Night of the Shooting Stars

1.      The Night of the Shooting Stars definitely has aspects of neorealism. It tells a fairly realistic story of a group of Tuscan Italians making their way to find American soldiers. The story has its neorealism events. It has tragic moments, like people gathering in a church when that church gets bombed with them inside. And it has its moments that catch you off guard. Like the group of boys peeping at the woman in the middle of the night, and other strange sexual encounters that we don’t expect and can even make us uncomfortable.

The film also rejects neorealism and puts in more dramatic, cinematic qualities. Like while the group is waiting for the bombing to begin, we can hear a few individual thoughts and memories about their homes. And when the bombing takes place, there are close up shots of their ears to show that they can hear it, and to put a more dramatic effect on the scenario.

2.       Night of the Shooting Stars seemed more like a drama instead of a documentary. Rome Open City, being more neorealist, looked more like a documentary. It even had real archival footage of soldiers marching through the city. Night of the Shooting Stars had more dramatic elements in the way things were presented, like close up shots of the ears to hear sounds and hearing individual thoughts. And it had a more happy ending.

3.      The view of the child may mean innocence, but I didn’t see much of it. She didn’t look that innocent when she was smashing the remaining eggs that she already sat on. The only thing that might come from a child’s point of view is how we don’t see much history or back story to the characters. I found some parts confusing to see people act a certain way towards other characters. There could have been some romantic pasts between some, but we don’t know it. All we see are people acting sexually to each other for no reason, like eating a piece of watermelon after a woman was bathing herself in it.

The Bicycle Theves

1.      Antonio, among many others, can’t find a job because of a depression following World War 2. Economic depressions can be solved by adding industry to a country, or to the city. It could be solved the same way America’s Great Depression was. President Roosevelt convinced the people that the only way to gain money is by also spending it. Buying products from companies would increase the demand for them, and lead to more production needs and jobs.

Antonio did suffer from isolation. But I think everyone at the time was feeling the same way without available work and little help to make a living. They needed to help themselves before they could help others. Because he was desperate, he had a fragile human condition.

2.      Antonio cared for Bruno as any loving father would. Antonio would try to keep Bruno happy by taking him out to eat, even though they had little money left. He obviously cared for Bruno. When another child fell off the bridge into the river, Antonio was frightened and distraught when he thought he lost Bruno. But throughout the film, the sides turn. After Antonio can’t get his bike, he loses hope. Bruno takes his hand as they walk away to show that now he needs to support his father emotionally. And maybe in the future he may need to support his father financially.

3.       In the crowd scenes, the people leave Antonio alone, for the most part. They do not help him, even when he asks for it. This might be because in the desperate times, they need to help themselves first. The ways the crowds are shown in the film are by having the camera right in the middle of the people. It makes us feel like we are in the crowd with the characters and not watching from overhead.

4.      The title “Bicycle Thieves” refers to both the first thief and Antonio. At the end of the film, Antonio becomes so desperate that he tries to steal a bike. By Antonio becoming the thief, I got the insight of what led the first thief to steal in the beginning.

Ciao Professore

In Ciao Professore, I found that all the issues were kind of tied together. Things like education, poverty, work conditions, and corruption all had something to do with each other. The town the teacher is sent to it obviously poor, and the kids are needed to work to help support their families. I think if one thing was fixed in the town, like poverty, everything would follow suit. The town would afford better education and get the kids off the streets and out of work.Without poverty, there would be no need for Mimi the janitor to run the school, charging prices on basic school supplies so the school can actually get money.

            This film is clearly tragic because we see children living in poverty with little education. We see these kids working to support and take care of their families instead of going to school. Some are even joining gangs to have something. But what makes it funny is seeing the kids act so adult for their age. For instance, the kids start swearing at each other when they get mad. They’re able to come up with some pretty aggressive curses for third graders.

            Since we haven’t seen the whole film yet, I can’t give a full answer to question three. Marco Sperelli is trying to change the school in very subtle ways. It’s almost like he trying to slowly take over from Mimi. He goes to the principal for her to help, but she basically supports Mimi. So Marco is trying to take over small things, like ringing the bell when Mimi is on the phone.

            When he talks to the principal about the conditions of the school, he learns that the government will not send them money. He learns that since the government is not supporting them, they need to make do with how they are now, and they both need to deal with it.

Gomorrah

The movie “Gomorrah” was hard to follow. I didn’t really know what it was about before I watched it. I only knew it was a crime drama with different story lines throughout the movie, like a Quentin Tarantino movie.

The story lines consist of several different characters. One is a well-known tailor who teaches a Chinese factory. Another is, or what looks like, some type of loan shark or money collector. We see him receiving and paying a few people in the beginning. Another follows a child who is trying to become part of a gang in the local ghetto. Another follows two men who run a toxic waste disposal company. Another: two young men who want to become big, famous gangsters. We see them rob other gangs of drugs and a weapon stash, and also playing out scenes from “Scarface.”

In some scenes, we can see into some aspects of Italian culture. Some may be more accurate than others. With the boy who is trying to become a gang member, we see he is very stylish, very concerned about how he looks. He wears lots of jewelry, designer clothing, even trimming his eyebrows. With his other gang members, they go out clothes shopping together.

The intensity of the gangs, however, I can’t be sure how accurate that really is. Some pretty intense actions are played out by the gangs. They are shown producing and selling a pretty large amount of drugs. And they put the gangster-to-be kids through some pretty intense trials, like shooting them with a pullet-proof vest on to see if they are tough enough. And they make the kid transport a lot of drugs along a busy street.

Throughout the movie, gang violence gradually grows more and more. It’s common knowledge to the neighborhood that a war is about to take place between rival gangs. Murders go back and forth between the two. The two wanna-be gangsters were becoming too much of a pain, so they were lured into a trap and killed.

But I guess this movie is based on the real Camorra gang in Europe. I assume now that most of this movie could be based on real facts. The intensity and grit of the gang life could have been portrayed as very real. It’s hard to realize that a gang of this magnitude could be present in Europe. We don’t think about these parts of society when we think about Italy or Europe. So far the films we’ve seen have been like fairy-tails. Up until now, they have been giving us a picturesque view of Italy. This movie shows the ugly, violent life of Italian underground.

Pane e Tulipani

In "Bread and Tulips" the character, Rosalba, gets left behind on her touring trip. Instead of waiting to be picked up, she decides to hitch-hike home, but instead goes to Venice. She stays with the host of a restaurant, Fernando, and quickly begins a new life. She makes new friends, learns the accordian, and finds a job as a flourist.
This movie was about Rosalba's search for a new identity. She goes to Venice to get away from her controling husband, and to try to get away from the typical female stereotype of a housewife.We can see that's how her family regarded her when we see their home after she's been gone. There is laundry, dirty dishes, and trash lying around the house. It even takes a while for her to snap out of that lyfe style. When she first moves in with Fernando, the first thing she does is clean the appartment.
What I don't understand about this movie is how easily Rosalba can leave her family. She says she was taking a vacation, but she never really plans on going home until her husband's mistress tells her to go. And once she does go, she has no problem going back when Fernando comes to get her. Was there any trauma done to her family from her leaving home for good?
This story is also about Fernando's search for a new identity. We see twice that Fernando is suicidal, but we never get a full reason why. All he tells us is that he made some mistakes with his son, and now he's trying to make up for them with his grandson. But we do know that Rosalba has made him happy again. He now has a new reason to live: to be with her He tells her his "pheonix is rising from its ashes."

Caterina in the Big City

Caterina and her parents move from a small town in the country to a new life in Rome. In the story we meet new classmates of Caterina's and see their opposing personal, social, and political views. We see that Caterina becomes torn between the classmates.

Caterina's parents also go through their own hardships. Caterina's father, Giancarlo, was a teacher in the country town. But when they move to Rome, he teaches at a local school and tries to become a writer. In the beginning of the movie, he comes off as kind of funny. He tells his class how he really feels about them, not holding back his true feelings. The extreme negativity towards his students can make you laugh. We never see a teacher talk this way to a class.
But throughout the movie we see that he's not a happy man. He gets irritated really quickly with his wife and kid. But he wants to famous. He wants to be someone inportant. He meets the parents of Caterina's friends, who are writers and big political figures. He comes off to them as annoying. He eventually sees his wife with their new neighbor, his childhood friend, Fabietto. I expect that his constant anger and irritation at his wife eventually drove her to Fabietto.

Caterina becomes friends with two girls, Margherita and Daniela, and becomes torn between their cliques. The two girls represent two opposing political sides. Margherita is left-neaning. She seems like a spiritual person and an acitivist. She and Caterina visit rallies and graves of poets. Daniela is right-leaning. She is a free spirited party animal. She and Caterina attend parties and go on shopping sprees.
Both of these girls put Caterina into situations she's not used to, and not comfortable with. With Margherita, she drinks and gets a tattoo. With Daniela, she goes out with rich, snobby girls and unintentionally steels from a store.

Entry 1

     Being Italian, I've wanted to learn more about Italy. I've been wanting to visit Italy for quite a while now. From what I've heard and seen from pictures and movies, its a beautiful country. I would love to try the food and different life style of Italian culture.
     I only know a little about Italy. One big thing is that it was a huge part of the Renaissance. Its one of te most famous countries to have classical paintings and artichecture from the Renaissance period. But because of that, it's not really known for anything modern. I learned in my Italian class that some parts of Italy are big manufacturers, making mostly cars and famous for fassion. I know only a little about modern day culture in Italy. I would like to learn more.
     Italy is also known for its stereotypes. Italians have the stereotype of being loud and expressive, like waving their hands when they talk. They are also known to be very romantic and passionate.
     I've only seen a few Italian films, both in Italian class. I've seen "Caterina in the Big City" and "The Bicycle Thief." "The Bicycle Thief" was made in the 40's, about a man who gets his bicycle stolen on the job. Being during a depression, he is desperate to find it or else he can't work. This movie was very realistic. It doesn't have the happy ending you would expect, instead the ending that could actually play out in reality.