| Luchino
Visconti |
 |
Terra
Trema, La (1948)
Documentary-like and filmed on location in Sicilian
dialect, it explores how fishers are exploited by
wholesalers. One family tries to escape them by being
their own boss with predictable consequences. |
 |
Ossessione
(1943)
Grim tale about a semi-literate tramp falling for
the young wife of an old tavern keeper. This leads
to murder and distrust in a film credited with signalling
the origins of Italian neo-realism. |
| Roberto
Rossellini |
|
|
Flowers
of St. Francis, The (1950)
Story of St. Francis of Assisi and his followers,
profoundly told by the Patron Saint of Italian Neo-Realism
and avowed atheist. The final time that Fellini
collaborates with Rosselli, but traces of neo-realism
can be found in Fellini's later work. |
|
Paisan
(1946)
Textbook Italian neorealism, and is a fascinating
study of the American advance into Italy during WWII.
Episodic film is chronologically divided into six
vignettes that begin with the Allied invasion of Sicily
in 1943 and conclude with liberation in 1945. |
 |
Germany
Year Zero (1948)
Garrison Keillor teams with the legendary director
for his swan song with film version of Keillor's long
running radio show. |
 |
Open
City (1945)
Classic Rossellini film often credited for introducing
Italian neo-realism to the world, but it's worth watching
for more than historic reasons.how. Notable are acting
performances by Magnani and Fabrizi. |
| Vittorio
De Sica |
|
|
Terminal
Station (1953)
A Philadelphia housewife must choose whether to return
home to safety and security or risk everything for
passion and remain in Italy. Departing from classic
neo-realism, De Sica uses professional actors but
does shoot on location primarily inside Rome's famous
train station. |
|
Bicycle
Thief, The (1948)
Definitive example of post World War II Italian neo-realism
remains powerful and unforgettable. De Sica researched
impoverished Rome for inspiration and used non-professional
actors to achieve his cinema verité appearance. |
|
|
Umberto D. (1952)
Film that marks an end to the movement. Apparently
tired of depressing postwar depictions, Italian audiences
wanted lighter fare, and De Sica's film didn't gain
critical recognition until it reached U.S. distribution
nearly five years later. |
|
Shoe-Shine
(1946)
Pauline Kael describes De Sica's portrait of "painful
beauty" as if "Mozart had written an opera set in
poverty." An air of tragedy looms over the tightly
constructed black and white drama, and eventual heartbreak
is inevitable. |
| Pier
Paolo Pasolini |
 |
Gospel
According to St. Mathew, The (1964)
Like his neo-realistic predecessors, Pasolini shoots
this low budget film on location in Italy with a handful
of non-professional actors, so the resulting gritty
black and white drama comes across starkly in cinema
verité style. |
 |
Accatone
(1961)
Although not technically a member of Italian neo-realists,
Pasolini was clearly influenced by them--using a number
of non actors for his low budget location shoots.
The subject matter matches as well here as he paints
portraits of Rome's underbelly, following the hopeless
of its slums through a charismatic pimp. |
