Compare and Contrast Rules of the Game and Bicycle Thieves.
Compare and Contrast Rules of the Game and Bicycle Thieves.
Discuss how each film employs the conventions of neorealist filmmaking. Review and apply the categories we have discussed in class, and are on the handout. Please use at least three examples from each film.
Secondly, compare and contrast the social, economic and historical setting of each film, making sure to identify the key similarities and differences between the two films.
Finally, how is morality depicted in each film? For example, what does Rules of the Game say about the morality of the bourgeois in France just before the beginning of World War II? Further, how does their sense of morality differ for themselves versus the workers in the chateau? Similarly, what does Bicycle Thieves say about the morality of the working class in Italy just after World War II?
Classical Film Theory + Neorealism
CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS WITHIN CLASSICAL FILM THEORY
Classical theorists—such as Bazin—seek to explain cinema through three categories:
The ontological = essence (What is cinema?)
The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being; they ask questions such as what is cinema at its essence? What are cinema’s key defining qualities that differentiate it from all of the other plastic arts—i.e. painting, sculpture, drawing.
The psychological = effects (How do viewers relate to cinema?)
How viewers psychologically receive the successive images. What is cinema presenting as a spectacle for the viewer? How is the viewer regarding what is presented?
The aesthetic = best artistic use (What is the best artistic use of cinema?)
How can cinema best be used to produce significant form within art? ***
The General Cinematic Devices of Realist Filmmaking
—Long takes (long scenes without edits or cutting)
—Deep staging/deep focus (Using both distant and nearby elements play into the overall action within the frame—here, the camera can scan over the action in a similar way to how the human eye scans a scene)
—Handheld camera signifies a documentary style and first person point of view
—The use of non-professional actors and actors who are skilled at what they perform in
the film to insure a more naturalistic performance
—Using real places as sets as opposed to, for example, building a replica on a Hollywood soundstage
—Stories that center around everyday “ordinary” people and events
—Open-ended stories that imply that the lives of the characters go on after the film ends. Some parts of the plot may remain unresolved
Those are the topics we have been discussion in class with definitions
Answer preview to compare and Contrast Rules of the Game and Bicycle Thieves.
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