In literature and film early works in the realistic or naturalistic style rejected idealization and romanticism in favor of a depiction of life as it appeared, not as it should appear. The post World War II era brought a new realistic style to film that came to be known as Italian Neo-Realism, a movement that focused on the lives and struggles of common people trying to get by in a war ravaged, poverty-stricken country. In subject matter and style, the Neo-Realists created a body of work between 1945 and 1949 that had a profound effect on world cinema. Neo-Realism films dealt with contemporary social issues from a humanist perspective; the filmmakers were not out to offer solutions to social problems, but to depict them by showing the effect on individual lives.
One of the earliest Neo-Realist films, Vittorio DeSicaÆs 1946 ôShoeshineö serves as an excellent example of Italian postwar Neo-Realism. The film utilizes several characteristics of Neo-Realism including a sense of improvisation, using nonprofessional actors, location shooting and a subject that reflects contemporary social issues. The filmÆs protagonists are two teenage Roman ragazzi who live in a city debilitated by the War and are struggling to survive. They shine shoesùmostly those of American GIs who have the moneyùand make some money pimping and in the black market dealing American cigarettes and candy and blankets. Eventually they are caught by a policeman and sent to a correctional facility. DeSica depicts the reformatory conditions as so bad that the boys, once close friends, end up hating each other and this leads to their destruction, including the death of one of them. In Neo-Realist manner, DeSica offers no explanations or solutions to the social conditions he portrays; he just shows the effects of these conditions on the two boys in an unsentimental but touching manner.
Mike LeighÆs 1985 film, ôMeantimeö depicts an emotional landscape that ...