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The Post War Period Of Italy

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The post war period in Italy represents a time of cultural, economic and political instability, as the nation tried to re-create the social bonds broken by the war and attempted to understand, and take advantage of, the effects of mass industrialisation and urbanisation thanks to the ‘economic miracle’. It was during this time from 1945 to 1960, with the people increasingly disenchanted with the ability of the camera to truly portray the turmoil of recent history, that a new form of popular, neorealist cinema emerged to reflect social reality and “expand the viewer’s moral, cultural and geographic perspectives”. This instability and new cinematographic outlook was the backdrop for two pertinent Italian films: Rossellini’s Roma Città Aperta, an authentic depiction of the daily lives of Italians in Nazi occupied Rome, and Visconti’s Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli, the journey of one Southern Italian family as they migrate to the North during the economic boom in search of prosperity. For both of these films, the ideas of resistance and struggle are two closely linked themes which play an integral part in the portrayal of this period of Italian history. In order to gain a more insightful understanding of how each of these are conveyed in Roma Città Aperta and Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli, it is beneficial to analyse these films with reference to two sub-themes: resistance to oppression and economic struggle. This approach will make evident the comparisons between the two

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