War and Politics in European Cinema - Essay Example

War and Politics in European Cinema War and Politics in European Cinema Neo-realism Neo-realism is a group of films and contemporary cinemas that shared some core features of method characterized by the use of non-professional characters, location shooting and natural lighting. In addition, the attitude, the desire and willingness to get the realities of everyday life, the lives of post-war famous classes and ideologies, hopes of early political renewal and a late loss of hope brought about by the failure of the renewal. Each of the above characteristics helped to build on the director’s ultimate goal of conveying hope of renewal and later pessimism (Marcus 1987, 24) Since the time it existed as a country, Italy has faced many challenges in its efforts towards establishing itself as a unified and democratic political and social entity. The geographic and linguistic differences between the various regions and the original manner in which they were integrated created several internal divisions that have continued to dominate the countrys politics up to this day. Italy’s involvement in the World Wars and the rise of fascism escalated further domestic problems that had haunted it for long periods. The Anti-fascist Resistance movement at the end of the World War II seemed to bring a sense of hope to Italy promising a new era of reforms, freedom and democracy. However, this hope was short-lived as there was widespread corruption, poverty and social class divisions. These harsh conditions were clearly depicted in several Italian films whose neo-realist work has been greatly celebrated globally as masterpieces of global cinema. These films discuss the themes that dominated Italy’s post war politics. These films include the Vittorio De Sica’s ‘The Bicycle Thief’ and the Rome, Open City as discussed below (Nathan, Ian & Jan 2001, 55).  Bicycle thieves In this film, postwar Italy is faced with mass unemployment. In the estate of Val Melaina which is located on the outskirts of Rome, Antonio Ricci gets a job from the council labor co-coordinator as a bill poster This job requires him to purchase a bicycle thus he talks to his wife who promises to sell her family bed linen for them to afford the bicycle. Antonio buys the bicycle so on the next day he sets off for the new work but unfortunately, his bicycle is stolen as he is pasting bills. He walks home dejected together with his son Bruno in Val Melaina estate. Out of desperation, he turns to his friend, Baiocco who is a refuse collector and a community theatre leader but he is not assisted at all. The next day is on a Sunday, so in the morning, Antonio and his son Bruno join the refuse collectors within the estate to seek for help in searching for the lost bicycle as he expects the thieves to sell the bicycle within the area. On the contrary, the market traders get furious that Antonio suspects them of handling a stolen bicycle. He calls the police for confirmation of a certain registration number he notices but he founds that it is not his. Antonio and Bruno keep on searching for the lost bicycle and happen to notice a guy boy with a bicycle exchanging something with another man. Antonio chases after the boy but fails to catch him. He turns to the old man but still he does not get any relevant assistance. Antonio and Bruno then proceed to a restaurant to have a meal where they really cannot afford. They decide to visit a fortune-teller who only will tell Antonio that either he finds the bicycle quickly or he fails to possess it back at all. After leaving the fortune-teller, they happen to see the youth he believes stole the bicycle and this time they catch with him after he runs into a brothel. Unfortunately, the owner of the brothel throws them out. An angry mob surrounds them. They walk until they reach a football ground where they happen to see a bicycle left over the racks by spectators. Antonio sends his son home and then attempts to snatch the abandoned bicycle. The owner gets him but seeing how desperate Antonio is, he does not press any charges against him. Out of humiliation, Antonio and his son Bruno walks off into the dusk (Nathan, Ian & Jan 2001, 82).  The Italian film Bicycle Thieves represents a heartbreakingly and a simple story which is set amidst the wreckage of war-ravaged Rome. The neorealist filmmakers were mostly political philosophers from the left wing. In the films, ‘Bicycle Thieves’ and ‘Rome, Open City’, the themes of poverty, war and politics are clearly brought about. The filmmakers are filled with moral resentment and are opposed to the Fascist regimes of Mussolini and the Nazis. In their pursuit of filmmaking, they were mostly inspired by the rejuvenation of aesthetic Italian Literature. They believed in the use of non-professional actors filmed in real locations for this would create new cinemas full of truth and new ideas. The main actor, who is a poor workman, needs a modest transportation when posting the images on notice boards and other places. Vittorio De Sica used neorealist philosophies to make the most praised film produced anywhere on earth during the post World War II (Marcus 1987, 92) De Sica struggled to cast the film due to inadequate capital but finally received funding from an American producer David O. Selznick which he used to appropriately cast the film. The film was then released in Italy but there was many politics from the audiences who were much reluctant to adopt a film that exposed the post-war problems of hunger, poverty, housing shortages and cases of suffering children. De Sica’s kindness in dealing with emotional issues between father and son creates what has been considered as the peak achievement of neo-realism (André Bazin 1971, 56). The Film ‘bicycle thieves’ has become largely associated with the Italian film movement known as neo-realism. As far as neo-realism is connected, Vittorio De Sica, the producer/director of the film worked very much closely with Cesare Zavattini who was known to be a promoter of the neo-realism. The main idea behind the story of Bicycle Thieves, a man’s search for his lost bicycle, which he cannot recover, is a good example of Cesare Zavattini’s claim, which he is able to create compelling play out of an insignificant occurrence in a crowded city. This concept of narrative has been widely applied and has been influential in literature all over the globe since the 1940s and has been recognized as one of the contemporary elements of the success of cinema and films (Mazierska 2011, 23). The war in Italy, which happened between 1934 and 1944 after the Italian army, surrendered and the fierce resistance of the Germany forces against the British, American and anti-fascist Italian partisans had a big impact on the economy of Italy. Massive displacement and movement of people characterized this war. For years after Italy was liberated, there was severe poverty, unemployment and housing problems among the citizens of Italy. In addition, the destabilizing effects of a black market for goods (Marcus 1987, 124) characterized the economy. This conflict within a devastated city and the remote communities made the ‘real world material’ for neo-realism though it was noted that neo-realist films and cinemas only represented a certain percentage of the Italian film production in 1940. Pierre Sorlin asserts that only around 60 to 80 neo-realist films out of 1000 were made between 1945 and 1955 (Nathan, Ian & Jan 2001, 62).  The politics in Italy at this period encountered a major struggle between the Italian Communist Party, which was the largest and strongest in Western Europe and in the major cities of Central Italy, and the right wing Christian Democrats who were powerful and strong in the Northern part of Italy. Though the Labour Party in the UK in 1945 saw a lot of success, Britain and America supported the Christian Democrats together with the Catholic Church, and through this, the communists were deprived of their political power. Politics is openly represented in the film Bicycle Thieves except at the time when Antonio arrives home after the bicycle is stolen. Antonio hesitates in on a political meeting but not long ago before, he leaves to search for his friend Baiocco. Several commentators in the film have in most cases pointed out that there would be no much story if Antonio was from the Communist party since the local church would have considered compensating him with a new bicycle or helped him to look for his own stolen bicycle (Shiel 2006, 78). Several scenes in the film show clearly that Antonio is not a Roman maybe he is an immigrant from the Southern part of Italy or from a certain village in Central Italy. He seems not to be comfortable with Roman life and in most cases; the natives treat him like an outsider. He is displayed as an appropriate victim of the massive displacement that took place post the war. Roman, Open City Rome, Open City is an Italian drama film, which happened back in 1945 and was directed by Roberto Rossellini. This film is a landmark in the cinema history and one of the humanist masterpiece and earliest incarnations of the Italian neo-realistic films. This film was based on real happenings whereby it tells a harrowing story of how several Italian Resistance fighters battled against fascism from the Nazi-occupied Rome. Gestapo agents visit an apartment where Marcello Pagliero (Manfredi) one of the prominent members of the underground, is hiding and arrest the young man who gave Manfredi refuge for that period of time. Fortunately, Manfredi manage to escape arrest and turns to the help of a Parish Priest by the name Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi) so as to make an effort of delivering to other members of the movement (Shiel 2006, 124). The film was recorded in the Nazi occupied Rome, which is an open city where many Romans can walk the streets. However, the life of the Romans still gets hard due to the occupation of the Nazi group, which has set a curfew and rationed food. The Nazis are desperately looking for the resistance group to quash them and even those providing them with any assistance. Despite the situation, a certain widowed mother, Pina is just about to get married to a nearby neighbor, Francesco. Francesco is an atheist whereas Pina is pregnant. A catholic priest Don Pietro Pelligrini will wed them. Just the day before the wedding, Giorgio Manfredi, a friend to Francesco whom Pona has never met, comes along looking for refuge since he is working for the resistance group. Giorgio also requests for assistance from priest Don Pietro whom he accepts since he sees such works as being in the name of the Lord. The priest’s stand also provides Giorgio with the access where others cannot access. His girlfriend Marina doesn’t know where he is hiding. Pina and Marina take measures aimed at improving their difficult situations the measures may have tragic consequences (Mazierska 2011, 142). The themes of war and politics are clearly explained in the film Rome, Open city. The title of the film represents an historical period in Italy between the years 1943-44 after the fall of Benito Mussolini’s reign but before the allies completed their successful entry into the country. At this time, the Germany agreed to refer to Rome as an open city and proceeded to inhabit and rule the city with exactly the same kind of brutality as the one in the film. There was devastation from the World War II in Italy due to defeat from Allied troops characterized by unemployment, poverty and politics. The Italians had to live day to day under the extreme difficulties of the Germans occupation of Rome Italy. They do their best in resisting the Germany occupation but they do not succeed completely. After the war, Italy’s Communist Party was only acting as an opposition. In April 1945, the allies grew more powerful and were able to defeat the state of the Nazi Germany (Bordwell, & Thompson, 2010, 331). They used the designation of an open city to shield themselves from the attacks of the allies. Rossellini believes in the fact that his audience would appreciate the irony and duplicity in the film but works hard from the beginning of the film to the end to try and explain what true openness means. According to him, it means a mutual personal capacity to accept and to exceed some social and political disagreements. These are not only a successful opposition to fascism but also a lasting fair and inclusive society that is open to the fundamental human want like food and shelter and to capture the unpredictable realities that are rarely figured in many conventional films (Marcus 1987, p. 320). At the beginning of the film, Germany soldiers march in lockstep through the dark streets of Rome where they have already occupied and reigned. They are seen marching, singing various military songs about their homeland. The scene revolves in the office of the Germans’ commanding officer, Major Bergmann and Rossellini tries to summarize the characters of the Nazi, their mentalities and the methods they use. Bergmann plays a sadist and a dictator who parades around in his governmental domain. He winces in annoyance when the torture he ordered to be executed causes a lot of noise from his refined sensibility. He also acts as a cinematic villain when he sits in his desk holding up several photographs and narrates to the Italian police commissioner how he uses surveillance network to travel and rule the city. His behavior unmistakably resembles that of Fritz Lang’s master criminal, Dr Mabuse. Along with these styles, Rossellini tries to build up a picture of a very dangerous force that cannot be easily overcome at the stage: a tortured professor screams, of which this scream will be echoed later by Manfredi’s screams. This series is shockingly real and it is one of the series that breaks through the screen (Mazierska 2011, 129). Benito Mussolini was arrested on 25th July 1943 and his government substituted by a new regime which was appointed by King Vittorio Emmanuele III. In September, Italy declared an official armistice with their Allies. The Germany army helped to rescue Mussolini from the Italian soldiers, occupied the city of Rome and established a much-reduced Italian Fascist regime. There was nine months of warfare until June 1945 when there was the Liberation of Rome. Thus was the time when the film, Rome Open was documented. Rossellini communicates explicit political messages and personal statements of anxiety and fear during the post-war period. It has been argued that politics was a major source of consistency in Rossellini’s professional career. He was a strong political artist whereby the post war films exhibit Rossellini’s political ideologies especially the alliance between the Communists and Catholics in the Rome, Open City (Shiel 2006, 18). Rossellini hopes to get across a certain message in his historically based film of resistance against the Nazi occupation and it is articulated in clear terms of white and black. He asserts that the Nazi formed the corrupting force to the nation and indeed was responsible for the many social problems in the daily lives of the people of Italy. The Italians and their environments are represented as typical realists but Germany world seem to be much more constructed. As per the leader, Bergmann, Rome is merely a city on a map that is conveniently divided into a number of sectors and comprises of several photographs and newspaper reports that he uses to watch over his city (Shiel 2006, 43). Open city depicted several principles of neo-realism among them the struggle and social problems of normal Italian people in a post war country (Marcus 1987, 64). Just as the normal World War II, children play a key role in the resistance and at the end of the film; their presence represents an indication of their role in neo-realism as a whole. They are viewed as observers who hold the key to the future of the nation. Vittorio De Sica’s film, ‘The Bicycle Thief’ of 1948 also represents this genre of neo-realism with the use of non-professional actors. At the end of this film, there are hardships of the working class, which represents life after the war. Most contemporary theorists of the Italian Neo-realism use consistent set of stylistic characteristics, which indicate the relationship between films and the social reality of post-war Italy. Rossellini’s film Rome Open City is considered as the one that ushered in this new life of the Italian movies. This film makes use of realist techniques upon the masterpiece, which was filmed in an open place since the World War II had destroyed all studios. The theme of war is extensively addressed in this film since the main idea is all about fighting the presence of the Germany occupation in Rome (Mazierska 2011, 129). In the film ‘Rome, Open City’, the theme of War is clearly addressed. Whereas Rome’s character fates may be doomed, Pina gets gunned down, Giorgio is beaten to death and Don Pietro gets shot down by a firing squad. At the end of the film, a group of children witnesses the tragic murder of Don Poetro, they then walk arm in arm along the Roman skyline. Actually, it can take years for future generations to rebuilt Rome (Shiel 2006, 72).Whereas other films had in one way or another escaped the harsh realities of the war, Rossellini tried to analyze it in his film so as to expose the victims and participants of War. Many viewers wanted to escape the harsh experiences of war but Rossellini defied from this and produced the film. That is why there was a challenge when selling the film CDs since many Italians did not want to remember the experiences thus they opted to shy away from watching such films. Rossellini once said that he wanted to integrate his talent and the camera to haunt and pursue the character. He further asserted that the pain of those times would only emerge through the inability to shy away from the unblinking eye of the lens (Shiel 2006, 78). Other great filmmakers and directors who helped to integrate and compare Post-war Italy with Italian films were Pier Paolo Pasolini, Cesar Zevattini, Federico Fellini, Bernado Bertolucci and Luchino Visconti who described post war years as happy times for artists and film makers but sad and ugly for the Italians. For Federico Fellini’s films such as la Strada shows the move of Italy from individual neo-realism to the frailty of human condition. The larger social humanity concerns which were treated by neo-realists gave way to the exploration of persons. Their needs, failures and alienation from the society became the main points of focus in Italian movies in the 1960’s (Bordwell, & Thompson, 2010, 330). For Pier Pasolini, he asserted that Neo-realism was hugely political. Italy had experienced acts of critical and political consciousness in that the country had no unified history as a nation and was characterized by a very big gap between the North and the South. He says that there was a record of 20 years of Fascism and aberrational unity. Neo-realist activities were initiated with the idea of a better future. In conclusion, these two films, ‘Bicycle thieves’ and ‘Rome Open City’, elements of neo-realism have been greatly incorporated. The plot of the open city literally pushes aside the contemporary concerns of this genre meaning that social commentary takes a backseat to the action. On the other hand, in De Sica’s Bicycle thief, the story sounds to be minimal such that the whole story would not take two lines in a stray-dog column. In this film, alienation, unemployment and poverty concerns take a center stage since the story is minimal. Open City mostly focuses on the theme of war whereby the epic nature of resistance by the Italians against the Germany is clearly brought about. This has also been witnessed in the social status of the characters that are empowered to a certain degree. Manfredi and Don Pietro are considered as clear protagonists and are not allowed to accept what happens in the real world around them (Marcus 1987, 124). Reference List André Bazin (1971) What is Cinema? (Vol 2) : University of California Press. Andre’ B. & Bert. C. (2011). Andre’ Bazin and Italian Neorealism. Continuum Publishers. Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2010).” Film History: An Introduction, Third Edition”. McGraw Hill. P. 330-331. Marcus, M. (1987). Italian Film in the Light of Neo-realism. Princeton University Press. Mazierska, E. (2011). European Cinema and Intertextuality: History, Memory and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan Publishers. Nathan A, Ian B & Jan U. (2001) Studying Film, London: Arnold. Pierre Sorlin (1991) European Cinemas, European Societies 1939-1990, London: Routledge Roy Stafford (2000) ‘There’s life in neo-realism yet’ in in the picture 40, Autumn Christopher Williams (ed) (1980) Realism and the Cinema, London: Routledge Shiel, M. (2006). Italian Neo-realism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City. Columbia University Press. Read More