This document discusses concepts from Marxism and provides context about the development of Italian neorealism as a film movement. It summarizes that neorealism emerged in Italy after World War II to show the struggles of ordinary people, using documentary-style techniques. A key example discussed is The Bicycle Thief, which portrayed postwar realities in Italy without embellishment. The document also notes some of the stylistic techniques and ideologies of neorealism films.

1. CMLIT 153

2. Marxism, The Bicycle Thief and Beijing Bicycle

3. Some Marxist Concepts The Proletariat

4. Some Marxist Concepts The Bourgeoisie

5. Some Marxist Concepts Means of Production & Means of Mental Production

6. Means of Mental production: Art for the Masses Popular art and Shakespeare (late 16 th Century). The theatre as a popular art form. Film replacing the theatre as a popular art form for the masses (late 19 th ,20 th & 21 st century)

7. The Politics of Representation In Art Media and worldviews (media effects studies). Madame Butterfly by John Luther Long, vs M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang. Italian neorealism and the politics of representation.

8. Birth of Italian Neorealism Given birth in the aftermath of Word War II Films at the time were filled with decadent interiors and backgrounds The protagonist always finds a resolution (unrealistic happy endings) Imported American films that did not reflect the realities of ordinary Italians Anti-Fascist journalist Leo Longanesi urged directors to "go into the streets, into the barracks, into the train stations; only in this way can an Italian cinema be born.“ (1935)

9. Birth of Italian Neorealism Transition from agriculture to manufacturing. People struggled to make ends meet (25% unemployment) There was an outcry for films that reflected these realities. Neorealist cinema was considered the cinema of “facts”. Showing films in real time, resisting the urge to edit. Showing reality without embellishment or artifice.

10. The Bicycle Thief and Neorealist Ideologies 1. a new democratic spirit, with emphasis on the value of ordinary people 2. a compassionate point of view and a refusal to make facile (easy) moral judgments 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

11. The Stylistics of Italian Neorealism 1. a documentary visual style 2. the use of actual locations--rather than studio sites 3. the use of nonprofessional actors, even for principal roles 4. use of conversational speech, not literary dialogue 6. avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork, and lighting in favor of a simple "styless" style

12. Reception Of Bicycle Thief Italian audiences did not like these new films. Why? The Andreotti Law (1949): offered subsidies for films that painted Italy in a better light.