Ladri di biciclette and Roma città aperta:

Two Dimensions of Neorealism

Meixi Dong

University of California, Irvine

De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette and Rossellini’s Roma Città aperta are two classic Italian

neorealism films. Then what characters render them to be considered as “neorealistic”? In fact, the

features of Italian neorealist films are highly diverse, and there has no programmatic approach,

preconceived method, or governing manifesto. In the following paragraph, I will explain that in

what extend Ladri di biciclette and Roma città aperta are representative of the main trends and

styles of Italian neorealism, and how they represent neorealism in two different dimensions.

Firstly, it is necessary to introduce the concept and background of Italian neorealism.

Realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully. It avoids artificiality, artistic

conventions, and supernatural elements. The realistic artworks depict nature or contemporary life

in accuracy and detail. Their depiction is based on close observation of outward appearance rather

than imaginative idealization. The idea of realism is adapted by both French and Italian literature.

French writers such as Zola and Balzac attempted to portray the unexceptional lives of middle and

lower classes and reproduce the hitherto-ignored aspects of contemporary life and society. Realism

in Italian literature is embraced by Verismo. Vero means ‘true’ in Italian, so Verismo means the

artistic way to narrate the truth about life objectively. The exponents of Verismo were Sicilian

novelists Luigi Capuana and Giovanni Verga. Their works usually aim to present the life of the

lower classes with direct, unadorned language, explicit descriptive detail, and realistic dialogue.
The neorealism of film born with the fall of the Fascist regime was influenced by realism literature

and inherent their main themes to depict the nondramatic common life. Neorealism rejects

traditional dramatic and cinematic conventions associated with commercial cinema in both Rome

and Hollywood. The emergence of Italian Neorealism can be traced before the fall of the Fascist

regime. At that time, the film industry remained relatively free to pursue filmmaking without

encountering overwhelming difficulties with official censorship. Therefore, the neorealist period

was not a sharp break from the past. There were many elements of continuity that connected prewar

and postwar Italian cinema. The elements of continuity such as on-location shooting, a realistic

style, the use of non-professional actors, an interest in current events, and documentary-style

photography.

Rossellini said that “Neorealism was simply the artistic form of the truth”. In his film città

aperta, Rossellini incorporates the historical event with the script. The story takes place in Nazi-

occupied Rome during World War II. The title “Roma, Open City” is come from the event when

on 14th August 1943, Rome was declared an Open City. The rightist government and Lord Victor

Emmanuel II were openly declaring that they were abandoning all endeavors to guard the Italian

capital. In spite of the declaration, the German soldiers would rapidly move in and start a brutal

270-day occupation. The film depicts diverse people’s life under the Nazi occupation. It centers

on a Resistance fighter named Giorgio Manfredi trying to escape from the surveillance in the city

with the help of Don Pietro, a Catholic priest. The film is somehow considered as being far from

a programmatic attempt at cinematic realism. The characters are played by well-known dramatic

actors such as Anna Magnani rather than non-professionals. A number of scenes, like the Fascism

officer’s office, are shot in studio sets. The characters are also separated into two clear-cut sides:

German troops and fascist police versus Italian partisans. They are stereotyped in evil and good
like melodrama. It can hardly be defined as “objective” with its distinctive rhetorical shape to

persuade the audience. The rhetorical use of space is reflected through that the surveillance is

normally from above and the resistance takes their actions from below where they know secret

routes. The partisans who are tortured are portraited as martyrs. The religious tone is presented in

the entire film. Although Roma città aperta makes those above-mentioned violations of the ideal

stylistic characteristics of neorealism, it cannot be ignored that it focuses on the real historical

event and reflect the moral and psychological atmosphere of the postwar. Rossellini created the

“artistic form of truth” by using the selective legend to reconstruct a memory of the resistance

movement. The conflicts between monarchists and working-class, Christians and atheists are

ignored. Those groups are shown with a dramatized solidarity and a vision of hope is indicated in

the film.

Ladri di biciclette is also a film that embraces the main features of neorealism, but De Sica

holds a different opinion of the ideal of ‘neorealism’ with Rossellini. In his perspective,

“Neorealism reflected the reality transposed into the realm of poetry.” Films are aesthetic artifacts

to tell stories with respect to cinematic conventions. They can be realistic and make references to

the people and events from the real world, but they are finally guided by the filmmakers’ aesthetic

perspective. The intentions presented in films reveal an idea and a personal feeling. Therefore, the

world in the films is a creation, not just a reproduction of the real world. Andre Bazin demonstrates

that “Rossellini’s style is a way of seeing, while De Sica’s is a way of feeling”. De Sica’s rejection

of the view that cinema must necessarily reflect the outside world of social reality makes Ladri di

biciclette also an ambiguous “neorealist” film. The focus of the film's plot follows the ideal of

neorealism: it tells a simple story about the protagonist Antonio Ricci who is an ordinary person

searching for his stolen bicycle to maintain his job under the unemployment in post-war Italy. The
searching process is not dramatic and Traditionally, Ladri di biciclette is construed as a political

film that presents pressing social problems and denunciates the socioeconomic system in the post-

war years. It is a period of sustained economic development, but many people were still excluded

from their well-being. The brand name of the stolen bicycle is “Fides”, Latin for “Faith.” That

Antonio and Bruno desperately searching for it also means people are facing spiritual despair and

lose their faith. Thus, the film can be seen as a historical document with dramatized wider social

issues. It makes criticism of real social problems. Ladri di biciclette was shot outdoor with natural

light. The two actors, Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio and Ezo Staiola as Bruno, are all non-

professionals. All those characters show the film embraces neorealism. De Sica conveys his idea

to the audiences with the reference to the real-life experience. On the other hand, some of the plots

in the film seem antirealistic. For example, people can hardly see a bicycle thief several times in a

crowded city like Roma and characters appear, drop out of sight, and reappear again as if by magic.

The reality created in the film is only the illusion of reality. Through it, De Sica also expresses the

pessimistic view of the human condition which fill with absurdity, solitude, and loneliness. No one

tries to help Antonio when his bike is stolen, but everyone is accusing him of slander when he

finally finds the young thief. The Kafkian narration of Ladri di biciclette tries to reveal the idea

about alienated existence and human loneliness. Chance and fortune play a crucial role in deciding

Antonio and his family’s destiny, but they are intangible and full of absurdity. Therefore, the focus

of Ladri di biciclette is also in the psychological dimension with existential themes.

Città aperta follows the trend of neorealism to make a reflection on current historical

events, while Ladri di biciclette incorporates the illusion of reality to make social statements and

establish its existential themes. The divergent notions of “reality” from Rossellini and De Sica
essentially lead to the differences in cinematic narratives, but both of them are representative of

neorealistic film and extent the understanding of “neorealism”.