"Italian Neorealism started with Ossessione and ended with Umberto D. The movement is characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed in long takes on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors for secondary and sometimes primary roles. Italian neorealist films mostly contend with the difficult economic and moral conditions of postwar Italy, reflecting the changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: defeat, poverty, and desperation. Because Cinecittà was occupied by refugees, films were shot outdoors, amidst devastation.

The movement was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine Cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Gianni Puccini, Giuseppe De Santis, and Pietro Ingrao. Largely prevented from writing about politics (the editor-in-chief was Vittorio Mussolini, son of Benito Mussolini), the critics attacked the telefono bianco films that dominated the industry at the time. As a counter to the poor quality of mainstream films, some of the critics felt that Italian cinema should turn to the realist writers from the turn of the century. The neorealists were heavily influenced by French poetic realism. Indeed, both Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti had worked closely with Jean Renoir."

CHARACTERISTICS

Ideologically, the characteristics of Italian Neorealism were:

1. A new democratic spirit, with emphasis on the value of ordinary people.
2. A compassionate point of view and a refusal to make easy moral judgements.
3. A preoccupation with Italy's Fascist past and its aftermath of wartime devastation.
4. A blending of Christian and Marxist humanism.
5. An emphasis on emotions rather than abstract ideas.

Stylistically, Italian Neorealism was:

1. An avoidance of neatly plotted stories in favor of loose, episodic, organic structures.
2. A documentary visual style.
3. The use of real locations, usually exteriors, rather than studios.
4. The use of nonprofessional actors and nonliterary dialogue.
5. Avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork, and lighting in favor of a simple 'styless' style.

KEY DIRECTORS

Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Giuseppe De Santis, Cesare Zavattini, Ermanno Olmi, Pietro Germi, Luigi Zampa, Michelangelo Antonioni

ALSO INCLUDED

PINK NEOREALISM (1952-1966): [Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952) - The Birds, The Bees and The Italians (1966)]

"Pink Neorealism was the dominant form the movement took in the early 1950s. The huge success of Luigi Comencini's Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread, Love, and Fantasy) led to a string of imitations that continued well into the 1960s. Rosy Neorealism retained some use of locations and nonprofessional actors, and it occasionally took on social problems, but it absorbed Neorealism into the robust tradition of Italian comedy. As economic recovery continued to move Italy toward greater prosperity, audiences did not welcome Neorealism's focus on poverty and suffering".

SECOND WAVE NEOREALISM (1953-1978): [The Young and the Passionate (1953) - The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)]

"The films in Second Wave are deeply indebted to neorealism but don't belong strictly to its canon, being characterized by more ideological intentions."

FURTHER READING

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_neorealism
cinecollage.net/neorealism.html
www.artandpopularculture.com/Pink_neorealism