Realist Film Movements Neorealismo 3 Films of Luchino

Realist Film Movements Neorealismo (3) Films of Luchino Visconti

1) Common Neorealist Elements 2) Luchino Visconti, the ‘first’ neorealist? 3) La Terra trema 4) Neorealist Ideals and Reality

Common Neorealist Elements (1) In CONTENT a. An emphasis on contemporary subjects and the life of the working class b. Calling (indirect) for political reform and unity c. Moral commitment to make characters’ problems gain universal recognition d. Beauty of ordinary life, drama hidden in everyday life

(2) In FORM a. Location shooting b. Use of non-professional actors c. (Rough, off-hand composition) d. Shooting with available natural light e. Restraint in using expressive shots (close-up, wide-angle, telephoto, zoom shot, etc. ) f. Long(ish) take g. Restraint in expressive montage

War-time devastation in Naples in Paisà Naples

Pasquale and Arcangeli in fight, Shoeshine fights

Filing with available natural light

Day for night (nuit americaine) Shane Come Back!

Normal lens (35 -50 mm) in Rome, Open City

Shot size: long shot, medium shot, close-up

Wide angle lens images

Fish eye lens image in The Killing of a Dear (2017)

Telephoto lens images

Luchino Visconti, a first neorealist? • Born on 2 Nov. 1906 and died on 17 March 1976. • Aristocrat, film and theatre director: the maker of the films of harsh realism as well as sublime melodrama

• Met Jean Renoir in Paris in the 1930 s through the introduction of Coco Chanel and worked for him. • Returning to Italy during the war, he became a resistance fighter and Marxist. • The leading light of Neorealismo.

His Works Early works - neorealist • Ossessione (1943) • Days of Glory (Giorni di gloria, 1945) • La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles, 1948)

Who is Luchino’s Works • Ossessione (1943) - based on James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, it is about a doomed love affair between a drifter and the wife of a roadside restaurant owner. • First neorealist film (? ) Trattoria Murder

Luchino Visconti’s Works Giorni di gloria (Days of Glory, 1945) with Giuseppe de Santis and Mario Serandrei - a documentary film about partisans’ struggle against the fascism and the retaliation and the trials of fascists after the war.

Luchino Visconti’s Works La Terra Trema (1948) - based on Giovanni Verga’s Il Malavoglia, it is about a fisherman family’s revolt against the exploitation and its failure.

La Terra trema a) An emphasis on contemporary subjects and the life of the working class -- The pressing contemporary issue - the exploitation of the poor in the South

La Terra trema c) Calling (indirect) for political reform and unity by showing how fishermen cannot escape the exploitation, the film indirectly appeal for a social reform and solidarity of workers.

La Terra trema c) Moral commitment to make characters’ problems gain universal recognition – Luchino Visconti stayed in the village with his film crew for one full year and made the film to communicate the plight of fishermen to the viewer.

La Terra trema d) Beauty of ordinary life, drama hidden in everyday life – fishermen go fishing, their family wait at home, and their simple living.

La Terra trema a) Location shooting Shot entirely on location in a fishing village called Aci Trezza, eastern Sicily.

La Terra trema b) Use of non-professional actors - All the people who appear in the film are fishermen, residents or their families there.

La Terra trema e) Restraint in using expressive shots (close-up, wide-angle, telephoto, zoom shot, etc. )

La Terra trema • PARADOX AND CONTRADICTION • ‘Realistic’ representation of the life in a Sicilian fishing village / A Marxist reinterpretation of the novel of Giovanni Verga, I Malavoglia (Financially backed by the Italian Communist Party. )

Contradictions c) Rough, off-hand composition – perfectly balanced and calculated composition; balanced distributions of characters and objects on the screen like a painting – Golden rule of Western paintings

La Terra trema • Painterly composition - triangle composition (golden triangle)

La Terra trema • Casper Friedrich, The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog 1818 • Mary Cassat, The Family 1892

Visconti’s composition of frames is like painting

Or symmetrical

Or highly imbalanced

Expressive deep focus photography

d) Shooting with available natural light? – Highly atmospheric lighting in a close-up shot

Low-key lighting

Reflected image in the mirror in low-key lighting

Long takes with fluid and eloquent camera movements

Luchino Viscont’s Works • Career after neorealismo • Theatre and opera producer - life long career • Visconti’s visual style developed in his neorealist period continued to employed in his later films. • Composition from Il Gattopardo (The Leopard)

Deep focus like a painting (Il Gattopardo)

Edgar Degas Dinner at the Ball

Deep focus photography (Il Gattopardo)

Symmetrical composition (Il Gattopardo)

Low-key lighting (Il Gattopardo)

Close up (Il Gattopardo)

Imbalanced composition in a wide screen format (Il Gattopardo)

Luchino Visconti’s Works Golden ratio in the painting (Death in Venice)

Golden ratio or golden section