Neorealism In Ladri Essay

The two post World War Two movements that affected the development of film narrative and style were neorealism and the new wave. Neorealism was not as original as historians once thought, but it did create a distinct approach to fictional filmmaking that had an enormous influence on cinema in other countries (FH 330). One of the most vivid Italian films to represent postwar suffering was Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) in 1948. This story is of a worker whose livelihood depends on his bicycle shows the brutality of postwar life (FH 332). This film showed unique character because of how well it was shot on location, rather then in a professional studio. Vittorio De Sica also gave the audience a sad ending, which reflected the reality of what was going on during that time. The war had caused the Italian film industry to lose its organizational center, allowing neorealism to emerge as a force for cultural and social change. Robert Rossellini’s filmmaking introduced a new style involving the psychological effects war and recovery had on an individual. Rossellini’s “war trilogy” (1945-48) of Open City, Paisan and Germany Year Zero attempted to revivify humanism in what he perceived as a decaying society (FH 337). …show more content…
Stylistically, Truffaut’s films fault zoom shots, choppy editing, casual compositions, and bursts of quick humor or sudden violence (FH 410). The sensitive film The 400 (1959), is about a troubled boy who is misunderstood and thought by his parents to be a troublemaker. The famous ending for this film made the freeze frame technique a favored device for expressing unresolved situations. Truffaut goes on to win the directors prize for this film at Cannes (the same festival which banned him one year earlier), which gave the new wave great international prestige (FH 407). Truffaut had a reputation for on-screen sensitivity to children, women, and