The Politics of Realism

Realism was originally frowned upon by early film theorists. Some, including theorist Rudolf Arnheim, claimed that it didn't embrace the expressive potential of cinema as an art form. However, it came back into prominence after World War II when formalists, theorists focused on film's unique aesthetic rather than narrative potential, were criticized.

 

Still from Bicycle Theives (1948). The film, directed by Vittorio De Sicca, featured non-professional actors from Italy who lived through the Nazi occupation of Italy. The use of on-location cinematography and non-professional actors was a hallmark of Italian Neo-Realism.

 

Neo-realism was a filmmaking mode that was born out of this time period. It featured a need to show the struggle of everyday people after the cosmic battle between good and evil in World War II. Jean-Luc Godard, in his film Histoires du Cinema, suggests that Neo-Realism in Italy helped reconstruct its national identity that was damaged during World War II.

Cesare Zavattini, a filmmaker and theorist who wrote the Neo-Realist manifesto, wrote that it should be cinema’s aim to turn reality into movies rather than to make movies realistic. Some critics argued against Zavattini, stating that realism is neither simple nor unproblematic. Documenting reality introduces many problems.

For Andre Bazin, a theorist of realism, the mechanical nature of the camera ensured some amount of objectivity in the photographic image.

 

Ontology of the Photographic Image

In “Ontology of the Photographic Image,” Bazin contrasts the mechanical process of photography to methods of painting. Bazin formulates a notion of a one-to-one relationship between a moment in reality and the images fixed on the film frame. He claimed that the photographic capabilities of capturing movement, represented in time, places cinema in a class by itself. 

 

--->