WI No Italian Neorealism

What some of the biggest TL concepts* have in common is that this cinematic tradition would not have happened, at least nothing like it when it did OTL. What I'm like to know for this thread is: taking this change in isolation, what is the affect on world cinema?

*(in particular, no WWII and Axis Wins, which are pretty different otherwise)
 
I read a theory the other day that part of the push factor was the temporary unavailability of the main Rome studio complex due to the war as well as lack of equipment/supplies. They were sort of forced to get out there and experiment with new styles.
 
I read a theory the other day that part of the push factor was the temporary unavailability of the main Rome studio complex due to the war as well as lack of equipment/supplies. They were sort of forced to get out there and experiment with new styles.
Which just shows that without the war, or had the war gone differently, quite possible the most influential movement in cinema history (along with German Expressionism and French New Wave*) would be butterflied away.

As to effects -- in OTL, it was a major influence on the French New Wave and many of its people went on to lead the Italian New Wave; these movements, in turn, led to New Hollywood. And if we expand our definition of neorealism to include similar consecutive movements in places like Japan, this would also prevent things like Japanese Golden Age Film. That said, French Poetic Realism still exists TTL (as does, for example, early Ozu) so it might influence movements elsewhere.

Any thoughts?
 
"If it can be said that neorealism’s political agenda and worldview were very much products of a specific time and place, the same certainly cannot be said of what are usually deemed to be its formal innovations. In aesthetic terms virtually nothing in neorealist cinema was new, from de-dramatised narratives to scrupulous use of real locations to the casting of non-professionals..." http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/roots-neorealism

In particular, Jean Renoir's *Toni* (with Visconti as assistant director) is often cited as a precursor of neorealism (though as the article notes, Renoir "shrugged off any direct link").
 
I mentioned French Poetic Realism and Ozu* still existing TTL; and yes, we still have early documentaries (by Flaherty, etc), and there are examples in Soviet and Fascist cinema of "the people" as protagonist. And these movements will influence film as separate movements.

*similar to last post, I think we might be able to expand the definition of "poetic realism" to include non French directors who were doing similar things around the same time

CONSOLIDATION: Just re-watched an example of French Poetic Realism, La Grand Illusion; hadn't seen it in years.

It also reminded me of other examples, like Pepe le Moko or Port of Shadows, which bring to my mind far more of Hollywood Film Noir than the Neo-realists. It strikes me that the pre-war Poetic Realists were far more "poetic" than they were "realist"; even more than Hollywood, they had a preference for long, continuous takes, with a preference for mise-en-scene over montage in visually telling their stories. They also shared with Hollywood a sort of romantic sensibility, and were generally shameless in how they used technique (star actors, musical cues, lighting, etc) to these ends.

Like I said, they'll certainly still have influence TTL, but they and they're disciples won't come close to challenging and transforming studio filmmaking the way Neorealism did.
 
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Stolengood

Banned
There was also, of course, the wonderful anarchic beauty of Jean Vigo; I wonder... I wonder how things might have turned out for him had his tuberculosis not killed him.
 
Italian Neorealism, though initially having little box office success, was also a crucial player in a revolution in film criticism in the 1950's. From a Wikipedia article on Bazin:
The long-held standard... view of Bazin's critical system... is that he argued for films that depicted what he saw as "objective reality" (such as documentaries and films of the Italian neorealism school) and directors who made themselves "invisible" (such as Howard Hawks). He advocated the use of deep focus (Orson Welles), wide shots (Jean Renoir) and the "shot-in-depth", and preferred what he referred to as "true continuity" through mise-en-scène over experiments in editing and visual effects. This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s, which emphasized how the cinema could manipulate reality. The concentration on objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage are linked to Bazin's belief that the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator. He watched film as personally as he expected the director to undertake it... Bazin also preferred long takes to montage editing. He believed that less was more, and that narrative was key to great film.

Bazin, who was influenced by personalism, believed that a film should represent a director's personal vision. This idea had a pivotal importance in the development of the auteur theory, the manifesto for which François Truffaut's article, "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema", was published by his mentor Bazin in Cahiers in 1954. Bazin also is known as a proponent of "appreciative criticism", the notion that only critics who like a film should review it, thus encouraging constructive criticism.
 
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