User:Riapandey/Women In Neorealism

The role of gender
In terms of a post-World War II social context, Italy, as a republic, began to increase economic and social opportunity for Italian women, whilst simultaneously reinforcing traditional ideals of femininity. For example, the expectation of female politicians to be presented as "[an] attractive and natural [image]..." yet not overly sexual is

Neorealism as an artistic response
In response to the moral devastation of World War II and the decline of Mussolini's fascist regime, Italian filmmakers began to reject the traditional cinematic conventions of the preceding era. This included discarding the "glamour" and "inconsequential fluff" of the dominating genres of calligrafismo and telefoni bianchi, which "served to keep the masses oblivious to the deterioration that underlay the [Fascist] regime's optimistic slogans." In addition to this, the progression and eventual conclusion of the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of Cinecittà, the largest Roman studio complex, and the general shortage of production resources like sets, lighting and sound equipment. Italian Neorealism arose as an artistic response to the combination of these social and economic factors, and as a result, Neorealist mise-en-scene was dependent on actual locales, the use of unprofessional actors. Rossellini has told of buying bits of negative stock from street photographers, so that much of Rome Open City was shot on film with varying photographic qualities.