Vittorio De Sica Essay

I chose to write about Vittorio De Sica, one of the founders of Italian Neorealism. I wanted him to be my subject because I particularly liked the scenes from his movies when we were shown in class. Coming of age has always been one of my favorite genres, so seeing that two of his films were coming of age stories made me interested. I also appreciated that his films were more character based, which is what I prefer. I thought that writing about one of the founders of neorealism would be interesting as well.
I chose to watch the movies The Bicycle Thieves and After the Fox, because I felt that they were both a good representative of both sides of De Sica’s work. Bicycle Thieves is widely considered to be the epitome of neorealism, and
At the time, Italian cinema was going through a financial crisis due to World War II, making studios incredibly expensive to most filmmakers (Kartal). This caused one of the most important themes of neorealism films, the use of real locations. Since the films showed the real streets that the people actually used, it automatically made the stories that much more authentic and familiar, especially when compared to the beauty and glamor that embodied Hollywood movies. The locations became so important to the genre that they became characters themselves, having their own stories (Kartal).
Another technique that De Sica used was using unprofessional actors as his leads. The combination of real locations and non-actors made his films more relatable to the working class. He was also fond of using children since they are seen as a symbol of innocence. By juxtaposing the innocence of children with the harsh reality of poverty, De Sica was really able to make the audience sympathize for them. De Sica was a master at creating sympathetic characters, making audiences of all kinds resonate with the struggles of his