerful weapon” at the Cinecitta' studios (‘The Cinema under Mussolini’, n.d). After the fall of Mussolini in 1943 in the end of World War II, some filmmakers created a liberation of film making, where directors shoot real locations, as well as using non-professional actors from factory and working class employees in order to cut the budget. In addition, filmmakers put an angle of the life of working class men, as a conveyance of Italy’s condition during Mussolini’s regime. For instance, the movie The Bicycle Thieves portrays life of a factory worker, Antonio Ricci, who was losing a bicycle for his main working transportation under post-World War II economic crisis. This man worked hard to find his bicycle by asking policemen for help, or else he wouldn’t have been able to work. The obstacles of prejudices of his economic status and untruthfulness made him obliged to steal one bike (De Sica, 1948). From this brief synopsis, this film indicates how the life of working class men has less privileges of earning a living due to high unemployment during post-war.

             As it is explained before, the aim of Italian neorealism is to emphasize social problems such as unemployment, poverty, and the life of working class men. Ideologically, besides focusing on social problems, filmmakers want to oppose fascism by focusing on an emphasized emotion rather than abstract ideas, with the purpose of showing sad emotions, natural acting, and sad endings. If we look at The Bicycle Thieves, the main actor in a nonprofessional. In fact, he is a factory worker which was assigned as an actor (Sphinxj1019, 2013). This style of film proves that making films can be done not just on studio, but on set as well, and since the sound control isn’t yet practical enough, filmmakers must redub their voices during editing, which indicates that these filmmakers proved that making films can be inspired from environments surrounding us. As a result, Italian Neorealism has influenced other film movements in France and Germany based on the political and social issues as well, until the France youth made La Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) such as Jean Luc-Godard, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer. They embraced neorealism as a benchmark of making films (2012) and soon the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Cinema) in the ideas low-budget style of filmmaking, after the declining of German Cinema.