Italian Neorealism
Italian Neorealism (neorealismo) was a brief movement of films made in post-WWII Italy that focused on telling stories of the common people and the effect that losing the war had on Italian life. These films were characterised by their use of location photography, long takes, and the inclusion of amateur actors in speaking roles, sometimes even as protagonists. Generally, neorealismo is regarded as having ended by the mid-1950s as the focus in subject shifted more towards the upper classes of Italy in films such as La dolce vita (1960).
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- 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.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaFrançois PérierFranca MarziA waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsCarlo BattistiMaria Pia CasilioLina GennariAn elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.
- 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.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAnthony QuinnGiulietta MasinaRichard BasehartA care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorLuigi ComenciniStarsAlberto SordiSerge ReggianiCarla GravinaWhen Italy surrenders to the Allies, part of the Italian army is disbanded and soldiers begin to return to their homes.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsEdmund MoeschkeErnst PittschauIngetraud HinzeA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
- 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.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsIngrid BergmanAlexander KnoxEttore GianniniA wealthy woman becomes obsessed with humanitarianism when her young son dies after committing suicide.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsAnna MagnaniEttore GarofoloFranco CittiAn ex-prostitute reunites with her son, but an extortion scheme threatens her aspirations for a decent life.
- 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.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAlberto SordiFranco FabriziFranco InterlenghiA character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.
- 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.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAldo FabriziGianfranco BelliniPeparuoloA series of vignettes depicting the lives of the original Franciscan monks, including their leader and the bumbling Ginepro.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsClara CalamaiMassimo GirottiDhia CristianiGino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna, and they plan to get rid of her older husband.
- 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.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriella PallottaSteve CochranAlida ValliA man wanders aimlessly away from his town, away from the woman he loves, emotionally and socially inactive.
- 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.
- DirectorMario MonicelliStenoStarsAldo FabriziTotòAve NinchiEsposito is a thief who cons tourists in Rome. Officer Bottoni manages to catch him and starts persecuting him. When Esposito manages to flee, Bottoni's superiors inform him that he'll lose his job if he can't catch Esposito.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsSophia LorenJean-Paul BelmondoRaf ValloneIn WWII Italy, a widow and her lonely daughter seek distance between themselves and the horrors of war.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAnna MagnaniWalter ChiariTina ApicellaA woman from the lower class desperately tries to get her daughter into the movies.
- DirectorVittorio De SetaStarsMichele CossuPeppeddu CuccuVittorina PisanoSardinian shepherds Michele, Peppeddu encounter bandits. Michele evades police, sheep perish. Wrongly charged with murder, impoverished, Michele turns outlaw. He resorts to violence, banditry for survival, fueling a lawless spiral.
- DirectorGiuseppe De SantisStarsRaf ValloneLucia BosèFolco LulliFrancesco Dominici has just returned from the front, fought for three years and was a prisoner for another three years.
- DirectorClaudio CaligariStarsCesare FerrettiMichela MioniEnzo Di BenedettoThe alienating and repetitive life of a group of heroin junkies in the 1980s Rome.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsBroderick CrawfordRichard BasehartGiulietta MasinaA trio of con-men led by a lonesome swindler must deal with their job and family pressures.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmilio CigoliLuciano De AmbrosisIsa PolaFour-year-old Pricò becomes the subject of emotional folly by his capricious parents and negligent relatives.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsMassimo GirottiCharles VanelJone SalinasA young, by-the-book judge is appointed to a Sicilian village controlled by corrupt leaders and the Mafia.
- 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.
- DirectorRenato CastellaniStarsMaria FioreVincenzo MusolinoFilomena RussoA love story between a poor fellow and a daughter of respected workshop owner set in an Italian post-war village.
- DirectorRenato CastellaniStarsOscar BlandoLiliana ManciniFrancesco GolisanoA story of teenager from Rome during World War II.
- DirectorAlberto LattuadaStarsAnna MagnaniAmedeo NazzariCarla Del PoggioA contingent of Italian prisoners of war arrive on a train from Germany after World War II to Turin. The city where Ernesto lives has been bombed, his mother is dead and his sister has gone missing.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsFrancesco RuiuGiancarlo De RosaVincenzo CiccoraWhen a woman is killed in a park, the police bring in everyone suspected of being there when the incident occurred and question them. One of them is the killer.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsLucia BosèGino CerviAndrea ChecchiA new starlet is discovered and has ups and downs in Italian films.
- 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.
- 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.