Friday, March 18, 2016
To Excavate Reality
Cesare Zavattini, screenwriter and theoriest of Italian Neo-Realism, stated in an interview that the goal of the movement is "to excavate reality, to give it a power, a communication, a
series of reflexes, which until recently we have never thought it had." He contrasted the traditional cinema's insertion of a "story" to make reality more "exciting and spectacular" with Neo-Realism's "unlimited trust in things, facts and people." Yet, does Rosellini follow this program? What is "real" in the movie Paisan and what is more classical storytelling or even expressionistic? How "real" is this Italian Neo-Realist classic?
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The idea behind Italian Neo-realism is telling the events as they are, without any added flare to create a more exciting story. Most movies have very exaggerated stories which excite the normal reality that everyone is used to; this excitement creates a reality that would normally never happen and therefore could not be considered realism. Yet Rossellini makes some decisions within his own Neo-realism epic which cause it to stray from the path of absolute real life and introduce a little drama. For example, in the first story with Joe and Carmela, there is an instance where Joe is trying to communicate with Carmela and because he wanted to show her a picture of his family he lit a light, which caused him to be shot by the Germans. This would almost never happen in real life, with the light as the only reference point and a panicked shot, nearly no sniper would be able to accurately hit a target they didn’t even know was there. This part was added to create drama, drama that would not necessarily occur in regular life. Another part of the movie that demonstrated the added excitement and drama in the film was that every single episode ended poorly for the main characters, the real world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but the worst thing does not always happen as Paisan seems to demonstrate. Because of this, Paisan is not really a true realism film because while it portrays a near additive-less movie, drama was still added here and there, enough so that the movie would remain interesting but too much that it would not actually happen in real life.
ReplyDeleteWhile each episode of Rosellini’s Paisan has minor enhancements to allow for more flowing stories, the combination of the six episodes together gives the film a realistic yet powerful element that is more characteristic of Italian Neo-Realism. If examined specifically, one could see that most sections of the film do include slight ‘exaggerations’ common in classical storytelling: while possible, it is unlikely that Fred would have met up with the same exact woman with whom he had fallen in love months earlier, or that German troops could have shot blindly (from far away) at the flame from a lighter and successfully killed a man. The existence of such uncommon events are simply necessary to hold audience attention—if the film were to consist of six 20-minute ‘Actualites’, it might show true ‘reality’ but obviously would not be interesting in the fast-paced modern world. Rosellini in this way understandably strays from the idea of completely trusting “things, facts, and people” to tell coherent and engaging plotlines. As a result, one episode of the film on its own is almost indistinguishable from traditional Hollywood style. However, Paisan must be looked at as a whole—a collection of unconnected, small stories. At their cores, the six sections of the movie ARE based on the problems and situations of actual life. They are filmed in areas of war and follow the endeavors of common people; tragedies and death are not ‘sugar-coated’ but treated as facts of life. When a viewer sees six snippets of tragic wartime life in a row, he or she experiences something that cannot be explained by a movie following a singular storyline. Paisan proves that WWII affected Italians, Americans, children, the impoverished, the wealthy, lovers, families—no one was exempt from its devastation. The message can be suggested in a tragic war movie, but it is far more powerful when rooted in multiple images of reality. In this way, the small exaggerations of Paisan’s episodes are ultimately irrelevant. They do not necessarily challenge the plotlines’ foundations in real life, and therefore are not essential in portraying the film’s true meaning. Rosellini might have shifted the formula of Italian Neo-Realism slightly to fit the demands of a quickly-bored society, but his film as a whole remains connected to the movement’s ability to give great meaning to reality.
ReplyDeletePaisan, while it aims to represent unaltered reality, is exaggerated, but in doing so highlights the underlying reality of war.
ReplyDeleteThe first episode about Joe and Carmela seems improbable. The likelihood of two people from two different backgrounds, speaking two different languages, being able to communicate in such a short amount of time and establish such a strong bond that compels Carmela to attack the Germans seems low. The third episode also seems like an improbable and ‘perfect’ confluence of events and factors which allows Fred and Francesca to find each other after a long time. In general, the scenarios presented in Paisan are not typical, or probable but they are possible. However, in representing exaggerated stories, Paisan is able to stress the harsh realities of war. Each of the unlikely events in each episode highlights a terrible consequence of war. Paisan evokes a strong emotional identification with the victims of war because of how exaggerated the scenarios are. The improbable elements of each story make it more compelling because of how tragic the story becomes. The feeling of ‘being so close, and yet so far’ directs anger against the scenarios which the characters are placed in. This feeling is especially present in the third episode where both Fred and Francesca are with each other, but neither knows who the other is.
Although Paisan does not strictly adhere to reality, its exaggerations show the reality of war. When people talk about war in political settings, it’s often in an impersonal sense because we are fundamentally disconnected from the costs of war. Paisan’s representation of war is exaggerated, but rather than turning war into a spectacle, Paisan turns war into a tragedy.
Most of the individual stories within Paisan and their content successfully follow the idea of Italian Neo-Realism in that they all show the true difficulties that come with war and conflict. The scenes are all shot in a way that actually shows how it would be in a war zone, as there are no sets and the microphones include background noise rather than perfectly capturing the individual voice of each person. The fact that the film mostly takes place in the actual streets of Italy is a way that we are able to see how the movie is supposed to be more "real" without additional drama or unrealistic details. Additionally, the end of each story does not conclude with what we would expect from a traditional film. For example, at the end of the story between Fred and Francesca, while most movies would allow Fred and Francesca to meet once again after she tells him the specific address to go to, he does not end up making it there. This instance shows how love is difficult in war and how the war changed their relationship because once he came back she was a prostitute and he saw her as a completely different person. At the same time however, some of these storylines can be seen as unrealistic and there is a sense of fiction that strays away from what Italian Neo-Realism is supposed to show. For example, everything is in fact scripted and each of the six movies has its own individual and more dramatic storylines--ones that probably wouldn't actually happen in real life. The fact that Fred and Francesca were in love and didn't recognize each other just months later an the way that Joe was found by the Germans are clearly two instances where a more extreme and interesting storyline that strayed away from "real" war life was added to the movie. However, what is important to realize through these improbable scenes is the ideas that they are trying to portray, as these ideas still fit with the overall Neo-realism characteristics. Both these scenes still show how nothing is certain in war and how love is not something that can be prioritized during these times. Every scene in Paisan still fits with the harsh realities that come from war, and therefore, the underlying ideas of this movie still come across as part of the Italian Neo-realism movement.
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