Power point lecture on the bicycle thief

CMLIT 153

Marxism, The Bicycle Thief and Beijing Bicycle

Some Marxist Concepts

The Proletariat

Some Marxist Concepts

The Bourgeoisie

Some Marxist Concepts

Means of Production & Means of Mental Production

Means of Mental production: Art for the Masses Popular art and

Shakespeare (late 16th Century).

The theatre as a popular art form.

Film replacing the theatre as a popular art form for the masses (late 19th ,20th & 21st century)

The Politics of Representation In Art Media and

worldviews (media effects studies).

Madame Butterfly by John Luther Long, vs M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang.

Italian neorealism and the politics of representation.

Birth of Italian Neorealism Given birth in the aftermath of Word War

II Films at the time were filled with

decadent interiors and backgrounds The protagonist always finds a resolution

(unrealistic happy endings) Imported American films that did not

reflect the realities of ordinary Italians Anti-Fascist journalist Leo Longanesi

urged directors to "go into the streets, into the barracks, into the train stations; only in this way can an Italian cinema be born.“ (1935)

Birth of Italian Neorealism Transition from agriculture to

manufacturing. People struggled to make ends meet

(25% unemployment) There was an outcry for films that

reflected these realities. Neorealist cinema was considered the

cinema of “facts”. Showing films in real time, resisting the

urge to edit. Showing reality without embellishment

or artifice.

The Bicycle Thief and Neorealist Ideologies 1. a new

democratic spirit, with emphasis on the value of ordinary people

2. a compassionate point of view and a refusal to make facile (easy) moral judgments

3. a preoccupation with Italy's Fascist past and its aftermath of wartime devastation

4. a blending of Christian and Marxist humanism

5. an emphasis on emotions rather than abstract ideas

The Stylistics of Italian Neorealism 1. a documentary

visual style 2. the use of

actual locations--rather than studio sites

3. the use of nonprofessional actors, even for principal roles

4. use of conversational speech, not literary dialogue

6. avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork, and lighting in favor of a simple "styless" style

Reception Of Bicycle Thief Italian audiences

did not like these new films.

Why? The Andreotti Law

(1949): offered subsidies for films that painted Italy in a better light.