Realist Film Movements Neorealismo (3) Films of Luchino Visconti

Table of Contents 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

Common Neorealist Elements (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.)

Common Neorealist Elements f. Long take g. Restraint in expressive montage

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

Luchino Visconti, a first realist? Met Jean Renoir in Paris in the 1930s 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.

Luchino Visconti’s Works Early works - neorealist Ossessione (1943) (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 (?)

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.Days of Glory

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 for fishing, their family wait at home, 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 re- interpretation 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

Contradictions 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

Contradictions Aesthetic composition borrowed from paintings

Contradictions Long takes with fluid and eloquent camera movements

Neorealist Ideals and Reality Narrative compromise – drama and suspense, gap between narrative time and discourse time, ideological intention behind storytelling Formal compromise – filming in studio sets with careful lighting, non-synchronous recording (post-dabbing), ‘amalgam’ of professional and non-professional actors, self-conscious mise-en-scéne and montage

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