Neo Realism Film Analysis

Neo-realism was a movement that was significant in Italy in the wake of the Second World War, as filmmakers sought to break away from the propagandistic cinematic traditions that had dominated the Italian film industry under Mussolini’s fascist rule. This movement ‘saw several filmmakers aiming to reveal contemporary social conditions’ (Bordwell and Thompson, 2012: 483 – 484) and in Bicycle Thieves (1948) specifically, De Sica focuses on the issue of the rising unemployment and poverty in post-war Italy. Neo-realism was accompanied by a distinctive style, a set of techniques and design choices that were consistent across the films produced as part of the movement. This style included, but was not limited to, the choice to film in a real setting rather than on …show more content…
A key scene which depicts Antonio cycling to his first day of work is arguably constructed in a way resembling the ending to a conventional Hollywood movie, with the inclusion of swelling non- diegetic music, long shots of the main characters in silhouette, and long take tracking shots following their smiling facial expressions. The end of the scene even resembles the cliché of the hero riding off into the distance as Antonio moves away from the camera. On one level, by adhering to stylistic conventions associated with happiness such as swelling music, De Sica is demonstrating Antonio’s joy as well as the degree of hope that something as simple as a bicycle can bring to the lives of the working class. The audience’s understanding of the importance of the bicycle is key to empathising with Antonio’s later despair over the bicycle’s theft, and thus is important to understanding the motivations of the characters in story