The Ever-Evolving Neorealist Film

 Jennifer Carlos

Professor Sapphire

COM126

11/6/20

The Ever-Evolving Neorealist Film

    In the aftermath of wartime devastation, the Neorealist film movement began to develop in post World War II Italy which focused on the simple depiction of the everyday lives of the lower class. By frequently using non-professional actors, real locations, and a documentary visual style, directors have succeeded in this portrayal. As the human race evolved in its way of life, so don't the films change their portrayals of “real life”. 

    The Italian Neorealism film movement came to life as World War II ended, signaling a cultural change in Italy. This shift brought a more compassionate point of view to cinema, with emphasis on the value of ordinary people. These films were originally made to explore the conditions the poor were living in, and all of the hardships that came with living in a post-war country attempting to move on with life despite its Fascist past. Audiences are treated similarly to the children in these movies, mainly observers of difficulties which hold the key to the future. These films were typically characterized by the use of actual locations, nonprofessional actors, loose storytelling, conversational speech, a documentary visual style, and minimalist editing, camerawork, and lighting. 

    Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica has quite a simple storyline for most of its runtime; a workman’s bicycle being stolen. Antonio Ricci, the film’s center, is accompanied by his son, Bruno, on the journey to get his bicycle back. But it’s a painful trip through Rome’s underbelly, away from tourist landmarks and spectacles. Along the way, Ricci loses his dignity and is humiliated time and time again, indicative of the hardships faced by the average man living in that time period . Audiences are shown the homeless in a wartorn country, their desperation palpable through visuals stunning in their simplicity. When Antonio steals a bicycle of his own and is forgiven by its owner, De Sica begs a nagging question. Was Ricci wrong for his actions, or simply a product of his environment? Bruno acts as a stand-in for viewers, deprived of his innocence and forced to observe the harsh realities of life play out in front of him while remaining powerless against them.

    Charles Burnett’s film Killer of Sheep (1977) also has a similar structure to Bicycle Thieves, or lack thereof. Another workman traverses through life, tirelessly bearing witness to atrocities day after day and being unable to affect change in the world around him. While De Sica’s film has a clear plot, Killer of Sheep is more of an everyday life, documentary style film. Both focus on a family man who has his ticket to freedom taken from him, in one instance a bike and the other a motor. Only this time, the main character, Stan, doesn’t try to win his hope back, but simply survive day to day. In grainy black and white, it’s a bleak reality portrayed as fleeting moments display the dissatisfaction his life holds, and the way that every action he takes feels like a step closer to a dead end. After being disconnected and dissatisfied with his family for its entire runtime, the film ends on a positive note as Stan shares a genuine moment of happiness with his wife, the first time viewers see a genuine smile on his face. 

    Burnett himself, being a black man in the 1970’s, speaks volumes for the film's message as a disenfranchised member of society at that time with little to no money and no reputation in the film stratosphere. Despite this, he was able to find the freedom to make a film so ambitious, and allowed for an honest depiction of life at the time for too many.  As Chris Norton writes, there is also a war to be dealt with in this film, “the war that plagues the inner-city and its inhabitants.” Poverty plagues the streets in the film, but even outside of it, Burnett was unable to afford the rights to the music on his soundtrack, thus it was not distributed until 30 years later. This directing amid adversity, and centering on said adversity, has paved the way for other black independent filmmakers to share their stories while avoiding the glitz and glam of hollywood. Sticking to the basics and true grit of the streets is not only a prime stylistic choice of this movement, but a cost effective one. This is seen with early independent  Italian filmmakers that lacked funding, and is a useful tool when according to the United States Department of Commerce in 2019, African American poverty rates were more than twice those of whites. 

    Moonlight (2016) directed by Barry Jenkins would not be able to exist without the films aforementioned. The film follows a young black man named Chiron through three chapters of his life: childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Given free-range in Miami during the crack epidemic, he is guided by the kindness of strangers, but faces his fair share of difficulties as he struggles with his homosexuality and identity, along with physical and emotional abuse from those closest to him. While Chiron was heartbroken as a child by the revelation that his surrogate father was his mother’s drug dealer, he later finds himself similarly dealing drugs in a hollow adulthood. A victim of circumstance or a product of his environment, he moves to another city to hide his sexual orientation and fabricates a persona. The film ends with him reconnecting with  the one person that made him accept who he was and is, and after confronting his demons, gifted a moment where he finally seems at peace. The film closes on a relatively positive note, There are striking similarities been Moonlight and Killer of Sheep, whether it be their lack of conventional plot structure, depiction of  the lives of a working-class black community, or the deep sensitivity they both possess for their subject matter. 

    Although Neorealism has evolved as the lives of the disenfranchised have changed over the years, there are certain elements that will never go away. The value of ordinary people, the depiction of unglamorous life, and situations that make moral judgements difficult to make. Quick judgments are much easier in the real world, because one doesn’t have access or simply doesn’t care to learn the full truth of someone’s situation. That’s the beauty of these films; context. Children play an equally important role, innocent and blissfully unaware of the world’s misdeeds until each slowly begins to witness and learn, similar to the audience. While these films all have a sense of hopelessness and desperation throughout, each ends on a relatively positive note. Even if life is harsh, cruel, and oppressive for the less fortunate, there will always be moments of beauty to be found that make it worth living.