Italian Cinema and culture - Research Paper Example

Italian Cinema and culture Thesis The main idea in this research paper is that films and theatre productions areinfluences by the culture and events of the community. Most of the Italian films of these period applied neorealist style with minimum modification of scene most of it being done outside the studios. Introduction Neorealism was a film movement in Italy that was mainly characterized by stories set among the poor community against the working class that were mainly filmed on location and usually using non professional actors (Marcus 250). The major issues discussed were everyday life situations such s poverty, oppression, injustices and desperation. The movie bicycle thief is about a struggling head of the family who is trying to fight for his family survival. Looks for a job and when a hope finally arrives and he are offered a job to distribute posters (Samuel & Olive 40). His means of moving to work, his bicycle is stolen by an unfamiliar young man. Antonio, the father hopes that the police would help get the thief, only to learn that they are not interested in the case since Antonio does not have any witnesses to help with the investigations. Opting to literary look for the thief in the streets of Rome Antonio faces many challenges and finally doesn’t succeed. The other film life is beautiful is based on the life of a family that struggles to live a happy life as a unit. They live on a ranch oblivious of the occurrences outside. The war continued (Benigin 200). They are seized by soldiers on the day of their son’s birthday and taken to a common prison. The father, Guido wants to protect his son, Giosue, who is only four and a half and very innocent. He gives him a fictional, but almost believable story of how the family has won a trip, and they have to perform some tasks to win the reward. Guido is very convincing with his explanation and uses it to protect the son from the terrifying realities of life in prison especially for a child who is that young and separated from his mother. In the end, Guido is executed but does not want Guisue to witness it, so he tells him to hide as part of the ‘game’. Guisue spots his mother Dora in the crowd of other female prisoners, and that’s how he starts to connect the disappearance of his father and the “game” and recalls of his statements of him sacrificing for his family (Bullaro 200). These two movies express the struggles of the community members in the post war Italy. The families were trying to remain happy and keeping the hope for a better day to come. Since they are based on partially true experiences of the main characters they are realistic to their lives, which area characterized by; poverty, oppression, injustice and desperation. Poverty In both films, the families are facing financial constrains and means for survival. For instance, in the Bicycle thieves, Antonio had even pawned his bicycle before this job offer came up. They have to give up their dowry bed sheets to the pawnbroker in order to recover it. When the bicycle is then stolen, and they report the case to the police no much concern is shown. Father and son having to walk to the city to look for the thief, they could not afford other means to get there (Samuel & Olive 100). These scenes demonstrate the poverty of the urban Italian community at that time with most of them being unemployed and have to rely on odd job. For instance, Lamberto Maggirani, the character who played Antonio in the movie was a construction worker and the film reflected his actual life and the state of financial lack. The film was shot on location therefore appearance of the characters on it reflects how they live. The small boy was real son. In life is beautiful, the head of the family could not raise enough money to afford his young family a home the end up being hosted at uncle’s ranch. The son believes the story that they had won a trip because to him the family rarely traveled away from home. This was a new experience (Benigin 200). He even believes that they have to perform the hard tasks in order to get the reward of a tank. This shows that they were used to performs such tasks and winning a tank would have been worthy of the hard and difficult manual work. Even the rural families were struggling to make end meet with a majority of them being unemployed and have to perform manual jobs on the ranches and farm. They learnt that from an early age as demonstrated by Guido asking his son to help with tasks and the small boy complies without much resistance (Bullaro 200). Oppression and injustice The post war Italian community was mired by oppression of the lower class families by the working and rich in the society. Even with performing the hard manual work the family in the fill bicycle thieves does not raise enough money for their sustenance. They even have to pawn some of their personal belonging to raise extra cash (Samuel & Olive 120). To redeem the items they give the bed sheets. And at the pawn brokers place there was a pile of bed sheets brought by other families. The pawn is only interested on the gains he makes from the business and does not care trouble those families go through. He is taking advantage of being at a higher Socio economic status than the so the he can keep piling more income to himself. This was a common trend in the urban communities, taking advantage of the poor young families by paying them little income, and the items they acquired would finally be taken from them. In life is beautiful the families go through an unjust arrest just before they can even celebrate their son’s birthday. No explanation is offered for the arrest, and when they get to the prison the family is separated. There are other families at the prison who probably went through a similar prosecution (Benigin 200). This was injustice on the young families, and no one in the government seems to be interested in protecting the right of these people. The prisons were public institutions, and the country’s leadership must have been aware of the oppression taking in the institutions. Even young children have to perform the manual job (Bullaro 200). They are also required not to complain, cry, or even say that they are hungry. Even when they don’t see their parents they are not expected to make any demands to be with them. Any child who dares to act to that manner is immediately executed by the soldiers who were in charge of the prison (Benigin 200). This is the most heartless injustice that can be done on a child. The children who survive these acts are exposed to severe psychological torture, and no counseling is offered to them struggle to handle the realities on their own. This is why Guido opts for the option of downplaying the hard realities to just a mere game so that his son is not traumatized. He tells him that the children are just hiding so that they can concentrate on the “game”. In the post war, Italy such prisons were very common and children, old people, expectant women, the disable and any other group that was deemed to be unimportant to the prison due to their inability to perform manual work were executed immediately. Those who criticized these actions such as the character Guido in this movie are also executed. Desperation Desperation is the feeling of hopelessness and giving up on life. The young families in the two films go through moments of desperation. For instance in the Bicycle thieves, the family knows that if Antonio doesn’t have a bicycle then he would not get the job offer and obviously their life would continue to be that of struggle for survival (Samuel & Olive 100). Everyone tries to help redeem their only hope for a better life, and they make desperate moves for the desperate times. Dora gives her bed sheets and even escorts her husband to the pawn broker’s place. On their way back, they are in a celebratory mood. This shows just how desperate they were, maybe never even hoped to get the bicycle there and have it back. When the bicycle is stolen Antonio is desperate again and runs after the thief, but he eludes. Even making frantic efforts to inform the police do not help since he did not have any witnesses to support his cause and he opts to seek justice on his own. It out of the desperation, that the son offers to take his father to the street of Rome to look for the thief despite it being a far off distance. They walk to the place and search frantically in all places despite the big crowds. In the end, Antonio is feeling so desperate, and when he locates the unattended bicycle he gets some urge to steal it since this would be the only way to secure a job to support his family. He sends his son away at a safe distance and goes ahead with the plan which was as a result of desperation. Unfortunately, he is caught by the crowd which beats him up as his son observes desperately unable to do anything to rescue him. Frustration comes as over the duo and they almost cry, but crying would not help. Even as the walk away it means that Antonio would secure the job and the frustration of a jobless father would linger for longer. This was a common phenomenon among the post war Italian families especially those living in urban centre. Most of the lived a frustrated life since they could not support their families. The jobless wives would do just about anything to help their husbands secure some form of employment. Some young women even opted to go into prostitution. In the film, there is a scene where the characters get into a prostitution den, and they are chased away. Family life The Italian communities valued family life, and they lived in united units even with the hardships that they were experiencing. They also protected the interest of the family with all that they could. For instance in the film bicycle thieve, Antonio had a wife and two children even if he and wife were jobless (Samuel & Olive 120). They offered each other moral support even with frustration for instance the Maria offering to help Antonio to get his bicycle back so that he could use unit for the better opportunity that had come up. When Bruno offers to accompany his father to the city in search of the thief, this shows that they had a good father-son relationship. To protect his son from the difficult reality Antonio tells him to wait by the bridge, and when there is an alarm that a small boy was drowning Antonio abandons his pursuit to respond to the alarm and is relieved that it was not his son. At the stadium when Antonio thinks of escaping with the unattended bicycle be takes caution and sends his son to go ahead although this plan fails. The son stays with his father even after learning what he was being accused of by the mob. In the film life is beautiful; Giudo marries a local school teacher Dora who opts for him over the prior fiance who was an arrogant civil servant. This was despite Guido being jobless and they go ahead to live happily on the ranch. When Antonio and their son are arrested Dora insists on being taken along not to be separated from her family (Benigin 200). They both care for their son and to protect him from the hard reality, a fiction story is told to him that this was just a trip the family had won. Guido does everything and anything to protect his son both physically and emotionally. He makes sure he is not frightened by the disappearance of other children at the prison and tells him that they are just hiding. When he was about to be executed he tell his son, in a witty way to stay way (Bullaro 200). Giosue recalls his father’s talk on making a sacrifice protect his family, and it seems in the end he had made the ultimate sacrifice by being executed instead of his son. These scenes in the two films demonstrate the efforts that families were making to remain united. The heads of the family took their duties seriously. The wives submitted and committed to their wives while children learnt to trust and obey their parents. This could be based on the fact that a majority of the people was Christians or followed some religious traditions which emphasized on the family as the basic unit social unit. There was strict teaching of the religious dogmas and the undisputed adherence to them (Bullaro 200). Conclusion From the analysis of the above two films, it is true to conclude that films are influence by the occurrence in the society. Despite production at different periods in history, the two films reflect the trends that characterized the society that lived in Italy after the World War II. Most of the young families were struggling for survival. The political setup was still very delicate and some of the oppressive institutions were still operating and they were hubs to activities of human right abuse and child labor and there were no clear policies to stop this oppression. The mood in the urban society included frustration and feeling of desperation especially due to the high unemployment. Work Cited Samuel, Robert, Olive, Gordon. Bicycle thieves. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pg 1-122 Lamberto Maggiorani, Luigi Bartolini. Bicycle thieves; Ente Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche, 1948, pg 200 Roberto Benigin. Life is Beautiful; Miramax films, December20, 1997.pg 200 Bullaro, Russo.G. Beyond 'Life Is Beautiful': Comedy and Tragedy in the Cinema of Roberto Benigni. Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2005, PG 200 Marcus, Millicent. Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism. Princeton University Press, 1986, pg 250 Read More