Neorealism Iranian style

Hamid Naficy*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Neorealism has had a long and distinctive history in Iranian cinema. Some of the best filmmakers were influenced by its philosophical tenets and stylistic features, and domestic and foreign critics made much of the impact of Italian neorealism on Iranian authorial cinemas both before (New Wave) and after the revolution (art house cinema). There has been some controversy in film studies about what constitutes neorealism, even among its defenders. For the purpose of this study, I invoke Georges Sadoul's definition, one of the first to call neorealism a "school" and one that offered five reasonable prerequisite characteristics: • geographically bounded (concentrated in Rome, Italy); • temporally bounded (post-World War II phenomenon, 1945-51); • existence of masters (for example, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Zavattini, Luchino Visconti); • existence of disciples (for example, Luigi Zampa, Pietro Germi, Renato Castellani, Giuseppe De Santis); • formation of a set of rules (location shooting, long takes, invisible style of filming and editing, predominance of medium and long shots, use of contemporary true-to-life subjects, open-ended plots, working-class protagonists, nonprofessional cast, vernacular dialogue, implied social criticism).1.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationGlobal Neorealism
Subtitle of host publicationThe Transnational History of a Film Style
PublisherUniversity Press of Mississippi
Pages226-239
Number of pages14
ISBN (Print)9781617031229
StatePublished - Dec 1 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities

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