Italian neorealism

Italian neorealism was a postwar film movement that portrayed ordinary people and social hardship through location shooting, naturalistic style, and frequent use of nonprofessional actors.

Location shooting: Filming scenes in real places rather than studio sets. Rubble-strewn streets and working-class neighborhoods supplied the movement’s material settings.
Rome, Open City: Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 film about resistance and civilian life under German occupation in Rome. Its urgent production and wartime setting made it an early landmark.
Fascist Italy: The authoritarian Italian state governed by Benito Mussolini from 1922 to 1943. Neorealist filmmakers rejected the escapist conventions associated with the fascist-era cinema industry.
Vittorio De Sica: An Italian film director and actor whose films include Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D. His collaborations with Zavattini made everyday poverty a sustained dramatic subject.
French New Wave: A French film movement of the late 1950s and 1960s marked by formal experimentation and personal filmmaking. Its location work and production freedom drew on precedents established by Italian neorealism.
Nonprofessional actor: A performer without formal acting training or an established professional acting career. Directors often cast ordinary people to give everyday characters an unpolished presence.
Bicycle Thieves: Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 film about a poor father searching Rome for his stolen bicycle. A modest theft expands into a portrait of poverty, dignity, and desperation.
Italian Resistance: The armed and civilian opposition to Nazi occupation and Italian fascism during World War II. Resistance experiences and liberation formed the immediate subject matter of early films.
Luchino Visconti: An Italian film director whose work ranged from neorealism to historical melodrama. La Terra Trema joined neorealist methods to a detailed account of class exploitation.
Satyajit Ray: An Indian filmmaker whose Apu Trilogy depicts ordinary life with humanist realism. Ray acknowledged neorealist cinema as a formative influence on his filmmaking.

Linked from 74 pages