Vittorio de Sicas The Bicycle Thief Essay - 3286 Words

Vittorio de Sicas The Bicycle Thief Since the beginning of its existence as a country, Italy has faced enormous challenges in establishing itself as a unified political and social entity. The geographic, economic, and linguistic differences between its various regions and the artificial manner in which they were amalgamated created a legacy of internal divisions that continues to dominate the countrys political climate to this day. Italys numerous historical fiascoes, such as its disastrous involvement in the two World Wars and the rise of fascism, further escalated the domestic problems that had haunted it since the Risorgimento. At first, the anti-fascist Resistance movement, which dominated the end of World War II, seemed to†¦show more content†¦Originally applied to the government of Agostino Depretis in the 1880s, transformismo quickly became equated with any ethically questionable, self-interested actions taken by public officials purely for the sake of staying in office and maintaining power. This often manifested itself in the creation of a smoke screen of reformatory rhetoric intended to satisfy the electorate, without a subsequent introduction of any real reforms. The colonialist manner in which Piedmont annexed the other regions to create a united Italy during the Risorgimento and the divisions inherent in the new kingdom resulted in a historical compromise that made any deliberate social change very difficult. Consequently, Italian leaders of the destra storica and sinistra storica (the first two eras of Italian political history) shifted their focus from meaningful governance to the practice of transformismo, permanently shaping the face of Italian political life. The prevailing motto of this practice was captured perfectly in a line from Luchino Viscontis 1963 film, The Leopard: Things must change in order to stay the same. Attendismo, the other type of quasi-action, was a tendency of the leftist Italian parties to passively wait for change to occur from the outside, without taking any substantial revolutionary action on their own. The Socialist Partys slogan No support, but noShow MoreRelatedItalian Neorealism ( 1945-1953 )1909 Words   |  8 PagesItalian neorealism (1945-1953), through directors like Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica, made its trademark on cinematic history not only in Italy, but also throughout the world. It was films such as Rome Open City (Roma città   aperta, 1945), The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di biciclette, 1948), and Umberto D., (1952) whose style of depicting the harsh economic and social realities of the poor and working class of Italy took off as a new cinematic style after World War II. Neorealism is a responseRead MoreTheme Of Neorealism In Ladri Di Biciclette1348 Words   |  6 Pagesscreenwriters who help start the Neorealism movement in his home county’s ci nema once said â€Å" The true purpose on cinema is not to tell fables...There must be no gap between life and what is on the screen.† His screenplay, Ladri Di Biciclette (known as Bicycle Thieves to American audiences) is an artful manifestation of the Italian Neorealism. The film through numerous narrative aspects captures realistic snapshot into the fictional life of a working class family in post WWII Italy, and even has viewersRead MoreBicycle Thieves1588 Words   |  7 PagesVittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves is a simple story set amidst a post-war Rome. It is a neorealist film characterized by setting the story amongst the poor and working class. The film surrounds the difficult economical and moral conditions of post WWII Italy, reflecting the conditions of everyday life: Poverty and desperation, with the implicit message that in a better society, wealth would be more evenly distributed. The plot is simple, surrounding a man, his son and a bicycle. The fil m tellsRead MoreBicycle Thieves1596 Words   |  7 PagesVittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves is a simple story set amidst a post-war Rome. It is a neorealist film characterized by setting the story amongst the poor and working class. The film surrounds the difficult economical and moral conditions of post WWII Italy, reflecting the conditions of everyday life: Poverty and desperation, with the implicit message that in a better society, wealth would be more evenly distributed. The plot is simple, surrounding a man, his son and a bicycle. The film tellsRead MoreThe Work Bicycle Thieves By Vittorio De Sica2024 Words   |  9 Pages The work Bicycle Thieves is chosen to be discussed in this essay. Bicycle Thieves is an Italian film published in 1948, directed by Vittorio De Sica. It gained both commercial and artistic success, and have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1948. The film is famous for its neorealism that reflects the post-war Italian society. In the following essay, I’m going to discuss how did De Sica use the cinematography skills to strengthen his expressions in Bicycle Thieves, and theRead MoreRepresentation Of The Working Class2386 Words   |  10 Pagescinema has provided an unparalleled insight into the shifting socio-political landscape of pre and post-war Italy. From Pastrone’s depiction of Maciste, the immortal strongman, born to use his ‘working class brawn against evil’ (Flanagan 2001: 91) to De Sica’s portrayal of the Ricci family’s financial post-war despair in Ladri di Biciclette (1948), the representation of the workin g-class in Italian cinema changed considerably during the three decades since Pastrone’s Cabiria (1914). There certainly seemsRead MoreFilm and Soviet Bloc Nations Essay1312 Words   |  6 Pagesthat were against the communist societies. The films intoxicated people that hate the communist societies, saying that these people were murderers, didn’t have children and also caused problems when arrested. Films such as, In Vittorio de Sica’s featuring the Bicycle Thief, was produced in 1950s. What factors lay behind the upscaling of Hollywood film genres during the 1950s? Identify the significant genres of the postwar period, and explain how each was affected by enhanced production valuesRead MoreRealism and Film Form1980 Words   |  8 Pagesalso for form, as many literarry procedures translate into film technique elements. (dezvolta cu literatura realista maybe?) Choosing a particular example of Italian neorealism to show how filmmakers translated realism into film form. In Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette, there is not much focus on the story itself, but on how it is presented: the long takes, the smooth editing, getting rid of the unnecessary to emulate the outter world experience. Light, camera angles, editing, movementRead MoreA View from the Bridge: Story of a Brooklyn Longshoreman6101 Words   |  25 PagesItaly are the films of the Italian neorealist movement. Cesare Zavattini and Vittorio De Sica defined the principles of the neorealist movement: â€Å"†¦to write fictions about the human side of representative social, political, and economic conditions; to shoot on location whenever possible; to use untrained actors†¦to capture and reflect reality with little or no compromise† (Kawin 342). Miller even references one of De Sica’s most popular films in an effort to communicate the desperate circu mstances he