Upload
msesoman
View
1.478
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
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.