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neorealism(s)
1945-1948
partigiani, banditi, amanti e perdentipartisans, bandits, lovers, and losers
Partigiani italiani Firenze, Italia
Italian Partisans Florence, Italy
1944
“It was the first time that the working classes armed themselves. The people took up arms and became the protagonist of their own destiny. They fought against the dictatorship to win their freedom and to demand their right to their own aspirations. The face of Italian cinema suddenly changed: no longer was it the petty or middle bourgeoisie, but the people in all their layerings. These people had now become protagonists, they wanted to matter.”
- Giuseppe De Santis, filmmaker
fotogramma tratto da Roma città aperta
still from Rome, Open City
1945
“In a confusing way I sensed, however, that another struggle was beginning: longer, more difficult, more tiring, even if less bloody. It was no longer the question of fighting against arrogance, cruelty and violence… but… of not allowing that little flame of solidarity and fraternal humanism, which we had seen born, to die in the calm atmosphere of an apparent return to normal life.”
- Ada Gobetti, writer
fotogramma tratto da Sciuscià
still from Shoeshine
1946
“Film is merchandise. If the Government has the right to control the export of vegetables and fruits to make sure that they are not rotten, it also has the right, and the duty, to prevent the circulation of films infected with the spirit of neo-realism.”
- Mario Scelba, Christian Democrat Minister of the Interior
“What has happened to the cinema is exactly what has happened to the entire nation of Italy: the scum of our civil life that rose to the top during the Fascist period, and which seemed swept away forever after the war, has returned in full force and has demanded (not without a certain arrogance), and obtained, legitimacy.”
- Giuseppe Ferrara, filmmaker
fotogramma tratta da La terra trema
still from The Earth Trembles
1948
“During the Resistance and, for a short moment, at the Liberation, all had seemed possible to us.”
- Carlo Levi, writer
cw: graphic documentary violence
Giorni di gloria
Days of Glory
1945