Essential Italian Neorealism
These are some essential Italian neorealist movies, that you shoud watch. The movie titles are in chronological order, so it'll be easier for you, to explore the evolution of this movement
There are three movie directors, whom work can be labeled under the Italian modern film, but their early works has signs of neorealism too. These three are: Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Paolo Passolini (who has two movies in this list and the second one: Mamma Roma is dedicated to Roberto Rosselini).
The first two movies Ossesione (1943) and I bambini ci guardano (1944) has usually been categorized as “proto-neorealist" movies. The break-through in this movement will came by Rosselini: Roma città aperta (1945)
Maybe Padre Padrone (Vittorio Taviani, Paolo Taviani, 1977) L'albero degli zoccoli (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)and Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008) are also can be part of this list, but I was trying to focus on that era when Italian neorealism was born, flourished and faded away.
Enjoy the list and suggest other movies if you know. :D
There are three movie directors, whom work can be labeled under the Italian modern film, but their early works has signs of neorealism too. These three are: Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Paolo Passolini (who has two movies in this list and the second one: Mamma Roma is dedicated to Roberto Rosselini).
The first two movies Ossesione (1943) and I bambini ci guardano (1944) has usually been categorized as “proto-neorealist" movies. The break-through in this movement will came by Rosselini: Roma città aperta (1945)
Maybe Padre Padrone (Vittorio Taviani, Paolo Taviani, 1977) L'albero degli zoccoli (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)and Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008) are also can be part of this list, but I was trying to focus on that era when Italian neorealism was born, flourished and faded away.
Enjoy the list and suggest other movies if you know. :D
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30 titles
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsClara CalamaiMassimo GirottiDhia CristianiGino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna, and they plan to get rid of her older husband.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmilio CigoliLuciano De AmbrosisIsa PolaFour-year-old Pricò becomes the subject of emotional folly by his capricious parents and negligent relatives.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsCarmela SazioGar MooreWilliam TubbsAmerican military personnel interact warily with a variety of Italian locals over a year and a half in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces make their retreat.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsRinaldo SmordoniFranco InterlenghiAnnielo MeleTwo shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.
- DirectorLuigi ZampaStarsAnna MagnaniNando BrunoAve NinchiA rowdy woman is so forceful that she outdoes her husband in a loud cry against speculators who refuse poor people entrance to a block of new apartments, built after WW2. Without noticing it, she starts a people's movement, and leads a march to the capital. She returns to her village a winner, an honourable MP. Yet, she is still the same simple, fiery woman, able to get in a hair-pulling brawl with the local barmaid for the affection of her man.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsEdmund MoeschkeErnst PittschauIngetraud HinzeA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
- DirectorAlberto LattuadaStarsCarla Del PoggioJohn KitzmillerGiulietta MasinaAn African-American soldier stationing in Italy refuses to make a deal with local gangsters. However, when a girl he loves turns desperately to prostitution, Jerry is forced to change his mind to save her.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsLuchino ViscontiAntonio PietrangeliAntonio ArcidiaconoIn rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
- DirectorGiuseppe De SantisStarsVittorio GassmanDoris DowlingSilvana ManganoTwo criminals on the run end up working in a rice field and decide to recruit other workers for their next robbery.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsIngrid BergmanMario VitaleRenzo CesanaKarin, a young woman from the Baltic countries, marries fisherman Antonio to escape from a prison camp. But she cannot get used to the tough life in Antonio's volcano-threatened village, Stromboli.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsRaf ValloneElena VarziSaro UrzìThe story of a group of Sicilian miners and their families, and their hardships as they decide to illegally cross the border to France.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAldo FabriziGianfranco BelliniPeparuoloA series of vignettes depicting the lives of the original Franciscan monks, including their leader and the bumbling Ginepro.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAnna MagnaniWalter ChiariTina ApicellaA woman from the lower class desperately tries to get her daughter into the movies.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorGiuseppe De SantisStarsLucia BosèCarla Del PoggioMaria Grazia FranciaBased on an actual incident, this is the story of five girls (told in a slow beginning) who are among the 200 women who answer a want ad for a modest secretarial position one rainy morning in Rome in 1951. They crowd and push their way into the old building and fight their way up the stairs to await an interview, only to be told there is not enough time to interview all. A scuffle breaks out and the stairway collapses sending many of them hurtling down in a mass of bodies amid brick and mortar. Among them are the well-born wife of a poor artist;, a streetwalker making an attempt to change her life; an unhappy servant girl; and the desperate wife of an unemployed factory worker. How the event changes or fails to change their lives is told.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsCarlo BattistiMaria Pia CasilioLina GennariAn elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsIngrid BergmanAlexander KnoxEttore GianniniA wealthy woman becomes obsessed with humanitarianism when her young son dies after committing suicide.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsIngrid BergmanGeorge SandersMaria MaubanAn unhappily married couple attempts to find direction and insight while vacationing in Naples.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAnthony QuinnGiulietta MasinaRichard BasehartA care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsGabriella PallottaGiorgio ListuzziGastone RenzelliA married couple learns that it is possible to build an illegal house in the outskirts of Rome, as long as it is erected in one single night and has a roof.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsMaria SchellMarcello MastroianniJean MaraisA humble clerk courts a woman who awaits her lover's return night after night.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriella PallottaSteve CochranAlida ValliA man wanders aimlessly away from his town, away from the woman he loves, emotionally and socially inactive.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsSophia LorenJean-Paul BelmondoRaf ValloneIn WWII Italy, a widow and her lonely daughter seek distance between themselves and the horrors of war.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAlain DelonRenato SalvatoriAnnie GirardotHaving recently been uprooted to Milan, Rocco and his four brothers each look for a new way in life when a prostitute comes between Rocco and his brother Simone.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsSandro PanseriLoredana DettoCorrado AprileBursting with big dreams and plans, an Italian teen goes to Milan to work in a big impersonal corporate office, where he becomes disillusioned and drained of all his individualism.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsFranco CittiFranca PasutSilvana CorsiniA pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsAnna MagnaniEttore GarofoloFranco CittiAn ex-prostitute reunites with her son, but an extortion scheme threatens her aspirations for a decent life.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsAnna CanziCarlo CabriniDespite his fiancee's reluctance, a young man moves to Sicily for a better job, but soon starts questioning his decision.