Chasing the Real: Italian Neorealism

‘Every movie is a product of its own time. But the neorealist movies were much much more than that. After neorealism, nothing would ever be the same again’
– Martin Scorsese

The neorealist impulse proved to be highly adaptable, its influence eventually expanding across the world. Its impact on today’s independent cinema is unquestionable.

In the early 1950s, the cultural reputation of neorealism, both in Italy and abroad, had become a burden to neorealist directors. It also proved increasingly difficult to make neorealist films, with political pressures keen to present a rosy portrait of Italian society, resulting in some form of precautionary censorship. As the second part of this season shows, by 1952, neorealism had seemingly exhausted itself, with its filmmakers drifting in different directions. Rossellini’s ‘cinema of the reconstruction’ explored psychological problems and middle-class protagonists. Visconti broke away from the principles of neorealism towards a different kind of realism. And De Sica was forging his own unique vision. However, as Zavattini had theorised, neorealism ‘doesn’t only mean war and post-war. It means hunger of the real, hunger of the moment we live in’. In this sense, and with its legacy, neorealism will never end.

Giulia Saccogna, season curator

With thanks to

Camilla Cormanni, Paola Ruggiero, Germana Ruscio, Marco Cicala at Cinecittà.

Carmen Accaputo at Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna.