Explain the term Neorealism and illustrate in what ways Ladri di biciclette andRoma città aperta, despite their differences, are both representative of Neorealist filmmaking.

        The film is principally about fear, in Rossellini’s words – “everyone’s fear, but above all my own.” It is this personal touch which brings reality into the film, enhancing its docu-style approach. The hazy appearance of the picture itself, possibly due to poor quality film, plus the unreliability of electrical lighting gives way to a viewing very similar to war new reels of the time, poignant to contemporary audiences for whom this black-and-white footage spelt out the reality of war. Rossellini also inserted real war footage into the film. All of these factors where effective at the time because they represented reality for the Italian people, and thus also for Rosselini himself. Their fears had been his fears, their hopes his hopes.

         Ladri di biciclette shows the same city in the post war period, filmed in 1949. There is none of the apparent fear that that we see in “Città Aperta”, instead it has given way to a city of despair and poverty. The film uses the same techniques and elements to illustrate the depressed economy of post-war Italy. It plays upon the neorealistic portrayal of personal struggle and misfortune in a world which refuses help. Antonio, an impoverished worker, has only his friends and family to rely on in his time of need, and the story of the film centres on Antonio and his son’s hopeless search for a stolen bicycle in Rome. The bicycle becomes an image of food and money, and on another level, of hope. The make of the bicycle is “fides” and in the end Antonio’s quest becomes one for faith, in a world where even the church rejects the help he really needs. The extent of their poverty is constantly emphasised. Reduced to the state of pawning their bed linen, we are shown the emotive image of a pawn shop crammed with sheets. The number of people in this state is astronomical and all the while those working in the shop are cold and hard, unsympathetic to the plight of others as long as they are comfortable. Indeed to have any job at all is shown as a god-send, not as the norm. Poignantly it is the ten year old son, Bruno who earns the money for the family, working in a gas station. As a minor employment is apparently easier to find, but the reason is clear, he can be paid a fraction of a normal workers wage.

        Vittorio De Sica uses the film as a tool for powerful social comment. While “Città Aperta” provides a confidence and hope in both the church and communism, achieved through powerful symbolism, such as the marriage bond between Pina and Francesco, De Sica uses the film to criticise the establishment, most of all the Catholic Church and the authorities such as the police. The scene in the church becomes a farcical mockery of its pomp, with a marked contrast between the rich ladies and the poor who they are patronising. For De Sica, this institution seems to represent pure hypocrisy, the Catholics here lacking the true, pure Christian charity of Rossillini’s Don Pietro. He shows a rude, disrespectful interruption of the communal prayer, but the apparent piety of those present looses credibility in the face of Antonio’s ordeal. No one is present to help others, and resent being called upon to do so, they are portrayed as hypocrites, there to be seen as devout rather than do anything worthwhile.

        Both the films join in one common idea and their portrayal of it. There is an reflection of hope throughout both film, in the presence of the children. In “Città Aperta” Rossellini brings children by in the hardest moments, showing that despite hardship and death, there is a future, life will go on. De Sica brings this into play through the presence of Bruno, his innocence lends him a common sense that sees more clearly that his disillusioned father. At the end, when Bruno’s hero-image of his father is shattered by the theft of the bike, he seems to see reality as it is, without the idealism of youth. Bruno takes his father’s hand, and becomes the one in control.