Time for some new films

Mussolini's intervention in Italy's film production did ignite a strong source of capital for the fascist regime, but following the war, the Italian public appeared inclined to move away from fascist-tainted cinema. Films made during the fascist era had a Hollywood appeal, using traditional techniques and popular storylines involving heroic and fanciful events to arouse nationalistic sentiments and pride for the Italian country and its fascist regime. But the image that Mussolini's government tried to convey through Italian films was uprooted by the time the regime fell in 1943; the image of a strong, fascist Italy could no longer ring true. After the war, Italy was severely destabilized politically, economically, and culturally. Italian pride was hit hard. Provisions in the postwar treaty forced Italy to sacrifice all its colonies, to pay reparations, and to live with the burden of being "on the wrong side." Constructing a new government in Italy would not be easy, and the political divides within the country, between the outcasted Socialists and Communists, and the elected liberalist coalition, prevented almost any measure from being passed without an outspoken protest. The period following the war was one heavily concentrated on the Italian public. There was no strong government head to organize and stabilize the state, the survival of Italy was in many ways dependent on its people than it had been in in the past. It could be argued that Italian neorealism, mirroring the life and sentiments in the post-war period, valued the cultural traditions of Italy's poor and middle classes through its unembellished filming techniques and reality-based material that had previously been ignored by "'high' Italian culture."Italians were faced with an identity that was no longer truthful and one that was more of a harrowing burden than something to celebrate. Italians needed a new identity, a new source of hope and nationalism, something that represented what Italy realistically was and something that wasn't hidden behind the embellishments of filmmaking under the fascist era. Italian neorealism grew out of the need for a new Italian cultural identity to compliment the new circumstances the country had been thrown into. In describing this attitude, Costica Bradatan writes that "despite everything that had happened, there was still humanity, there was room for new hope, it was still possible to start everything anew" (181). Where Italian films produced under the fascist regime were inspired by a capitalist desire, Italian neorealism flourished as a response to a cultural need.