Neorealist Cinema - The Splendour of Truth in the Postwar Italy

Seventy years after the dazzling appearance of Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City) by Roberto Rossellini, Neorealism continues to be the best known, loved and influential moment in the history of Italian cinema. Through reproductions of stills and film sequence, documents, posters, promo materials, original texts and  screenplays, parts of recorded interviews, statements and music sound tracks, the exhibition offers an original interpretation of that seminal experience, revisiting the most significant stages: from the influence of various precursors of the Thirties and the early Forties (Renoir’s Toni, De Robertis’ films), and to the main figures of Neorealism (Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Lattuada, De Santis, Lizzani) as well as the principal collaborators (screenwriters like Suso Cecchi D’Amico and Cesare Zavattini, directors of photography like Aldo Tonti), and it winds up with the legacy of Neorealism which can be found in numerous filmmakers in contemporary cinema. 

The film retrospective at Cinema Massimo, on the other hand, will show the most important films from that period, combined with later works from the most varied cinematography in the world, explicitly inspired by the aesthetics and the works by Italian film directors.