Queries
Last night was my numerous silenced on one of the Italian neorealism, Ladri di Biciclette (1948), a film by Vittorio de Sica from the script of Cesare Zavattini. I was stunned in the film exposes on the reality of post-war Italian society. The reality that was portrayed as it is. How can I believe that the film was made to let reality as set and goes without making any conflict of image? I remembered at one occasion when I have to hide behind the trees for the road in Taman Bunga Cibubur (Eastern Jakarta) was appointed as shooting location once I passed by. Was the conflict of image occurred if my walkthrough ensue as footage in that film? Would the film’s illusion broken because of it? And what about the practice of video that since the very beginning became so close to genre of neorealism?
A group of men stepped down the bus and approaches an employment office. A group job seekers. Antonio Ricci, the main hero in the film, was called by an officer. Afterward, an unknown man called Ricci and found him outside the crowd. Ricci was towed into the film. This scene flow dynamically and without flaws. The bus come and go –became the background of Ricci’s arrival in front of the building—just as it is, normally. And then I ask myself, were those men, real job seekers? There were two realities that being visualized in the film: the actual and the construct reality. And these realities went linear. If I was to ignore the real fact on the information outside the film, then I have had ignore a well-influent movement in the history of cinema, neorealism. Nevertheless, the film is completely different from other films that I had watched. The fundamental different is what I get after I watch the film. Good film is an unfinished film though the screen has pulled down and the light was backed on. Film left question for the audience to answer. Neorealist tends to give back the cinema a question. And this question is about the dualism of reality. We are free to choose and to interpret, whether it’s about the theme, technique, structure or even the film’s material. The clarity in the image’s element has gives so many information that I was so sway by the illusion in the reality of the frame.
Lamberto Maggiorani play the role of a poor Italian worker named Antonio Ricci. Other than that, he was an ex-labor at Breda steel factory in Milan. Enzo Staiola play as Bruno Ricci, son of Antonio Ricci whom a normal kid, playing in the streets all the time. Lianella Carell has role as Maria Ricci, the wife of Antonio Ricci whom a journalist in reality. So, what is the different between reality in life and in film, while in the making of this film, the Italian society was experiencing post-war economic hardship? In here, we have found the reality of frame. The reality of frame which come to surface as a result of reality itself and how the reality is being frame by the film. Many people like Andre Bazin, Satyajit Ray, James Monaco, Jean-Luc Godard, Wang Xiaoshuai, and more has spoke of the film. The hidden space then materialize. I guess the queiries are not for me to answer. I merely surprise by the construction of this film. Especially in the scene where Antonio is chasing the bicycle thief. The glance of the crowd is very natural, yet as if it was been direct. As we refer to the film production information, the crowd are real commoners, not actors. The glance of the mass to Ricci’s pursuit on the thief reminds me of everyday events where I used to look over people who was running. All happens in a natural way. Without having bother to direct the mass, Vittorio de Sica has smartly using the psychology of the mass to avoid the conflict in image –probably the shot was one of many shots that has been taken before—also in the scenes where there were crowds. Field editing and desk editing are important to avoid the conflict of image in this film.
Ladri di Biciclette is one of the Italian neorealism filmworks. The film tells the story about lower-class society with simple and doable event that might experienced by workers at any time. A cheerless story about a post World-War II worker who was just got a job as a poster hanger by the condition of having a bicycle. But, his bicycle’s stolen and he had to search all over the town to look for it. The stolen bicycle become the shadows in the duration of the film. Quite different with Beijing Bicycle, made by Wang Xiaoshuai, in this film, we will never see the stolen bike for it’s not at all shown during the film’s duration.
The stealing and tracking of the stolen bike in Ladri di Biciclette is hardly like a crime or detective movie that always presenting the good and the bad in black and white character. Dramatization happens because of the effect that originates from the film’s theme. Winning and losing has an equal value by the end of the scene, where the hero end up as a thief. With description like that, the reality become much stronger.
The film started by the crowd, filled with the crowd, and ended in the midst of the crowd. The dramaturge of this film went linear. From the smallest unit in a society (family), and then strolls to the bigger structure (state) through its social relations. From the city streets, subway, residencies, market, church, and meetings with government offices such as pawn office, police station, transportation office, sanitary office (represented by city’s garbage official), and finish at the football stadium. One by one, these tracking show the portion of society and the involvement of the state in their life.
Antonio Ricci is a member of a society whose background is the same with other member of society. He was bound in the post-war condition, with no individual background, because in the film, the life of Antonio Ricci was never revealed. The individual (I) melted in the masses experience (the other I).
Antonio Ricci-Stolen Bicycle-Mass-State
The stolen bicycle is the key to this film. The bike is the bridge between poverty and the state. Seeing to the screen direction, I will divide it in some part.
Objective portrays of lower-economic class. Bicycle is a symbol of poverty. Public transportation at that time is rare and pricey, as we can see at the queuing for the bus or tram. At some of the queues, I perceive it as the supply and demand’s inequality condition. The queues of the masses searching for work, struggling to find water in the neighborhood, at the fortune-teller, at the pawn house, even when entering the church. Most obvious was in the scene where Antonio Ricci and his son, Bruno, counting money at the restaurant. Before this scene, at the pawn house, we can see how the flock of sheets piled up almost level with the ceiling. Camera as Antonio Ricci’s eye portrays objectivity of a problem. The problem that wasn’t Antonio Ricci’s alone. But then, the lower-economic class problem doesn’t reflect exoticism. In other word, the portrayal of poverty doesn’t view in a sense of bourgeois society –as view by the previous film period. The shots were as it was at the pawn house. The shots that were never taken for granted as symbol. The neorealism period is seeks to deeper problem. With the coming of film perspective from camera angle, editing, screen direction, characterization to become the masses experience or entering the gather of people, taking side is always a disaster for film because its natural character to force the solving of a problem. Film is highly unnecessary to have a hidden mission since it has its own language to give consideration of solution on the elevated problem to the audience.
The differences between lower-class and upper-class is obviously portray at the dining room. The position of Antonio Ricci and Bruno as representatives of the lower-class is on the left-side and counting their total expenses in a month period, as for the richer folks is on the right-side and ordering many foods. A half of a horse’s head and a shadow of a man singer between Bruno and Antonio Ricci in conversation. This here is a political scene, but not likely as struggle or protest to the condition. It’s more likely as an option for class ideology. The differences in the relations of the two classes is only appear once at the church scene, where the upper class reign the arrangement of the Mass and the lower class as the disciples.
The close relations between poverty, moral and the beliefs system. There are two systems of beliefs shows in this film. The first is a belief on superstitious, both presented by the lower and the upper class. The second is heavenly belief. The emergence of these two systems is being portrays as a condition of the shifting value which end up in a moral corrosion. The church is merely treats as a place to get certain things (i.e. food–which represented by an old man), and oracle or mystic is apply to get something abstract.
Culture and politics which portray in the underground tunnel. Antonio Ricci’s choice on culture is represented by public theater exercise. The artists then end up to extract politics in their life. In here we find the film’s political statement on the situation of the post-war Italian society. Although we’ve seen some political scenes in this film, politics itself was never really a subject of the director’s political ideology, but rather as a way to see social condition in objective perspective. Culture and politics were viewed in a clear position. This relate also to the characterization of the film.
Relations between state and society. This is the core problem in Ladri di Biciclette. Bicycle is a connector between poverty and the state. During the film, the stolen bicycle become an abstraction. Its presence was never known. The clash between two groups of lower-class society brings up into this film. I named the first group as workers society, in a way those who are attempt to get better life, and the second is the thieves society who wants to have better life in a short time. But the presence of these two groups in society was portrays as equal. The economic hardship which had been experienced by the two groups can’t be split into differences. All of them experienced the same post-war economic hardship. The only different is the way to get a better life. The scene of these two groups encounter became the climax of De Sica’s reading on the economical and ideological situation of the post-war society. One member of society cannot defeat the larger number of masses. The truth, crimes, security apparatus, the system of law, just won’t do when the mass is on the move. A significant different of interest will finally excavate the minority right (represent by the society) and majority right (represent by the state). Antonio Ricci, as a member of lower-class society, was facing the larger number of masses (the state). Finally he surrendered and return to the anonymous mass.
The emergence of video in private rooms like home, making this medium as the closest to neorealism. Both in theme or style. Take a quite shocking footage in 2004 for example: the Aceh’s tsunami. The room of reality was presented so remarkably and with no hesitation, we will call it as the true presentation of event. But, if we have awareness, we find that the presented reality is a reduce framing of television. Being reduced several times because of the editing interest. I believe that the footage is a fact. But there is another reality presented by that kind of footage.
Reality-Framing-Presentation Medium-Me (Audience)
From the room of reality to the room of private there goes three steps of process. The reality that then being framed, framed back by the medium of presentation, and the last by me –that of course, if I never re-tape it in the form of other video like recorded it with camera or video player.
So with this writing. I guess my explanation here has been re-frame times by times. As I present it, surely my framing is my own. This can be wrong, flaw, mistarget, bend, or having an irresponsible argument.
Ladri di Biciclette was made in 1947, two years after the World War II. The war that made Italia fall and America, with its ally force’s win. The condition of state and society that has ruined by war excavated the neorealism cultural movement which started since the production of Roma, Citta Aperta (1946), the work of Roberto Rosselini. In 1942 the sign of neorealism is getting stronger by the work of Luchino Visconti, Ossessione. The character of neorealism is that the films plays by unprofessional actors and actresses. In this film, the character of Antonio Ricci play by a real worker. A labor from Breda factory. Bruno is a regular kid that always stroll around the streets. The wife of Antonio Ricci is actually a journalist in real life. This is where the good point of direction in each character who seem to bring the spirit to the film, because in real life they’re also suffers some difficulties. Reality is the background for every shots in this film. No single shot was taken in the studio. All shots were taken in the streets. Like many neorealism films, this film is also tend to reportage, a superb documentary, and has unity with social situation, a full and natural devotion on actuality that offers the importance of actuality portrayal. We rather call the Italian neorealism as humanism than call it as stylistic. In 1949, a year after the premiere of this film, Rosihan Anwar made a fine reportage about this film after he saw it in the Netherlands. He suggest the Indonesian filmmaker to be able to make this kind of film, since its close relation with the condition in Indonesia after the Dutch’s second aggression.
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