Alex and Jonathan say ciao to America this week as we embark on the first stage of our new ten-week World Tour series! Our first stop is Italy where we take a look at the Italian neorealism films Rome, Open City (1945) and Bicycle Thieves (1948) and the post-neorealism film 8 1/2 (1963). We talk about the effect of World War II on filmmaking, silver linings in otherwise pessimistic films, and self-referential films.



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Skip to: Rome, Open City (7:39), Bicycle Thieves (24:53), 8 1/2 (42:25) Overall (1:02:46), Coming Attractions (1:16:23)

Resources referenced in this episode:

Next stop, France!

Next week we look at an offspring of Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave:

Intro/Outro Music:

Ash by Mike Braudrick