world cinema

Course #: FILM 115-65244 Office Hours: By email or appointment

Instructor: Adam Wadenius Semester: Spring 2014
Email: adam@apwadenius.com Day & time: Wednesday, 12:30p 3:20p
Website: www.apwadenius.com Building: #1200, Room #1231

course readings

Communicating in a Global World

Shohini Chaudhuri. Introduction, Contemporary World Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 2005.

Contemporary American Cinema

John Belton. American Cinema and Film History The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1998.

Argentine New Cinema

Joanna Page. Nation, State, and Filmmaking in Contemporary Argentina, Crisis and Capitalism in
Contemporary Argentine Cinema. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2009.

Nuevo Cine Mexicano

Nuala Finnegan. So Whats Mexico Really Like?: Framing the Local, Negotiating the Global in
Alfonso Cuarns Y tu mam tambin, Contemporary Latin American Cinema. New York:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Brazil & Post-Cinema Novo

Michael Chanan. New Cinemas in Latin America, The Oxford History of World Cinema. Ed.
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

West African Cinema

Francoise Pfaff. Background to the Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, The Cinema of Ousmane
Sembene, A Pioneer of African Film. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Neo Italian Neorealismo

Katherine Elizabeth Greenburg. Rewriting Historical Neorealism in Matteo Garrones Gomorra,
ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing (Sept. 2, 2011).

New French Extremity

James Quandt. Flesh & Blood: Sex and Violence in Recent French Cinema. Artforum. February,
2004.
Post-Wall German Cinema
Paul Cooke. Watching the Stasi: Authenticity, Ostalgie, and History in Florian Henckel von
Donnersmarcks The Lives of Others, New Directions in German Cinema. Eds. Paul Cooke &
Chris Homewood. New York: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 2011.

Danish Cinema & Dogme 95

Shohini Chaudhuri. Scandinavian Cinema, Contemporary World Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2005.

Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. Manifesto - Dogme 95, Trier on von Trier. Ed. Stig
Bjorkman Stockholm: Faber Limited, 1999.

Cinema of the U.K.

Andrew Higson. British Cinema The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1998.

Australian Film
Elizabeth Jacka. Australian Cinema The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1998.

Iranian Cinema
Hamid Naficy. Iranian Cinema The Oxford History of World Cinema. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Japanese Cinemas Second Golden Age

Ayumi Suzuki. A Nightmare of Capitalist Japan: Spirited Away, in Jump Cut, #59 (Spring 2009).

Korean Wave Films

Law Kar. An Overview of Hong Kongs New Wave Cinema, At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in
a Borderless World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2001.

Contemporary Chinese Wuxia

Esther Yau. China After the Revolution, The Oxford History of World Cinema. Ed. Geoffrey
Nowell-Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Hindi Film
Shohini Chaudhuri. Indian Cinema, Contemporary World Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2005.
REWRITING HISTORICAL NEOREALISM IN MATTEO GARRONES GOMORRA
by Katherine Elizabeth Greenburg

INTRODUCTION

The neorealist films of the dopoguerra highlighted the social issues facing Italians with a
resoluteness Italians had not witnessed before. A response to the highly censured films of the
Fascist period, neorealism took an apparently inglorious approach to the daily lives of Italian
citizens. Neorealist filmmakers, in the words of Peter Bondanella, were seeking a new literary
and cinematographic language which would enable them to deal poetically with the pressing
political problems of their time (31). Films of the neorealist period focused on the poverty and
desperation throughout Italy following World War II. The traditional characteristics of neorealist
film included, as Bondanella writes, realistic treatment, popular setting, social content,
historical actuality, and political commitment (31).

To employ realism in their films, neorealists often shot on location in a documentary-like style
instead of using sets. They also used nonprofessional actors, deploying conversational speech
rather than highly scripted dialogues. The stylistic characteristics of neorealism continue to have
an influence on Italian filmmakers today, as can be seen in the recently released film Gomorra,
directed by Matteo Garrone.1

Based on the book with the same title by Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, Gomorra centers on
the daily lives of camorristi, members of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra.2 The film version
follows the stories of five characters involved in the Camorra. The stories span the entire age
spectrum, ranging from Toto, a thirteen- year-old boy trying to prove his bravery, to Don Ciro,
an old man who distributes money to the families that remain loyal to the Camorra. According to
Jay Weissberg, Garrone is interested in how the average inhabitant becomes drawn into the
cycle of corruption and violence (22).

As a style of film, neorealism was characterized by the stories of the poor and working class
citizens of Italy. The subjects of the films faced adversity and dire financial situations. However,
out of the desperateness portrayed in the storylines of neorealist film arose a sense of hope for
the future of Italy out of the ruins of the long war. The circumstances of the war are no longer
present in Italy, and there is some prosperity present for the poor of the South that Garrone has
chosen as his subject, but there also is the phenomenon of the Camorra, creating a different war
for the people of Naples.

The Camorra represents much of how the South of Italy has tried to escape from the extreme
poverty it has faced in the past. Southern Italians, especially members of the Camorra, want to
become self-made men, much like the American dream. Instead of going about this by legal
means, however, use of violence and illegal forces often determines a mans success. Many of
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1
The film Gomorra was nominated for many awards, including the Palme DOr at the Cannes Film
Festival and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign film. It also won the Grand Prix at Cannes, the Ari-Zeiss
award at the Munich Film Festival, and the European Film 2008 Best Film Award.
2
Saviano now lives in hiding under police protection. He was able to work as a screenwriter for the film
version of Gomorra.
the inhabitants of Naples and the areas under the jurisdiction of the Camorra feel there is no way
to escape the cycle of violence and crime perpetuated by the organization. There is no sense of
hope for a more legitimate future, not even within the youth of the suburbs, who instead are
enamored of the Camorra lifestyle. The children of the Camorra, according to Adriana Cerami,
will kill and die for the gains of the System (a monopoly over clothing and construction
businesses) because it means their own gain as well (trivial items such as motorini, clothing, cell
phones, etc) (15). Rather than trying to find legitimate jobs, such as working in a caffe, the
youth of suburban Naples prefer to become involved in the more glamorous world of crime.

The neorealist filmmakers often depicted an Italy shattered by war and Nazi occupation, but
there was a message of Christian Marxist humanism in their works. In neorealist film the
characters may feel hopeless, but in certain characters, primarily the children of the films, there
can be found a sense of hope in a stronger Italy and a better tomorrow. In Gomorra, Garrone has
chosen to depict the Camorra exactly as it is, and how the people of Naples do not see any way
around the Camorra. While examining the concept of reality and its literary and filmic
representations in Italy, as well as the stylistic and ideological characteristics of neorealism, the
present study aims to investigate how Garrone distorts the humanist ideology of neorealist
filmmakers in Gomorra, while adhering to the stylistic characteristics of the movement.

~ What is Realism? ~

The question of how to portray reality has long plagued artists, writers, and filmmakers. There
are multitudes of perspectives on reality, with each individual having his or her own respective
reality. Realism in general is difficult to define. According to Millicent Marcus, realism is
always defined in opposition to something else, be it romanticism in nineteenth-century
literature, modernism in twentieth- century art, nominalism in medieval philosophy, or idealism
in eighteenth-century thought (4). Marcus also explains that all realisms share certain
assumptions about the objective world: that it exists, that it can be known, and that its existence
is entirely separable from the processes by which we come to know it (8). Authors and
filmmakers attempt to portray the reality of daily life, but there is always a sense of artifice,
especially in film.3

Realism has played an important part in literature, and works that are considered realist allow the
audience greater insight into a certain view of reality. In the world of written texts, much
literature belongs to experiences that have been lived by the authors themselves. For Erich
Auerbach, reality in literature has been taken to mean an active dramatic presentation of how
each author realizes, brings characters to life, and clarifies his or her own world (Said XX).
Authors ranging from Dante to Zola have attempted to render a real view of humanity and reveal
the inner workings of their created worlds. When a work is considered to have a realist
perspective, it characteristically has, according to Marcus, a grasp of the underlying dynamics
of historical development, a corresponding vision of the future which will emerge from the
movement of history so discerned, and a belief that the social order is modifiable and therefore
perfectible (9).

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3
Bazin writes that every form of aesthetic must necessarily choose between what is worth preserving
and what should be discarded (Bazin2, 26).
In a majority of works characterized as realistic, the author is attempting to provide the audience
with an insight into his or her own reality, and thus help the reader experience events that are
occurring in the authors own life or his/her perceptions of life. How can the reader understand
the reality as perceived by the author? Auerbach writes that reading the works of realist authors
who are providing insight into their worlds will bring a change in our manner of viewing
history which will out of necessity soon be transferred to our manner of viewing current
conditions (433). For readers to understand literary realism they must be like realist authors and
attempt to understand the reality of life from their own personal perspective.

~ The Development of Realism in Unified Italy ~

Realism has a long and distinguished history in Italian literature, beginning with Dante, arguably
for the first two canticles of the Divine Comedy, continuing through the Renaissance, and
resurging in popularity in the years following the Italian Risorgimento. At the time of Italys
unification writers such as Alessandro Manzoni and Ippolito Nievo were writing historical
novels that were glorifying progress and nationalism. In the more isolated areas of Italy, such as
Sicily, the promises of reform and progress were not fulfilled, creating a disenchanted public. As
a response to the historical novels of the Risorgimento, towards the end of the nineteenth
century, Sicilian writers such as Giovanni Verga undertook to write novels that showed what was
really happening in certain regions of Italy, thereby providing a snap-shot view of the daily life
of a specific regional area. Out of their works developed the literary movement of verismo.

Verismo finds its roots in the naturalist literary movement characterisitc of France, made popular
by Emile Zola. For Luca Clerici, the influence of France on the veristi came from the
persistenza di una tradizione nazionale idealista e spiritualista, sia alla situazione storico-
economico del paese (26). Zola condemned the social corruption of the political regime of
Napoleon III in France and wrote novels that represented the natural and social history of France
during this time. He and other French writers were also impressed by the scientific discoveries
made by such naturalists as Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel and their use of scientific
method. According to Giulio Carnazzi, Zola sostiene che il metodo scientifico deve essere
applicato anche alla ricostruzione dei fatti, delle idee, dei sentimenti, delle passioni, che sono
oggetto della riproduzione artistica (11). By using the scientific method and a keen observing
eye, Zola was able to provide insight into the reality faced by the bourgeoisie of France.

The veristi agreed with many of the ideas of Zola and his contemporaries. For the Sicilians, the
works of Zola and other French naturalists, according to Dombrowski , provided a general
methodological blueprint which, however, was destined to undergo revision in the Sicilian
context (463). The veristi believed they were incorporating the scientific method of the
naturalists, but their fiction did not promote Zolas belief that science could change social
conditions. For the veristi, the novel, instead of being a scientific exercise in cause-and-effect
relations, must give characters and events the liberty to be what they naturally are
(Dombrowski 464). The principal concern of the Sicilian veristi was how to best express the
reality of daily life for the people of Sicily in a way that the general reading public of Italy would
understand. Giovanni Verga, the major proponent of verismo, championed scientific precision
in the creativity of an autogenous art that was an objective, unbiased investigation of human life
and upheld the priority of real, demonstrable human events (Dombrowski 464). In the
introduction to his novel I malavoglia, the first novel in his uncompleted series I vinti, Verga
outlines his theory of verismo, proposing a sincere and dispassionate study of human social
life through all the social classes. The disenchantment with how the Risorgimento had affected
Sicily extended into Vergas works, providing him with an anti-progressive attitude. He and
other veristi ultimately believed that the novelist can only observe the weak who have fallen by
the wayside, victims of mankinds forward march (Dombrowski 465). This desire to portray the
Italian lower classes in their suffering, again victims of mans forward march, would resurface in
Italian literature and film in the following century, especially in the form of neorealism.

~ From Verismo to Neorealismo ~

In the early twentieth century there was a departure from realism in Italian literature. Literary
movements such as decadentismo and futurismo, glorifying progress, invention, and grandeur,
were a far cry from the verismo of the late nineteenth century.4 With the rise of Mussolini and
Fascism, Italians tried to recreate the Italy of myth and the glory of the Roman republic and
empire. The image of man and Italy moving towards progress became the ideal of the age.
During the Second World War, many Italians who had been supportive of Mussolini and his
attempt to rebuild an Italian empire became disenchanted with Fascism and its ideals in the face
of great poverty and unemployment. Beginning with the onset of German occupation, and
continuing through the end of the war, Italy was in economic shambles. Italy had not become a
reincarnation of the Roman Empire, a machine of progress. Instead, there were shortages of food
and jobs, much sickness, and an overall sense of defeat. As a response to the hardship faced by
Italian citizens, writers and filmmakers alike felt a desire to describe what the reality of life was
in the dopoguerra.

Realism appeared in both literature and film under the term neorealism in post-war Italy. The
term is often applied more to the world of film than literature, but it holds a place among Italian
writers of the era.5 During the fascist rule there had been much political censorship, with the
majority of works displaying fascist rhetoric. After Italys liberation, Italians were able to
investigate their country and themselves and come to terms with the harshness and barbarity of
war and seek political renewal for the Italy that was taking shape out of the ruins of war (Gatt-
Rutter 533). One of the main issues facing writers in Italy at the time was the struggle between
placing precedence over political beliefs or literary creativity. The authors who were considered
neorealist urged a retelling of the Resistance and an individuals responsibility to history. Cesare
Pavese, one of the most prominent Italian neorealist writers, notes that neorealists, in
Bondanellas words, wanted to view their world afresh and from a new perspective, thereby
creating a new reality through an artistic means (34).

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4
Decadentismo was a literary movement popularized by Gabriele DAnnuzio which, again in
Dombrowskis words, sprang from the belief that the reality of the outside world is in itself unknowable;
that its objects are nothing but material signs of some hidden and mysterious essence of life (473).
Futurismo is a literary, artistic, and cultural movement of the early 20th century initiated by Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti which exalted the rule of technology and the beauty of industrial civilisation
(Dombrowski 495).
5
According to John Gatt-Rutter, the term neorealismo was first coined in the 1940s to describe the
objectivist and epic perspective of film-makers like Visconti and Rosellini, who had taken their cameras
out of the studio and on to the streets and squares and fields of contemporary Italy (535-36).
In the world of film, people were seeking an alternative to the films of Fascist Italy, such as
fascist propaganda or white telephone films. Screenwriters and film critics alike wanted to
return to reality, wishing to express what life was like for Italians in the dopoguerra. For them,
realism in film was to be set against expressionism, aestheticism, or more generally, against
illusionism (Marcus 4).The neorealists found their model in Giovanni Verga and the Sicily of
verismo. Mary Wood writes that Vergas verismo depended on the evocation of particular
geographies of place and atmosphere through the building up of detail (86).

Like Verga, neorealist filmmakers wished to portray sections of the population that did not
receive much attention, such as the lower classes. They also wished to show the characters of
their films in a social context that would help to explain the harsh reality of post-war Italy. The
films of neorealism worked on building a sense of historical authenticity, as well as a reality of
time and space. Neorealists were looking to portray a correctness of historical vision (as
opposed to beauty and pleasure, for example) (Wagstaff 21). Neorealism was the repository of
hope for the partisans in postwar Italy wishing to find social justice. It was the artistic
expression of a historical period and represents an important revolutionary moment, not only
in cinema, but of Italian thought (Marcus 4).

THEORY BEHIND REALIST FILM

With the end of the 1920s came the end of the glory days of silent film. The invention of sound
in film allowed a new art form to develop, leading to stirring directions in film. The popular
silent Soviet films of the mid to late 1920s heavily relied on the use of montage, a trend that
would continue into the birth of the sound era. From the 1930s through the 1940s, the Hollywood
cinema reigned supreme. Multiple popular dramas developed, including comedy, burlesque,
vaudeville, the gangster film, the psychological and social drama, and the western (Bazin 1, 28).
The Hollywood machine generated star-focused films, full of glitz and glamour. Films were
heavily edited and followed a distinct pattern. All of this was bound to change with the advent of
realism in the world of film.

An element of reality had been present in the works of Soviet filmmakers such as Eisenstein,
Pudovkin, and Dovjenko, who used non-professional actors and natural sets rather than studios.
Their heavy use of montage continued to be popular throughout the 1930s, but Andre Bazin
believed that in many cases editing could actually destroy the effectiveness of a scene (qtd. by
Giannetti 178). Bazin was a critic and theorist, and for many years was the editor of Cahiers du
Cinema.6 Giannetti writes that Bazins realist technique was based on his belief that
photography, TV, and cinema, unlike the traditional arts, produce images of reality
automatically, with a minimum of human interference (178). Bazin was aware that cinema like
all art -- involves a certain amount of selectivity, organization, and interpretation (Giannetti
180). Though the films of directors such as Renoir, Welles, as well as the Italian neorealists,
created a sense of reality lacking in the films of the Hollywood age, there was a use of artifice to
develop the real aspect of the world present. Renoir and Welles chose to achieve a continuity of
scenes through deep- focus photography. Unlike the Italian neorealists, they did use
manufactured sets, professional actors, and artificial lighting, which detracted from the reality in

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6
Cahiers du cinema is an influential French film magazine founded by Bazin in 1951. The magazine is
still printed today.
their films. The Italians were not without their artifice though. Because they used hand- held
cameras to film in the busy city streets, Italian filmmakers had to resort to the use of sound
dubbing. The use of hand-held cameras allowed for longer shots and easy mobility, as well as a
documentary quality, but the lack of original sound adds an artificial aspect to neorealist film.
For Millicent Marcus, however, the artificial illusions in the neorealist filming technique find
their ultimate justification in their service to a higher truth: the revelation of the world order in a
way that would otherwise escape our unaided notice (6). Bazin and his support of realism in
film, especially neorealism, would be highly influential in the worldwide popularization of
neorealist film.

Though Bazin is probably the theorist most associated with film realism, in Italy Cesare
Zavattini was also formulating ideas in regards to realism in film, more specifically neorealism.
Zavattini was a long-time collaborator with Vittorio De Sica, one of the most prominent
filmmakers in Italy and wrote most of the neorealist scripts that De Sica brought to the screen.
For Zavattini, the ideal realist film entailed rushing with a minimal crew to the scene of an
everyday news event, using the actual people involved to perform their own roles in the event,
and hurrying it onto screen, just as a newspaper publishes its chronicle the morning after
(Wagstaff 78). He also advocated the notion of pedinare: tailing someone like a detective, not
determining what the character does in a normal way of the artist, but instead seeks to find out
what is about to ensue (Wagstaff 78-79). By using this investigative manner of filming,
common in documentary work, he believed the viewer would obtain a greater awareness of his or
her reality through the knowledge gained through cinematic interpretation.7 Zavattini was not a
fan of the big budget Hollywood films that had been quite popular in previous years. He believed
that film should not be so concerned with aesthetics, such as large sets, perfect lighting, and big
name stars, but rather having an ethical purpose. Film, for Zavattini, had a duty to portray
humanity in its most real moments. Zavattinis theories in regards to portrayal of reality would
come to define much of the characteristic stylistic and psychological choices made in neorealist
film.

~ The Stylistic Characteristics of Neorealist Film ~

There were many stylistic choices that represented the reality that neorealist filmmakers wished
to portray. The stylistic features of neorealist films are easily identifiable. According to Gianetti:

The stylistic features of neorealism include (1) an avoidance of neatly plotted stories
in favor of loose episodic structures that evolve organically from the situations of the
characters, (2) a documentary visual style: (3) the use of actual locations usually
exteriors rather than studio sets; (4) the use of non-professional actors, sometimes
even for principal roles; (5) an avoidance of literary dialogue in favor of conversational
speech, including dialects; and (6) an avoidance of artifice in the editing, camerawork,
and lighting in favor of a simple styleless style. (478)

By choosing to use the above-mentioned characteristics in their films, neorealist filmmakers

were able to preserve a reality of the situations being filmed for their audiences.

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7
Zavattini believed what cinema can foster through conoscenza and coscenza is covivenza (living in
fellowship) (Wagstaff 79).
The stylistic characteristics that mark neorealist film were originally situational. After the war, in
fact, the Germans, according to Wood, had taken much filmmaking equipment with them as
they retreated; Cinecitta was used as a refugee camp and there was a shortage of filmstock to
make films (86). The war had also left Italy shattered economically. There was not much money
to finance films, so filmmakers had to make do with what they had. Filmmakers used whatever
film stock they could find and shot on location because it was free. Shooting on location also
meant that natural light could be used, instead of having to find enough electricity to operate
professional lighting equipment. Directors were also able to cut costs by hiring nonprofessional
actors because they did not demand big-budget salaries that professional actors were accustomed
to. These originally budgetary considerations became the hallmark of neorealist film and
directors continued to follow these stylistic standards even when they had financial backing.

The stylistic choices made by neorealist directors aided the presence of reality in the cinematic
world. For example, the selection of performers from the streets of Italy instead of hiring
professional actors, or the choice to shoot on location were specific choices made to preserve
reality. For Wagstaff,

choosing from reality, a person to be the part is a movement away from

iconic reference (imitation) towards indexical reference, in which you want
to represent (the same principle applies to location shooting): it is a bringing
together (in a theoretically questionable way perhaps) of fiction with
documentary. (32)

The specific choice of moving towards reality allowed for a movement away from the
convention and artifice found in films of previous generations.

~ The Ideological Characteristics of Neorealism ~

Neorealist films had an easily identifiable aesthetic style, but the films also proposed a certain
ideology. The majority of films made up until World War II had been dominated by such genres
as comedies, melodramas, period pieces, and big- budget Hollywood affairs (Moscati 143). The
films of the golden age of Hollywood were not concerned with an accurate portrayal of reality or
with sending out an ethical social message. Neorealist filmmakers chose to make movies about
the war and its aftermath, as well as demonstrate the social injustice and poverty experienced by
many lower class Italians. There was a clear social agenda in neorealism. For Gian Piero
Brunetta, neorealist film had invented una nuova tradizione, unetica del vedere e del narrare e
una capacita di investire il piu anonimo gesto quotidiano del senso e del valore di unepopea
collettiva (VIII).

The moral message that neorealist filmmakers wished to portray was quite evident in their films.
They returned to many of the ideas present in the verista works of Giovanni Verga. Giannetti
explains that the main ideological characteristics of the movement include:

(1) a new democratic spirit, with emphasis on the value of ordinary people such
as laborers, peasants, and factory workers; (2) a compassionate point of view
and refusal to make facile moral judgements; (3) a preoccupation with Italys
Fascist past and its aftermath of wartime devastation, poverty, unemployment,
prostitution, and the black market; (4) a blending of Christian and Marxist
 humanism; and (5) an emphasis on emotions rather than abstract ideas. (477-78)

Like Verga, the neorealists wanted to portray the plight of the lower classes, people who were
not shown compassion in the aftermath of the war. Unlike Verga, the neorealists believed that by
focusing on the emotions of their characters and portraying, in Bondanellas words, a message
of fundamental human solidarity, their audiences would be shocked into political and social
action (31).

The humanist ideology of neorealism is one of the most important characteristics of the
movement.8 Filmmakers such as Rossellini and De Sica were attempting to shape political
reality according to a moral idea (Marcus 28). The moral message of neorealism is rooted in
Christian Marxist humanism. Giannetti explains that most theories of realism have a moral and
ethical bias and are often rooted in the values of Islamic, Christian, and Marxist humanism
(476). This blend of Christian and Marxist ideology may seem a strange combination, given that
the Catholic Church of Italy was often at odds with the Communist party. The majority of
neorealist filmmakers were left-wing in their political beliefs, which explains the focus on lower
class workers and peasants in their films. They also understood Christian doctrine, and aimed to
bring a message of kindness and charity towards the lower classes in their films.

The characters most essential to the humanist message of neorealism are the children present in
the films. Why children often embody hope and compassion can be better explained by the idea
of sermo humilis. Erich Auerbach defines sermo humilis as a low style, which is clear and simple
for the audience to understand and opens up deeper levels of understanding (39). For Wagstaff
children are, in social terms, ideal embodiments of sermo humilis (90).9 Children are supposed
to have an air of innocence and helplessness about them so when faced with adult situations and
problems their reactions provide the shock factor neorealist filmmakers were looking for. The
children of neorealist film provide the judging eyes that see what is wrong with Italian society
and often make decisions that ingrain a sense of compassion that is missing in the lives of the
adult characters, as well as providing hope that with these children Italy will have a better future.

~ Roberto Rossellinis Roma citta aperta ~

Greater insight into neorealism can be provided through an analysis of the important films of the
movement. The film considered to be the earliest and most influential over other neorealist
filmmakers was Roberto Rosselinis Roma citta aperta. Massimo Moscati writes, Lo shock che
provoca nel pubblico e nella critica la proiezione di Roma citta aperta di Roberto Rossellini, il 26
settembre 1945 in un cineteatro romano, ha consacrato questa data come la nascita ufficiale del
neorealismo (141). The film was indeed a shock for the Italian public, as well as to audiences
around the world. The story centers on the lives of members of the Italian Resistance during the
German occupation of Rome. The film includes such characters as Don Pietro, a local priest who
is helping protect Resistance workers; Pina, a single mother who is engaged to be married, but
who is also an influential member of the womens Resistance; and Manfredi, a critical member

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8
Humanism is a comprehensive life stance that upholds human reason, ethics, and justice.
9
Erich Auerbach writes that humilis is related to humus, the soil, and literally means low, low-lying, low
stature (39).
of the Resistance and a Marxist. The film chronicles the struggles of these and many more
characters as they fight to liberate Italy from the Nazis.

Roma citta aperta was shot at the very end of the war, which made the film difficult to complete.
According to Marcus, the lack of studio space, the absence of sophisticated equipment, and the
scarcity of film stock forced Rossellini to adopt the simplicity of means that was responsible for
the authentic and uncontrived look of his finished product (34). Rossellini is also noted for his
use of location shooting and his understanding of lighting, which adds to the documentary
quality of the film.10 A large amount of the movie was shot outside so that Rossellini could use
natural light as well as locations that were actually a part of the lives of the characters of the film.
Christopher Wagstaff writes that the film reconstructs accurately, using whenever possible the
original locations and the events of the Roman resistance to German occupation: it is a
documentation of historical fact (97). Though the use of location shooting became a style
standard of neorealist film, the choice was also due to the fact that electrical power was
incredibly difficult to find in the city, and there was no production funding to be found. The
choice to use nonprofessional actors was also due to budgetary concerns. Rossellini was able to
hire Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi to play the main characters of Pina and Don Pietro, but
after hiring them he had very little money for the rest of the cast.11 Rossellini coped well with the
situation and made a film that was to become incredibly influential. Out of the necessity of
adapting to the economic conditions of post-war Italy, Rossellini created a style in Roma citta
aperta that came to be the model for many neorealist filmmakers, including those for whom
funding was not a concern.

Roma citta aperta is also an important film of neorealism for the message of Christian and
Marxist humanism that it projects. Rossellini showed concern for the common people of Rome,
much like how Verga was concerned for the lower classes of Sicily. He wanted to create a film
that demonstrated how common people were affected by the tragedy of warfare. For Bondanella,
Rossellini almost effortlessly captured forever the tension and the tragedy of Italian experiences
during the German occupation and the partisan struggle against the Nazi invaders (37).
Rossellini hoped that his film would shock his audiences into the political and social action of
which Italy was in such great need. Mary Wood writes that the film mobilizes melodramatic
techniques to increase the affective charge by the use of emotive music, loved ones in peril,
abuse of positive characters, violence, heroism, and horrific events (94). The melodrama found
in the portrayal of the common people and proletariat of Rome aids the emotional apprehension
of the audience, allowing them to feel compassion for the characters.

Most important to Rossellinis ideology was the element of humanism. Rossellini himself was a
Marxist, but he had a deep respect for the power and dignity of the Christian message (Marcus
50). He chose to include both Christian and Marxist characters in his film, and he does not
project that either side is better than the other. Marcus comments that, whether the participants
in the struggle are Marxists, humanists, monarchists, or Christian soldiers does not matter as long
as the fight is directed toward the divinely sanctioned end of social justice (52). Rossellini is
attempting to end the social injustice faced by many Italians in the dopoguerra and join the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
Louis Giannetti further explains that many neorealists began their careers as journalists, and Rossellini
himself began as a documentarist (476).
11
Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi were famous vaudeville and regional theater actors, specializing in
comedy rather than drama.
people of Italy together in human reason and justice. He best illustrates his humanist goals in the
characters of children in the film.

The majority of the characters in Roma citta aperta meet horrible ends. Pinas fiance Francesco is
captured by Nazi soldiers on their wedding day, and as she is running after him trying to save
him she is shot and killed. Manfredi and Don Pietro are both captured and killed, Manfredi by
torture and Don Pietro by firing squad. There does not seem to be compassion or charity shown
towards any of the characters. Rossellini does manage to bring a ray of hope into the picture with
the children in Roma, citta aperta. This is most obvious in the final scene of the film after Don
Pietro has been killed. A gang of neighborhood boys, including Pinas son Marcello, who want
to have their part in the Resistance, have just witnessed the firing squad. These boys have
appeared throughout the whole film fighting in their own mini-resistance. Led by Romoletto, the
boys walk down one of the hills of Rome back towards the city. Looming in the background is
St. Peters basilica. Bondanella explains that Rossellinis last shots

accentuate the religious tone of the entire film: Romoletto, Marcello, and the
other children walk away from Don Pietros execution and are followed by the
panning camera which sets them, Italys future, against the backdrop of St.
Peters Cathedral. Out of a moment of tragic despair, Rossellini has created a
vision of hope from the first of many symbolic images associated with children
that will characterize almost all of the great neorealist classics. (42)

The image of the young boys walking towards the city of Rome signifies a new era for Italy, and
a hope in the youth to change the country for the better. Millicent Marcus writes, Rossellinis
Romoletto will look to the past for his model and his justification in refounding the city, but he
will select a republican Rome rather than an imperial Rome, as his historical exemplar (49).
Romoletto and his gang have just witnessed a terrible spectacle, with their spiritual leader being
killed. Their march into the city is a movement towards reestablishing Italy with justice for the
masses. In the words of Mary Wood, Rossellinis film attempts to stop at the delineation of
injustice and to suggest a commonality of purpose for the Italian people, that is, the need to
provide for a new generation, the children seen walking back into the city (93).

~ Vittorio De Sicas Ladri di biciclette ~

According to Marcus, Roberto Rossellini initiated a taste for simplicity, location shooting, and
authorial intervention that subsequent filmmakers were forced into creating through elaborate
technical means, and illusion of technical poverty (57). Rossellini may have initiated the
neorealist movement in film, but Vittorio De Sica developed it into a venerable style with his
film Ladri di biciclette. Set in Rome in the post-war period, Ladri di biciclette tells the story of
Antonio Ricci, a man from the lower classes of Rome who has been unemployed for two years.
Ricci is called one day for a job hanging movie posters around Rome by his local unemployment
office. The requirement is that Antonio must have a bicycle for the job. Antonio and his wife
Maria are forced to sell their wedding linens to pay for repairs to his old bicycle, selling these
precious belongings because they are desperate for Antonio to have a job. The first day on the
job, for which he has waited so long, Antonios bicycle stolen. The rest of the film follows
Antonio and his young son Bruno on a search throughout Rome for the missing bicycle. A
seemingly simple plot, the movie is not simple in the least bit, tugging at the heartstrings of the
audience with its use of melodrama.
De Sica continued to use many of the stylistic techniques used in previous neorealist films even
though he had financial backing.12 He shot a majority of the film on location, which helped to
denote the time and place of the story. Since he was shooting in Rome, De Sica chose to use
Roman dialect rather than standard Italian (Wagstaff 319).13 The choice to use dialect, instead
of standard Italian, added to the purveying sense of reality throughout the film, since this would
be the language the characters truly spoke. De Sica was quite concerned with the authenticity of
his characters and took great care in the choice of actors for his roles.

According to Wagstaff, De Sica chose his actors for their immediate visual appearance, without
knowing them as people, and without seeing how they behaved or hearing how they spoke
(317-18). An example of his use of nonprofessional actors would be De Sicas casting of two
nonprofessional actors for the principal roles of Antonio and Bruno Ricci in Ladri di biciclette.
Bondanella states that the nonprofessional actors portraying Antonio and Bruno were carefully
selected because of particular mannerisms in their walk and their facial expressions (57).14 De
Sicas preoccupation with preserving reality in film helps to underline the struggle faced by
Antonio Ricci and his family, and the hopelessness of their situation.

De Sica collaborated often with Cesare Zavattini, who was previously mentioned for his theories
in regard to realism in film. De Sica did not agree with everything Zavattini proposed, but he did
have similar feelings about how reality should be portrayed in film. Mary Wood comments that
De Sica felt that ordinary rather than exceptional people had to be the subjects of contemporary
stories, and he suggested that, when ordinary situations were depicted in an analytical way, they
became dramatic spectacle, going beyond the illusion of reality to suggest a deeper truth. (96)

De Sica upholds many of the ideological characteristics of neorealist film in Ladri di biciclette.
The main characters are ordinary people, common workers from the lower classes of Rome.
These characters are faced with the devastation that came in the aftermath of the war. Unlike
Rossellini, though, he does not have an optimistic view of Italys future. He is more along the
lines of Giovanni Vergas somber attitude towards life, documenting how persons of the lower
classes are often left to fend for themselves and struggle to survive. Although there is not much
compassion demonstrated throughout the film, one character provides a glimmer of hope to the
situation: Antonios young son Bruno.

Before Antonio received his new job and obtained a bicycle, Bruno was as it were the
breadwinner for the family, working as an apprentice at a gas station. Bruno is quite happy when
his father receives his job, because he may now resume his rightful place as a child being
supported by his parents. Bruno has been forced to see the world through the eyes of an adult. He
is young, sensitive, vulnerable, in need of care and protection (Wagstaff 124). Throughout the
father and sons search for the missing bicycle, Bruno provides the reminder of what is at stake
for Antonio should he not retrieve the bicycle.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12
Christopher Wagstaff adds that David O. Selznick had offered to provide financial backing for Ladri di
biciclette, but only if Cary Grant was cast in the title role. De Sica quickly turned him down (303).
13
Wagstaff also writes that Neorealism is credited with the entry of dialect into the Italian cinema, and
Ladri di biciclette is noteworthy for its consistent use (319).
14
Lamberto Maggiorani (Antonio Ricci) was found in a factory, while Enzo Staiola (Bruno) was found at
a casting call in the area of Rome where De Sica was filming.
Bruno never turns against his father. However, when Antonio becomes so desperate for a bicycle
that he steals one, Bruno provides the judgmental eyes for the audience, staring in horror at the
spectacle of his father turned thief (Marcus 61). Rather than condemning his father, Bruno
provides a humanizing example, extending his hand to his father and walking home with him in
solidarity. With Brunos grasping of Antonios hand, he is able to provide some comfort to his
father through his compassion. De Sica does not provide his audience with hope for Antonio
retrieving his bike, but he does provide hope through the generosity of Bruno, showing that no
amount of determinism or fatalism can destroy the special relationship between Bruno and his
father (62).

NEOREALISM TODAY: MATTEO GARRONES GOMORRA

Currently in Italian cinema some filmmakers take the teachings of their neorealist predecessors
and are creating films that focus on the human condition and the struggles of Italian citizens
today. One of the best examples to come of late is Matteo Garrones Gomorra, released in 2008.
Precisely in reference to Neorealism in cinema, Mario Pezzella states that after Rossellini few
had described a reality so steeped in the metaphysics, tragedy, and unredeemed destiny as well
as Garrone (246). Michael Covino calls Garrones film a post-neorealist docudrama that
provides a searing look into the Camorra (74). Garrone uses such stylistic elements as shooting
on location, employing non-professional actors, use of conversational speech, as well as a
documentary style of shooting, common in the neorealist films of the dopoguerra.

Gomorra addresses one of the biggest problems in Italy today, mafia involvement in various
levels of Italian life. The films subject is the daily life of citizens of the suburbs of Naples and
the influence of the Camorra, the local crime organization.15 The Camorra has been able to grow
extensively over the years, largely as a result of the extreme economic and social problems in
the South (Behan 4). Southern Italy has a long history of economic and political strife, dating
back to the post-Risorgimento era, often represented in the tales and novels of Giovanni Verga.
The South lacks the industry of the North of Italy and for many years has been a largely agrarian
society. The suffering of the lower classes of the South has bred dissatisfaction among its people,
an environment perfect for the growth of organized crime. Since the 1980s the Camorra has had
unprecedented growth, having a hand not just in the typically illegal activities of drug dealing,
gambling and weapons trading, but also in clothing production and toxic waste disposal. Crime
and violence reign supreme in Naples, creating much political and social unrest, similar to that
generally felt by the Italians of post-war Italy.

The film is structured to chronicle the daily lives of Italian citizens, much like the films of
neorealism. It follows five diverse storylines spanning the entire age spectrum, including Toto, a
thirteen-year-old boy trying to prove his bravery and Don Ciro, a middle-aged go-between
delivering money to the families that remain loyal to the Camorra. The film represents various
levels of involvement in the organization, ranging from clothes manufacturing, waste disposal,
and drug sales. Besides showing the business dealings of the Camorra, Gomorra also
demonstrates the high level of violence present in the Neapolitan suburbs. Many of the films

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15
The Camorra has a long, but ill documented history in Naples. Tom Behan writes that the word
Camorra was used for the first time in 1735. He claims that the word is an amalgamation of capo (boss)
and the Neopolitan street game, the morra (9-10).
characters are either wounded or killed, which comes as a shock to the audience, but not to the
inhabitants of such areas as Secondigliano or Scampia, for whom Camorra killings are a daily
occurrence. Umberto Curi states that Garrone gives us a bitter and sorrowful reflection on the
human condition, on the structurality of the evil immanent in the organization of society, on the
indelible role that violence, in all its forms, plays in the concrete relations between individuals
(242). Gomorra provides a searing view of the reality of the Camorra, much as Giovanni Verga
portrayed the life of lower-class Sicilians in the post-Risorgimento and the neorealists portrayed
the lower-class citizens of post-World War II Italy.

~ The Novel, Gomorra ~

Garrones film Gomorra is based on Roberto Savianos tell-all novel of the same name. The
novel, an expose on the inner-workings of the Camorra, became, in Donadios words, a literary
sensation upon its publication in Italy, selling an astonishing 600,000 copies (1). Gomorra
provides different stories and histories that explain the depth of corruption of which the Camorra
is capable. Saviano was raised in the suburbs of Naples, more specifically Casal di Principe, the
capital of the Camorras entrepreneurial power.16 Growing up at the heart of Camorra action, as
well as being an investigative writer and reporter, has provided Saviano with great insight into
the inner workings of the System.17 The novel describes in great detail the history of the
Camorra, the many gang wars that have erupted in recent years, and the thousands upon
thousands of deaths that have occurred at the hands of the Camorra. Saviano draws on court
reports as well as his own reporting to provide an in-depth analysis of not only the Camorras
corruption of Naples, but of Italy and various other areas of the globe. Though Savianos book is
steeped in facts and history, it also includes personal stories about different encounters the author
had with camorristi. It is from these personal and witnessed elements that the five storylines of
Gomorra the film are taken.

The film version of Gomorra is not a documentary on the Camorra and its inner-workings, but
rather a realist work that allows the audience to follow five different stories of the daily lives of
camorristi. Garrone worked with Saviano to develop a script that was based on the novel, but not
just a retelling of murder statistics. The film provides a view of what it is actually like to be
involved in the world of organized crime. The characters from the novel brought to the film are
Pasquale, a tailor who makes imitation designer clothing and also teaches the Chinese in their
clothing factories how to sew and make patterns; Don Ciro, a submarine who delivers money
to the families of loyal camorristi with family members in jail; Franco, a rich man who works in
illegal waste disposal, and his young sidekick Roberto; Toto, a young boy who wants to become
a member of the System; and Marco and Ciro, two knucklehead teens who are trying to start
their own gang and override the local Camorra boss.18 The five storylines weave in and out
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16
Saviano writes that being from Casale era come una sorta di garanzia di immunit, significava essere
pi di se stesso, come direttamente emanate dalla ferocia dei gruppi criminali casertani (206).
17
Saviano defines the Secondigliano System as un meccanismo piuttosto che una struttura (48). He
explains that it is a more eloquent term that describes the criminal organization that directly works with
the economy.
18
Saviano explains that the term submarine is attributed to the fact that the money distributors
strisciano sul fondo delle strade (154). Some of the characters names have been chabged from the
novel. For example, Tot is based on the character of Pikachu, and Marco and Ciro are based on the
characters of Giuseppe and Romeo. Also, the character of Roberto is loosely based on Saviano himself.
throughout the movie, showing the diverse ways the Camorra can infiltrate the lives of
Neapolitans.

Though the movie is indeed based on the novel, the film lacks the condemnatory nature of
Savianos novel. Rather, the documentary style and shocking nature of Gomorra the film intends
to provoke the audience into their own condemnation of the Camorra. Saviano ends his novel
with his condemnation of the Camorra. He describes a trip he made to an area of Naples called
the Land of Fires, where the Camorra burns hazardous waste.19 During this visit he broods over
the power of the Camorra and tries to grasp how he can survive without being devoured by its
corruption. The novel includes this discourse by Saviano in regards to survival:

Porsi contro i clan diviene una Guerra per la sopravvivenza, come se lesistenza
stessa, il cibo che mangi, le labbra che baci, la music a che ascolti, le pagine che
leggi non riuscissero a concederti il senso della vita, ma solo quello della
sopravvivenza. E cosi conoscere non e piu una traccia di impegno morale. Sapere,
capire diviene una necessita. Lunica possibile per considerarsi ancora uomini
degni di respirare. (331)

Saviano is very much like the neorealists, providing a work that points out the numerous
problems with Italy as a country, hoping to shock the public into action. The film, by contrast, is
pervaded by an overall attitude of indifference and resignation. Daniel Lindvall writes that the
film version of Gomorra tends to present existing social relations as simply given and
unalterable (4). Although the film shows no avenue for hope, and the majority of characters in
the film do not stand up and denounce the Camorra, out of cowardice and fear, the style of
filming, as well as the subject matter, shocks the viewer and urges the Italian public to condemn
the Camorra. Though Gomorra may be based on Savianos condemnatory novel, and stays loyal
to the stylistic characteristics of neorealism, it does not outright condemn the corruption of the
Camorra, but rather leaves the audience to come to its own conclusions.

~ Gomorras Documentary Style ~

One of the most common stylistic features of neorealist film is the use of actual locations instead
of studio sets. Originally, location shooting was a necessity for Italian filmmakers in the post-
World War II period because Italy was in an economic crisis, and filming in studios with
elaborate sets was quite costly. The use of location shooting became a trademark of neorealist
cinema, which Matteo Garrone has chosen to uphold in Gomorra. The setting of the film is from
everyday Neapolitan life: la citta, la periferia, i campi fradici (Masoni 7). The film Gomorra
was shot in La Scampia, a suburb of Naples notorious for its Camorra activity.20 According to
Tim Parks, much of the film takes place in a housing estate made up of three dilapidated
apartment blocks with long open-air walkways and gloomy underground spaces (38). The sense
of corrupt and frightened community is evident against the backdrop of ugliness and poverty,
which is also reminiscent of neorealist film, but in reality goes far beyond anything we have seen

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19
Saviano reports that the Land of Fires consists of trentanove discariche, di cui ventisette con rifiuti
pericolosi (326).
20
In 2004 there was a gang feud in Scampia between the Di Lauro clan and a breakaway faction. This
became known as the Feud of Scampi. This feud is discussed in great detail in Savianos novel.
in neorealism, of which this film lacks also its hope.21 The scenery does not show the beautiful,
vibrant landscapes of Naples, but rather the gloom and untidiness of La Scampia, cluttered with
relics and abandoned buildings (Parks 38). Jay Weissberg believes that Garrone makes expert
use of the dingy housing projects of the Neapolitan suburb (22). The use of a location where
members of the Camorra actually live in Naples brings the audience closer to understanding the
frightening social and cultural context out of which the camorra has emerged, without justifying
it, however.

Filmmakers of the neorealist period wanted the stories they were portraying to have believable
characters taken most frequently from Italian daily life (Bondanella 32). The use of
nonprofessional actors for both major and minor roles in neorealist film contributed to the
believability of the struggles and hardships faced by the characters in the stories. Garrone chose
to use nonprofessional actors in Gomorra as well. Anthony Lane writes that many of the actors
were recruited from the area, presumably on the basis that they already knew the ropes, not to
mention the Kalashnikovs (81). Megan Ratner comments that many of the actors were having
a hard time keeping their real lives separate from the acting (78). It was later found out that no
fewer than three members of its cast have been arrested on suspicion of illegal activities (Lane
81). By using actual camorristi in his film, Garrone contributes to the validity of the story and the
scenes of violence and crime are even more believable.

The use of nonprofessional actors contributed greatly to the sense of reality in neorealist film, but
so did the use of actual dialect of the characters in the films. Prior to its unification in 1861, Italy
was split into numerous states and kingdoms ruled by various other countries. Because of Italys
divisiveness, each region of Italy has its own characteristic vocabulary, at times more similar to
another language than simply a dialect. The standard Italian language is taught in all Italian
schools, but many Italians speak their respective dialects at home and with their friends. During
the post-war period many Italians in the underdeveloped regions of Italy, especially in the South,
did not even understand the national language. Even though Italians today are taught standard
Italian in schools, dialect is often spoken at home and throughout the neighborhoods of Italy.
Garrone chose to film Gomorra using the Neapolitan dialect spoken by the inhabitants of
suburban Naples. Parks states, to underline the communitys suffocating enclosure and isolation
the film is spoken in a dialect so strong that subtitles are provided even for Italian viewers (39).
Masoni has similar thoughts, saying that the film anzi si rinchiude in unarea territoriale
ristretta, linguisticamente connotata e unica (475). The use of colloquial speech also allows
the actors to truly express their emotions, not having to search for meaningful words in a
language that is not a part of their daily lives.

Further cinematic techniques link Gomorra with neorealistic films. A noticeable characteristic of
neorealist film is the documentary aspect of the films released during the period. According to
Giannetti, the camera in neorealist film is regarded as essentially a recording mechanism rather
than an expressive medium in its own right (476). Neorealists believed that cinema was an
extension of photography and shared with it a pronounced affinity for recording the visible
world around us (476). Garrone has chosen to employ much of the documentary- like aesthetics
of the neorealists in Gomorra. Commenting on the documentary style filming, Weissberg states

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21
The only film of neorealism to have a similar, indeed even worse, sense of despair, is Rossellinis
Germania anno zero.
that Garrone utilizes a mesmerizing documentary style that studiously avoids glamorizing the
horrors of Camorra life (22). The camera- work in the film also adds to the documentary-like
quality of Gomorra. Many scenes are filmed using hand-held cameras with close-up camera
work and low, or chiaroscuro lighting (Parks 39). Pezzella finds the frequent use of the hand-
held camera to be an insistent echo of cinema verite (246). Even Garrones choice of music in
the film maintains a documentary-like feel by including contempo pop songs played by the
characters themselves (Weissberg 22). These techniques provide authenticity to the scenes, as
well as emphasize the sense of entrapment felt by the inhabitants of the Neapolitan suburbs.
Garrone has chosen to uphold the stylistic characteristics of neorealist film so that the audience
may see how the Camorra operates through real life characters. By paying homage to the
neorealists with his stylistic considerations, Garrone has proved that Neorealism has continued to
influence Italian film today. One could even suggest that Neorealisms narrative and technical
strategies were the only ones Garrone could possibly employ to portray a Camorra with so many
echoes of the biblical Gomorrah.

~ The Departure from Humanism ~

As one attempts to establish connections between Neorealism and Gomorra, one could ponder
such questions as, What did Neorealism as a phenomenon represent? and What is Gomorras
purpose?As stated previously, Bondanella writes that Italian Neorealism reflects an emphasis on
social realism as can be seen from one very typical list of its general characteristics: realistic
treatment, popular setting, social content, historic actuality, and political commitment (31). The
majority of neorealist films acted as social commentary of actual problems facing Italian citizens
through the use of contemporary stories and believable characters. The common aspiration of
neorealist filmmakers was to view Italy without preconceptions and to develop a more honest,
ethical, but no less poetic cinematic language (Bondanella 35). This honest approach to subject
matter is what has made Neorealism an influential movement in the art of film.

As one ponders the neorealist elements of Gomorra several interesting questions arise. If
Gomorra had been released during the period of neorealism, would it have been considered a
film of the movement? Is the ideology of the neorealist filmmakers such as Rossellini and De
Sica present within the film? Some of the neorealist ideology is certainly alive in Garrones film.
For Rajko Radovic, through Garrones patient exploration of environment and his passionate
search for authenticity of gesture and action, he reveals his kinship to Roberto Rossellini, the
godfather of the Italian post-war cinema of compassionate realism (9). The film focuses not just
on the lives of ordinary people, a trait characteristic of the veristi and the neorealists, but rather
on the ordinary folks who have totally failed the idealized aspirations for a just society that
neorealism sought to portray and have totally succumbed to the horrors of the war that the
camorra at times evokes. Furthermore, Gomorra also points out flaws with the current political
situation in Italy, but not in the same way as its neorealist predecessors. Neorealist films posed
stories with moral messages that alluded to the Italian economic crisis and the consequent
downtrodden lives of Italian citizens. Instead, Gomorra displays all the wrongdoings and social
hazards brought about by the Camorra, but does not outright denounce them or provide any hope
for action against the organization. And yet, the films message is clear: this Camorra-governed
society is totally despicable, and all viewers must do something about it. Curi concludes that
there is no moralism in this film, which is positively icy in its pragmatic disenchantment (242).
Although this statement may seem true overall, there is one gesture in the film that could be seen
as a condemnation, that of the young man Roberto. Having worked as Francos assistant in his
toxic waste disposal enterprise, Roberto has seen the horrors of the illegal activity of the
Camorra. He takes the one action that can be seen as moral throughout the film by quitting his
job after Franco throws out a container of peaches he knows to be toxic. Surprisingly, Franco
allows him to leave, but only after telling him that he will never be able to truly escape the
Camorra and that he will be stuck making pizzas. Even though one character takes a small stand,
the overall sense of resignation towards the actions of the Camorra prevails, a sense that the evil
is inescapable.

Neorealist film often had a moral emphasis, with a compassionate point of view (Giannetti
477). The principal characters of neorealist film were often good people in dire situations to
whom bad things happened. The audience was able to identify with the struggle of the
downtrodden characters and feel empathy for them. Gomorra in fact does not want to evoke
compassion because it cannot do so: we cannot feel pity for anyone involved in this type of
activity. The film evokes repulsion and condemnation in the audience with its incredibly graphic
imagery and indifference towards the welfare of its characters. The film surely succeeds in its
goal of shocking the audience. In the words of Parks, the film has no one around whom it can
build any pathos, except, one may add, a pervasive sense of disgust and condemnation (39).
Parks further goes on to say that to engage the audience and provide optimism at any point in the
film, the story would need someone, anyone, who was in conflict with the Camorra and whose
welfare we could care about (39). Anthony Lane comments that there is a terrible numbness to
the grownups, spun in the endless cycle of revenge (82). The films purpose is not to arouse
sympathy, like that of neorealist film, but rather repulsion and condemnation.

None of the characters truly rebel against the camorrista lifestyle, not even the children, who
were often the only vehicles of hope and compassion in neorealist film. Even the young
characters in the film have been infiltrated by the Camorras grasp, and they make no attempt to
rebel against the corruption of their society. Ultimately, for Radovic, bullets fly, life goes on
(7). Hopefully, aware, the viewers will rebel against this utter corruption.

Two of the five storylines in Gomorra follow young people involved in the Camorra. Firstly
there is Toto, a young boy trying to make his way into the System. Toto seems innocent in the
beginning of the film, helping his mother deliver groceries to the families for whom the Camorra
provides, playing with friends, splashing in a pool. He decides after watching a drug bust and
picking up some cocaine left on the scene that he wants to become a member of the System.
Toto attends a meeting of young boys from the neighborhood where the camorristi suit the
children up with bullet-proof vests and shoot them to see how resilient they are. Toto survives
his test, proving himself to be a man and able to help with operations. This begins his
downward moral spiral, which ends in his final scene in the film. The young boy and his
colleagues have witnessed one of their friends being killed by the son of Maria, a woman to
whom Toto delivers groceries. The youngsters take the situation into their own hands and decide
to kill Maria as revenge. Toto does not want to see Maria dead because she has always been an
older friend to him, but he wants to prove his loyalty to the Camorra. Instead of standing up for
what is right, the scene ends with, in the words of Petrakis, the startling image of a young boy
hurrying down the street, ignoring the cries behind him, as his trusted friend is murdered in the
background (43).
Even more shocking than the story of Toto is that of the other young people in Gomorra, Marco
and Ciro, two teens who are mindless, selfish and themselves steeped in Camorra culture
(Parks 39). Marco and Ciro want nothing more than to be bosses in the Camorra, but they do not
want to go through the chain of command like Toto. Michael Covino comments that the two
teens are so puffed up with self- importance they think theyre a gang onto themselves (75).22
Like young children, they play games of pretend, running around an abandoned house playing
that they are Tony Montana from Scarface. The boys gallavant around suburban Naples, ripping
off local Colombian drug dealers, stealing weapons from the local syndicates secret stash, and
visiting strip clubs for lap dances. Marco and Ciro are far from the innocent children of
neorealist film. They may believe they are mature and clever enough to become Camorra bosses,
but their reckless behavior will bring their downfall. The boys end up crossing the local boss and
will end up face down, folded together like a balled-up kleenex mixed up with human
recyclables (Radovic 9). The boss ends up eliminating the boys so that they do not cause any
more damage, and the movie ends with their bodies being carried away by a dump truck off to
the ocean, another consignment of illegal toxic waste to be dumped (Covino 75). This
shocking end emphasizes the total lack of hope in Garrones film, presenting the deaths of the
young boys as a normal occurrence of every day life, the shocking reality of the Camorra. The
destiny of these two teenagers is unfortunately a reality of many an adolescent involved in the
Camorra. With the film ending on such an appalling note, the audience is hopefully repulsed
enough to take action and condemn Camorra activity.

~ Conclusion ~

The representation of reality in literature and film has continuously evolved over time. Realist
interpretations have been present in Italian literature since the primordial of literature, adapting
through each century to the changing realities of Italys diverse political situations. In post-
unification Italy, realism appeared in the form of verismo, a reaction to the disenchantment of
writers with Italys progression after the Risorgimento. Sicilian authors such as Giovanni Verga
denounced Italys political situation by writing about the struggles of the lower classes, the
people who were left behind and totally neglected by progress and were unable to fend for
themselves. Vergas snap-shot view into the lives of the lower classes of Sicily and the careful
attention paid to a truthful portrayal of reality continued to influence Italian writers and also
filmmakers in the twentieth century.

The neorealist filmmakers of post-World War II Italy were also disenchanted with the political
situation in the aftermath of Fascism. Italy was in a dire economic situation and unemployment
and poverty were rampant. The neorealists took a page from the veristi and chose to make films
that provided insight into the daily lives of the lower classes of Italy and the struggle faced in the
dopoguerra. Since filmmakers like Roberto Rossellini had difficulty finding funding for their
filming, they were forced to make stylistic decisions, such as shooting on location, utilizing
natural lighting, and employing non-professional actors to meet budgetary constraints. Such
stylistic considerations became hallmarks of neorealist film, further aiding the representation of
the harsh reality of the lives of lower-class Italian citizens. More importantly, though, neorealists
had a moral message to convey in their films, wishing to portray a message of compassion and

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22
Radovic aldo comments on the boys bravado, calling them two other pups without collars, whose
unbridled arrogance spurs them on to roam the territory of run down tenements and projects (9).
hope for a better future for Italy. This was most often demonstrated through the characters of
children in neorealist film. Children, with their assumed innocence, were the perfect characters to
point out the flaws in Italys political situation and to show that there is a chance for a better
tomorrow.

Neorealism, much like verismo, has continued to influence filmmakers in present-day Italy.
Evidence of dedication to the neorealist style is demonstrated in Matteo Garrones film
Gomorra, but obviously with different purposes because of the different historical circumstances
and nature of the social and economic issues examined. An investigation into the daily lives of
members of the Neapolitan mafia, La Camorra, Gomorra delves into the endless series of violent
acts that has permeated and polluted Italy. Though Garrone has upheld such stylistic
characteristics as shooting on location, employing nonprofessional actors, using dialect instead
of standard Italian, and having an overall documentary-like style, Garrone does notand
cannotportray the Christian/Marxist humanist message of the neorealist filmmakers. Though
apparently indifferent towards the extreme violence and corruption of the Camorra, it
nevertheless condemns it. It also condemns all official institutions, all virtually absent from the
film, from the Church, to all forms of government. It is shocking to observe, as David Lindvall
comments that the youth of the working class suburbs of Naples are rightly shown to have very
little to choose between, beyond minimum wage casualization and a life of crime (4). Unlike
the youth of neorealist films, who were often vessels of righteousness and compassion, the young
characters of Gomorra choose the life of crime, a distressing departure from the humanist
message of compassion and hope of Neorealism. The films message to all, not just in Italy, but
all over the world, is powerful, even though it is never expressed explicitly: Are we going to
accept this utterly perverse and corrupt society one that corrupts even its youngest members
or are we going to stand up to it?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Bazin, Andre. What Is Cinema? Vol. 1 Berkeley: U of California P, 2005.

Bazin, Andre, and Hugh Gray. What Is Cinema? Vol. 2 Berkeley: U of California P, 1967-71.

Behan, Tom. The Camorra. London: Routledge, 1996.

Bondanella, Peter. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. New York: Continuum,
2007.

Brunetta, Gian Piero. Il cinema neorealista italiano: Da Roma citta aperta a I soliti ignoti.
Roma: Laterza, 2009.
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Cerami, Adriana Nicole. The Mafias System of Silence in Communication, Film, and
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Clerici, Luca. Invito a conoscere il Verismo. Milano: Mursia, 1989.

Covino, Michael. La Malavita: Gomorrah and Naples. Film Quarterly. 62.4 (Summer 2008):
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Curi, Umberto. Not Against, but Beyond the State. Umberto Curi and Mario Pezzella on
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Dombrowski, Robert. The Borders of Naturalism. The Cambridge History of Italian Literature.
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Gatt-Rutter, John. Neorealism. The Cambridge History of Italian Literature. Cambridge,

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Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.

Lane, Anthony. Gritty Cities. New Yorker. 85.2 (23 Feb. 2009): 81-83.

Lindvall, Daniel. Editorial Issue 37. Film International. 7.1 (February 2009): 4-5.

Marcus, Millicent Joy. Italian Film In the Light of Neorealism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1986.

Masoni, Tullio. Trace di pieta nel regno di male:Il Sistema. Cineforum. 475 (2008): 6-8.

Moscati, Massimo. Breve storia del cinema. Milano: Tascabili Bompiani, 2006. Parks, Tim.
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Pezzella, Mario. Seeing Evil. Notes on Matteo Garrones Gomorrah. Umberto Curi and Mario
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2009.
Radovic, Rajko. McMafia Rising. Film International. 7.1 (February 2009): 6-11.

Ratner, Megan. The Gomorrah Doctrine. Film Quarterly. 62.4 (Summer 2008): 77- 79.

Saviano, Roberto. Gomorra: Viaggio nellimpero economico e nel sogno di dominio della
camorra. Milano: Mondadori, 2006.

Wagstaff, Christopher. Italian Neorealist Cinema: An Aesthetic Approach. Toronto: U of

Toronto P, 2007.

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 Bruno Dumont, Twentynine Palms, 2003, still from a color film in 35 mm, 130 minutes. Katia
(Katia Golubeva) and David (David Wissak).

THE CONVULSIVE VIOLENCE OF BRUNO DUMONTS NEW FILM Twentynine

Palms (2003)a truck ramming and a savage male rape, a descent into madness followed by a
frenzied knifing and suicide, all crammed into the movies last half hour after a long,
somnolent builduphas dismayed many, particularly those who greeted Dumonts first two
features, Life of Jesus (1997) and LHumanit (1999), as the work of a true heir to Bresson.
Whether Palms paroxysm of violation and death signals that Dumont is borrowing the codes
of Hollywood horror films to further his exploration of body and landscape or whether it
merely marks a natural intensification of the raw, dauntless corporeality of his previous films,
it nevertheless elicits an unintentional anxiety: that Dumont, once imperiously impervious to
fashion, has succumbed to the growing vogue for shock tactics in French cinema over the past
decade.
The critic truffle-snuffing for trends might call it the New French Extremity, this
recent tendency to the willfully transgressive by directors like Franois Ozon, Gaspar No,
Catherine Breillat, Philippe Grandrieuxand now, alas, Dumont. Bava as much as Bataille,
Sal no less than Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every
taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or
gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement. Images and
subjects once the provenance of splatter films, exploitation flicks, and porngang rapes,
bashings and slashings and blindings, hard-ons and vulvas, cannibalism, sadomasochism and
incest, fucking and fisting, sluices of cum and goreproliferate in the high-art environs of a
national cinema whose provocations have historically been formal, political, or philosophical
(Godard, Clouzot, Debord) or, at their most immoderate (Franju, Buuel, Walerian
Borowczyk, Andrzej Zulawski), at least assimilable as emanations of an artistic movement
(Surrealism mostly). Does a kind of irredentist spirit of incitement and confrontation, reviving
the hallowed Gallic traditions of the film maudit, of pater les bourgeois and amour fou, account
for the shock tactics employed in recent French cinema? Or do they bespeak a cultural crisis,
forcing French filmmakers to respond to the death of the ineluctable (French identity,
language, ideology, aesthetic forms) with desperate measures?

Claire Denis, Trouble Every Day, 2001, still from a color film in 35 mm, 101 minutes. Cor
(Batrice Dalle).

An outrider of French extremity, Ozons first feature, the suspense thriller See the Sea
(1997), alternates oblique terror with shock shotsof a toothbrush dipped in a shit-filled
toilet or the subliminal suggestion of a sutured vagina. Ozon defended it and the outr nature
of his Criminal Lovers (1999), a cross between Natural Born Killers and Hansel and Gretel,
steeped in sexual pathology and cannibalism, this way: What I am interested in is violence
and sex, because there is a real challenge in rendering the strong and powerful, as opposed to
the weak and trivial. I like something that asks moral questions. Ozon has since matured
e.g., the classical, contained Under the Sand (2000), starring an exquisitely anguished Charlotte
Ramplingbut to the nascent enfant terrible whose every kink was calculated (especially in
the screeching satire of Sitcom [1998]), morality seemed a canard, a pretext for provocation.
Certainly, his films never approach the unsettling vision of his hero, Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, who could traumatize audiences simply by confronting them with uncomfortable
truths.
Fassbinders painful verities about race and abasement also inspired Claire Denis,
whose Chocolat (1988) and No Fear, No Die (1990) are distinguished by clear-eyed empathy and
sociological insight. Denis disdains these traditional virtues in Trouble Every Day (2001), a
horror show in which Batrice Dalle is cast for her ravenous mouth as Cor, a cannibal sated
only when she consumes the bodies of her hapless lovers. An enervated Denis barely musters
a hint of narrative to contain or explain the orgiastic bloodletting; a shadow plot involving
Vincent Gallo as an American doctor struggling with his own bloodlust while on honeymoon
in Paris is both cursory and ludicrous. Deniss superb cinematographer Agns Godard,
responsible for the ravishing images of Beau Travail (1999), here trains her camera on
landscapes of flayed flesh, on Dalles tumid lips and hungry tongue aswim in crimson, and on
walls artfully spattered with blood. (The Pat Steirlike sprays of incarnadine remind us that
the French can never abandon their tendency to aestheticize even when aiming to appall; the
paintings of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud are invoked in Patrice Chreaus Intimacy
[2001] and Philippe Grandrieuxs La Vie nouvelle [2002], and an eleven-second cum shot in
Bertrand Bonellos The Pornographer [2001] is proudly described as having been inspired by
Rothko at the Grand Palais.)

Gaspar No, Irreversible, 2002, still from a color film in 35 mm, 95 minutes. Le Tenia (Jo
Prestia) and Alex (Monica Bellucci).

Cannibalism and mutilation turn autoerotic in Marina de Vans debut film, In My Skin
(Dans ma peau, 2002). De Van coscripted See the Sea and starred as its dead-eyed monster, a
domestic intruder whose psychosis, according to director Ozon, confounds the anus and the
vagina. In Peau, de Vans ashen, impassive features become a Noh mask in her rendering of
Esther, a young research analyst who accidentally slices her leg during a party and becomes
increasingly obsessed with the pleasure she finds in her suppurating wounds. Compulsively
cutting herself with knife or razor, Esther delects in her own flesh, mutilating and hungrily
tasting an arm or tanning a swatch of epidermis in her quest to test the boundaries between
self and world.
De Vans occasionally gruesome and unbearably intense work owes an obvious debt to
both Repulsion and Crash, but it also stands with such recent French films as Catherine
Breillats Romance (1999) and Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh This Baise-moi (2000) as
an extreme vision of women driven to limits of compulsion, sexuality, or violence in their
rejection of a world that attempts to constrain or degrade them. Romance chronicles a grimly
narcissistic voyage into sexual oblivion by a schoolteacher who undergoes rape, sodomy,
orgies, bondage, and childbirth in her pursuit of self-discovery. In this joyless update of Belle
de Jour and Mademoiselle, even a gynecological examination becomes a kind of debauch, a
group of interns each taking a turn to thrust a hand into the supine institutrice. Breillat, who
played the un-Bressonian Mouchette in Last Tango in Paris, has made a career of erotic
provocation, her specialty being adolescent female sexuality (A Real Young Girl [1976], 36
Fillette [1988], Fat Girl [2001]). She has just premiered Anatomy of Hell, starring Chanel model
Amira Casar as a woman who meets her ambisexual lover by cutting her wrists. Set in what
Breillat calls a pornocratiethis fantastical and hideous realm of obscenity [that] obsesses
meand intended to make Romance look like a fte galante, Anatomy films forbidden images,
hackneyed from their over-use in the porn industry, as a reconsideration of the reality of those
images as such.

Franois Ozon, Criminal Lovers, 1999, still from a color film in 35 mm, 90 minutes. Luc
(Jrmie Rnier) and Alice (Natacha Rgnier).

As bare and blunt as its title, Baise-moi (literally, Fuck Me, though known as Rape Me)
explores the lower depths of the comparatively safe, bourgeois terrain of Romance; both films
use actual porn starsdirector Trinh Thi among themand feature real penetration and
money shots for an extra frisson of erotic authenticity. Where Romances every image of
abasement is lovingly lit and photographed by Yorgos Arvanitis, the long-take master of
Angelopouloss cinema, Baise-moi is grottily shot in handheld digital video, ideally raw for this
tale of two women who go on a screwing and shooting rampage across France, taking their
revenge for rape by blowing out the brains (or the assholes) of the men who dont satisfy
them. Breillat mitigates her graphic sequences with pearly light and faux-profound
philosophyphysical love is triviality dancing with the divine, she proffers in mock-
Durasian modebut the pair of wantons who romp through the punk rockpropelled, blood-
and sperm- smeared Baise-moi dont have much time for poetry: I leave nothing precious in
my cunt for those jerks, one of them declares after she is raped. Initially banned in France
(and elsewhere, including Ontario), Baise-moi was, like Romance, championed by many
feminists who found in its crude, violent vision an allegory of female empowerment.
 Baise-moi includes a clip from I Stand Alone (Seul contre tous, 1998) by the directors
friend Gaspar No, whose Lynch-like Carne (1991), a studiously repugnant short film about a
horse butcher who takes revenge on a man he suspects of raping his autistic daughter, is
perhaps the ur-text of the New French Extremity. The butcher reappears as the jobless and
embittered protagonist of I Stand Alone, spewing hatred against immigrants, homosexuals,
women, and blacks. Safely displaced as the rant of a mad meatmanNo has the courage of
few convictionshis harangues are subsumed by an aggressive style of abrupt cuts, extreme
close-ups, and preposterous intertitles, of seismic sounds and hard-driving music whose effect
No compared to an epileptic seizure. (No doubt young Alexandre Aja had Nos hulking
butcher in mind when he cast the same actor as a psycho killer in Haute Tension [2003], a
grisly thriller that revels in human forms of steak tartare.) No merrily described his film as
anti-French, suggesting that a waning sense of national power and identity informs its baleful
vision. Ironically, his world-as-abattoir metaphor reminds one of a far more devastating film
Franjus epochal Le Sang des btesproving perhaps that I Stand Alone incarnates the very
decline No thinks he is critiquing.

Bruno Dumont, LHumanit, 1999, still from a color film in 35 mm, 148 minutes.

Of the two kinds of film mauditthose that set out to scandalize and the guileless ones
that sadly chance upon their disreputeNos Irreversible (2002) is most flagrantly the former.
The director suddenly finds philosophy (J.W. Dunnes 1927 treatise An Experiment with Time);
time destroys all things, his film announces, posturing as fearless vision of hell. A Bergson de
la boue, No inverts his narrative, back to front, as the title suggests, so that we are forced to
experience the tragic tow, and toll, of time. The film, shot in a series of faked long takes,
begins in a squalid hotel room (with a brief appearance by the still-yelping butcher) and then
woozily makes its way to a strobe-lit infernoa gay fisting and fuck club delicately called the
Rectum. Traveling backward to the moment when the films heroine (Monica Bellucci)
discovers she is pregnant by her boyfriend (Vincent Cassel), the film reveals in reverse order
her departure for a party and (in a relentless, real-time sequence lasting many minutes) her
anal rape in an underpass by a gay pimp who then smashes her head in, leaving her comatose.
Her boyfriend and his brainy pal search the city for her assailant, finally bashing the wrong
mans brains to a pulp with a fire extinguisher amid a crowd of gawking gays, too insensate
from poings and poppers to do anything but thrill to the kill. Hip nihilist No comes on as our
Cline of the Monoprix, making sure it is the sensitive intellectual and not the primitive
boyfriend who wields the weapon, proving, as the caterwauling press kit has it, that man is
an animal, and the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse.
Nos noxious style and his primal theme of man as id or animal get a philosophical
gloss in the work of Philippe Grandrieux. Serial killers, much like abattoirs, are pretty well
exhausted as metaphor, but Grandrieuxs Sombre (1998) attempts something new: a
disorienting plunge into the consciousness of a compulsive rapist/murderer. The first half hour
of Sombre is taken up by a vertiginous transcription of a road tour of carnage, as the killer
casually dispatches women in the French countryside. Underlit, indeterminate images,
flickering, unfocused, and flash cut, summon a sense of menace and illegible dread,
exaggerated by abrasive sound effects and roiling music by Alan Vega, of the proto-punk
band Suicide. Once the killer hooks up with a pair of sisters whose car has broken down,
Grandrieuxs attempt at a tour de force of Thanatos flattens into generic familiarity, and no
amount of eerily liminal images and fetid sex can disguise his tired themes.

Marina de Van, In My Skin, 2002, still from a color film in 35 mm, 93 minutes. Esther
(Marina de Van).

Grandrieux compares Sombre to a Grimm fairy tale; his follow-up, La Vie nouvelle,
derives from the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Orpheus in this case is Seymour, a young
American soldier adrift in desolate, lawless Eastern Europea handy signifier for
existential chaos, much as Beirut once was for Volker Schlndorffwho encounters a
beautiful, defiled prostitute and follows her into an underworld of torture, sexual atrocity, and
death. The performances veer between the catatonic and the histrionic, and again Grandrieux
evokes the abyss with stygian, indecipherable images, each one tinged with hints of genocide
and holocaust, of Chechnya and Bosnia; like No, he relies on a grinding sound track to
accompany scenes of menace and barbarity. The bleary voyeurism of Grandrieuxs style is
deadening, then abhorrent; it arrogates political, social, and historical horror for a fashionista
vision of the apocalypseSal as infernal rave. (The prostitutes green kohlringed eyes and
chic Seberg bob suggest not ethnic cleansing but a St. Honor catwalk.) No and Ozon seem
earnest in comparison with Grandrieux, who fancies himself a philosophe: What do we seek,
since the first traces of hands impressed in rock the long, hallucinated perambulation of man
across timehe once mused in the pages of Cahiers du Cinmawhat do we try to reach so
feverishly, with such obstinacy and suffering, through representation, through images, if not
to open the bodys night, its opaque mass, the flesh with which we thinkand present it to the
light, to our faces, the enigma of our lives?
Standing at a tangent to these avatars of extremity is Bruno Dumont, whose trilogy
about the despoliation of innocents began with Life of Jesus, set in a bleak northern French
village. The teenage protagonist of Dumonts passion play is epileptic, inarticulate, and
overwhelmed by the death of a friends brother from AIDS. He searches for release from his
dumb, monotonous life, first in animal sex with his bewildered girlfriend and then in a brutal
attack on a young Arab. Dumont, influenced by the Bresson of Au hasard Balthazar and the
Pialat of Passe ton bac dabord, offhandedly shows us forbidden thingsan old womans mottled
body as she bathes, the ruddy boy penetrating his girlfriend in a meadow, their numbly
thrusting flesh blanched by barren lightthereby inverting the expectation of spectacle that
the films CinemaScope format typically offers. That same expansive frame centers on the
bloody genitals of a raped and murdered eleven-year-old girl at the beginning of Dumonts
next film, LHumanit. The camera contemplates her violated corpse with painterly dispassion,
invoking both Courbets Origin of the World and Duchamps Etant Donns. The combination of
carnality and Christianity, of Brueghel and Bresson found in Life of Jesus is both refined and
expanded in LHumanit. A film about the body in the landscape and the landscape of the
body, it stares with naturalistic detachment at the brutish bouts of sex between a rawboned
factory worker and her boyfriend and endows a seemingly unmotivated Scope close-up of a
mans swimsuit-clad crotch with potent, appalling mystery.

Catherine Breillat, Anatomy of Hell, 2004, still from a color film in 35 mm, 80 minutes. The Man (Rocco Siffredi)
and The Woman (Amira Casar).

Dumonts treatment of the flat Flemish landscapemuddy and rucked, with an

imprisoning horizonreminds us that the natural world is sublimely indifferent to humanit.
In Twentynine Palms, Dumonts unerring eye similarly transforms the desert around
Californias Joshua Tree territory into a craggy, postlapsarian Eden in which to disport his
New World Adam and Eve: an unhinged neurotic called Katia and her photographer
boyfriend David. Drive, she said, and drive they do, scouting locations for his latest project in
a new Hummer. She is prone to paroxysms of grief, joy, and jealousy; he mostly wants sex in
various positions and various locationsa motel pool, on top of a remote boulder, even on a
bedand in a parody of amour fou, they fuck and fight, fight and fuck until the difference
between the two Fs dissolves into full-frontal sulking. (The actress, Katia Golubeva, should
be used to the ambience, having starred as the incestuous half-sister in Leos Caraxs mopily
hard-core Pola X [1999].)
Like No and Grandrieux, Dumont has succumbed to the elementaland to the
elementary. He treats as big news that man is an animal, reducing his characters to
inarticulateness: The Eastern European Katia speaks hesitant, accented French, David a sort
of guttural LA Esperanto. Blessed bouts of silence are punctuated by exchanges like this, as
the two survey a field of wind machines:
Its great.
Its fantastic.
Its perfect.
Katia often collapses into mad laughter or tears; David shrieks when he comes, his Iggy Pop
features screwed into a feral, teeth-baring squall of agony. Their every atavistic grunt and
howl is exaggerated by a sound track that makes the breaking of a Chinese cracker resound
like a rupture in the San Andreas Fault.
Antonionis Zabriskie Point and The Passenger are unavoidable references in Twentynine
Palms, but the violence of the films last half hour erupts with signifiers from such American
movies as Deliverance and Psycho, as if to emphasize that the very terrain and culture are born
of and imbued with maiming and death. An auteurist case can be made for Dumonts foray
into buggery and Humvees, horror-movie mutilation and panting Showgirls pool sex; but
where the extremity of Dumonts previous films was incorporated into both a moral vision
and a coherent mise-en-scne, in Twentynine Palms it is imposed and escalated, the product of
Dumonts slack, manufactured sense of American imbecilityJerry Springer, artificial soft
ice cream, oversize vehicles and ominous marines, rednecks snarling at strangers from their
trucks, desert hillbillies with a taste for cornhole battery. Dumont surveys America as a toxic
Tocqueville, deploying Hollywood methods, or so he thinks, against themselves. He has called
his approach equal parts truth and poetry. Absurd, false, and self-important, Twentynine
Palms manifests instead a failure of both imagination and morality.

Asked why he set out to disturb his audience in Twentynine Palms, Dumont responded:
Because people are way too set in their ways, they are asleep. They have to be woken up. . . .
You can never definitely say you are human, you have to regularly be confronted by
something, to remind you that you still have a lot to do as a human being, you have to be
awakened. Awakened, though, to what? What new or important truth does Dumont proffer
that his audience needs to be slapped and slammed out of its sleepwalk into apprehending? In
his sophistry, Dumont may place himself in the tradition of provocation, from Sade to
Rimbaud to Pasolini, but Twentynine Palms has none of the power to shock an audience into
consciousness evident in the elliptic violence of Bressons LArgent, the emotional evisceration
of Eustaches The Mother and the Whore, or the bitter sexuality of Pialats A Nos Amours.
The New French Extremity sometimes looks like a latter-day version of the hussards,
those Cline-loving, right-wing anarchists of the 50s determined to rock the pieties of
bourgeois culture; but for all their connections (shared actors, screenwriters, etc.), the recent
provocateurs are too disparate in purpose and vision to be classified as a movement.
Elsewhere, in the sclerotic shocks of Bliers Les Ctelettes (2003) and Brisseaus Choses secrtes
(2002), the erotic fatigue of Bonellos The Pornographer and the charming jadedness of Nolots
old-fashioned La Chatte deux ttes (aka Porn Theater, 2002), it appears to be the last gasp of
Gallic libertinism. Some French commentators have dismissed the notion that there is any
such trend; others have suggested that it marks a reconfiguration between aesthetics and the
body in a dire, image-clotted culture; while still others that it is simply symptomatic of an
international vogue for porno chic, widely apparent in art-house films from Austria to
Korea. More pragmatically, the drastic tactics of these directors could be an attempt to meet
(and perchance defeat) Hollywood and Asian filmmaking on their own Kill Bill terms or to
secure distributors and audiences in a market disinclined toward foreign films; and in fact
many of these works have been bought in North America, while far worthier French films
have gone wanting. But when Bruno Dumont, once championed as the standard-bearer of a
revival of humanismindeed, of classic neorealismin French cinema, capitulates to this
inimical approach, one begins to suspect a deeper impulse at work: a narcissistic response to
the collapse of ideology in a society traditionally defined by political polarity and theoretical
certitude, perhaps. The authentic, liberating outragepolitical, social, sexualthat fueled
such apocalyptic visions as Sal and Weekend now seems impossible, replaced by an
aggressiveness that is really a grandiose form of passivity.
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A nightmare of capitalist Japan: "Spirited Away" by Ayumi Suzuki 3/22/14, 8:24 PM

JUMP CUT
A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

A nightmare of capitalist Japan:

Spirited Away
by Ayumi Suzuki
Hayao Miyazaki, who won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature in 2003,
makes films for children. But he does not to turn them into princes or princesses
in a fairy tale world; instead he makes them employed workers in a fantasized
capitalistic world. In his Spirited Away (2001), Chihiro, a ten-year-old girl,
The witch Yubaba who owns the wanders into the Yuya, the leisure center of a spirit world, an enterprise owned
leisure center Yuya. and managed by the witch, Yubaba. Chihiro becomes trapped in this spirit
world, where she must use her only resource, physical labor, to survive. People
who live in the Yuya must work to be recognized as valuable human beings
worthy of life. As one of the workers tells the girl,

"If you don't get a job, Yubaba will turn you into an animal."

Dave Kehr of The New York Times described Spirited Away as "a masterpiece,
pure and simple." However, the film is much more complicated than that. Not
just a simple coming-of-age story, the child's survival story is intertwined with a
denunciation of today's capitalist mindset. My goal in this essay is to illuminate
Hayao Miyazakis use of animation and children as characters to criticize
Japan's history of capitalism. I find Spirited Away the film that most firmly
depicts Miyazakis denunciation of a capitalist mentality, especially in relation to
Chihiro, a ten year-old girl, working in issues we see in post-modern Japan, namely the loss of spiritual value and
the Yuya. identity.

Hayao Miyazaki: master of anime

Miyazakis sophisticated art lies not in creating marketable child-friendly
animation, but in presenting social criticism through child characters in his
animated films. On this point, Miyazaki shares something with a cultural critic
of a previous generation, Walter Benjamin (1936). Both Benjamin and Miyazaki
have faith in two things, storytelling and children.

Stories can transmit knowledge by integrating that knowledge in a fantastical

tale. In this way, listeners can learn not just through receiving information but
also by internalizing knowledge as experience. Benjamin explains that there's a
new form of communication made possible by new media, which in his time
consisted of radio, photography and cinema. This new kind of communication
transmits information, which has timeliness and does not leave room for
listeners to expand their imagination or capacity for interpretation, because this
transmission of information requires that explanations be given at the same
time. In contrast, stories provide informational cues that trigger creative
Other workers in the Yuya. interpretations on the part of their listeners, and each different interpretation,
as it's created, becomes a personal experience which lasts in the listener's mind.
For that reason, Benjamin distinguished storytelling from information giving,
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A nightmare of capitalist Japan: "Spirited Away" by Ayumi Suzuki
A boy with a magical power, Haku,
and Chihiro running through the world
of spirit.
Ukiyo-e: A Kabuki actor.
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For that reason, Benjamin distinguished storytelling from information giving,
and in this vein, Miyazaki is a storyteller who uses his films to bequeath his
social knowledge.
Another common element between the two thinkers is their faith in children,
and they admire the quality of youthful minds to be filled with curiosity and stay
free from the task-minded business of modern day living. Miyazaki believes in
the cunning and the high spirits in children; therefore, he utilizes adolescent
characters in his films to explore a "mystical"world, which in fact is a fantasized
version of social reality. In this way, his films echo thoughts of Benjamin (1936),
who says, The wisest thing so the fairy tale taught mankind in olden times,
and teaches children to this day is to meet the forces of the mythical world
with cunning and with high spirits (p.11).
This concept of representing a reality through a veil of fantasy can also be found
in a Japanese traditional art, Ukiyo-e. Japanese animators have inherited visual
aesthetics from the style of the art of Ukiyo-e (Murakami, 2000; Looser, 2006).
Cavallaro (2006) points out that Miyazaki, in particular, has an aesthetic similar
to Ukiyo-e in terms of his use of two-dimensional drawing and water color.
There may be a further philosophical connection between Miyazakis animation
and Ukiyo-e. As a term, Ukiyo-e is usually translated as "images of the floating
world"; literally [Uki: float]+[Yo: world]+[E: pictures].
Ukiyo refers to the world without Buddhist enlightenment; that is to say, the
world filled with consciousness of mortality. Buddhist teachings warn against
craving for anything that is ephemeral or not eternal. People suffer when they
lose something they crave, and that moment of loss must come because nothing
stays the same. Without enlightenment, people will continue to find this ever-
changing world the very source of grief. Our world of grief is Ukiyo.
Ukiyo-e artists depict scenes from "pleasure quarters" (the floating world) such
as Kabuki stars, beautiful women, or scenes from a play, namely as objects that
people crave. As one desires those objects in Ukiyo-e, or as they experience that
desire in Ukiyo itself, s/he must know that one day those objects will disappear,
causing suffering. Ukiyo-es plays on dual senses where fantasy is pleasure and
reality is grief; this is the kind of dual world that Miyazaki always establishes
in his films. On the one hand, he elaborates an animated reality based on a
contemporary postindustrial culture, complete with the latest technology and
products, that eventually transforms into a nightmare. Second, he also
establishes a world out of his own fantasy in which a child encounters the vanity
of materialism and learns to balance materialism with a need for spirituality
there. For him, animation inhabited by children as characters is a radical form
that he can use to speak out against the dominant ideology of consumer
capitalism radical because animation is a by-product of modern technology
and because children are a special target of capitalist marketing. By using
narratives with child characters moving through an animated world, the director
aims his vision at a more general audience immersed in a lifestyle of hedonistic
consumption.
Spirited Away: entering the
capitalized spirit world
Spirited Away stages a modernizing Japan in the Meiji period (1868-1912)
when Western influences overpowered the nation politically and ideologically
and one of the most significant influences from the West to Japan was the
reorganization of Japanese society into a capitalist one. During the Edo period
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A nightmare of capitalist Japan: "Spirited Away" by Ayumi Suzuki 3/22/14, 8:24 PM

reorganization of Japanese society into a capitalist one. During the Edo period
(1603-1867), the autocratic Samurai class controlled the whole nation and Japan
closed its door to most other nations in order to preserve itself. In 1853,
Commodore Perry from the United States urged Japan to start trading with
other nations. In the following year, Japan opened its door to other nations and
the Meiji era, which is considered as the period of restoration, began. In this
Meiji restoration, the influx of the Western culture brought to Japan both chaos
and growth, represented by the mixing of Japanese identity with Western
architecture, philosophy, fashion, and values.

Chihiros parents devour the food in As a result, they are turned into pigs
the Yuya. by the curse.

Miyazaki takes us back to Meiji Japan by sending the protagonist, who was born
in contemporary times, to a modernizing Japan. The story goes as follows:
Chihiro, an apathetic ten year-old girl, is moving from the city to a rural area
with her family. While they are driving to their new home, they wander into a
closed theme park, now called the Yuya. It's actually is a leisure center built in
the spiritual world by a greedy witch, Yubaba. This mystical town resembles
Meiji Japan in terms of architecture, during which time the style was a mix of
Western and Japanese. By the witchs curse, Chihiro's parents are turned into
pigs, and Chihiro must serve as a laborer at the Yuya in order to rescue them. At
the Yuya, she encounters a mysterious boy named Haku, and with his help, the
meek girl now learns to meet the challenges of the distressing spirit world. By
having Chihiro live in the era of a modernizing Japan, Miyazaki invites the
audience to experience what we really were losing as a nation and personally
during that period.

The Yuya: a capitalist society of the spirit world

To begin with, Miyazaki sets up the structure of the Yuya as very class-oriented
and he use it to represent capitalist society in general. Chihiro first appears as a
child within a nuclear family, which is the base of capitalist society, providing
and reproducing the labor force via its children. While parents are usually
responsible for maintaining the family by exchanging their labor for money for
their needs, Chihiros parents are taken away by Yubabas curse in the film. Thus
Chihiro now has to take the responsibility to bring her family back by working
Ukiyo-e: A beautiful woman. for the Yuya. By forcing Chihiro to exchange her labor for what she desires, the
film represents her as a working-class worker, a child whose childhood has been
stolen from her. In an example that makes explicit Miyazaki's equation of labor
with wage slavery, in one scene Chihiro meets Kamajii, the boiler man, who
introduces himself as a "slave to the boiler that heats the baths." Since the whole
bathhouse is owned and managed by Yubaba, he means that he is a slave to his
employer. In addition, Kamajii has six arms to operate the boiler that presents
him as new machinery that enables minimization of paid employees - not unlike
robotics one might see on a production line. While he is working, another female
worker brings him food provided by the Yuya, and in another moment, we see
Kamajii sleeping right there in his workplace. These cues indicate the Yuya
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A nightmare of capitalist Japan: "Spirited Away" by Ayumi Suzuki 3/22/14, 8:24 PM

Kamajii sleeping right there in his workplace. These cues indicate the Yuya
provides him shelter and food only as he provides his labor force; by seizing his
forces of production, the Yuya owns him as its property.

Soots bringing coals into the boiler. Kamajii receives food from Lin. He
works, eats, and sleeps in the Yuya.

Moreover, just as the workers must have a job to survive, Yubaba needs their
labor to survive. While Kamajii is talking to Chihiro, his helpers, called
Susuwatari (soot), who bring coal into the boiler, get distracted. Kamajii then
yells at them saying that if they do not work, Yubaba's magic will not work on
them anymore and they will be turned back into mere soot. This means that
Yubaba actually keeps them alive to work for her. Since she keeps the lower class
spirits alive, her character symbolizes the bourgeoisie who own the capital to
hire lower-class laborers. She is the only one who does paperwork, who lives in
luxurious rooms and owns jewelry, and who dons a dress not suited for physical
labor. Yubaba, hence, is positioned as bourgeois and other spirits as proletariat,
and the Yuyas functioning depends upon this capitalist system.

A street in the Yuya and .... ... a street from the Meiji era.

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A nightmare of capitalist Japan: "Spirited Away" by Ayumi Suzuki 3/22/14, 8:24 PM

Kamajii, the boiler man. His six arms

symbolizes new machinery to
In both the animation and the actual ... a mixture of Western and Japanese
minimize the number of employees.
construction, we can see ... style architecture typical of the Meiji.

Power dynamics between the West and Japan

Yubabas dominance over the Yuya also symbolizes the power dynamics between
the West and Japan. Through the things that Yubaba owns, we can recognize
that she represents the West. For example, in comparison with all the workers,
who wear a uniform which looks like traditional Japanese clothing, Yubaba
wears a Western dress. The whole building of the Yuya its exterior and
interior design are Japanese except the highest floor where Yubaba works.
There, the interior decore is more westernized, with carpets and doors.
Everything Yubaba owns, and only that, is styled according to Western taste;
this visual aspect of environment in the film is meant to represent the Wests
dominance over Japan in the Meiji period.

A cultural studies scholar, Koichi Iwabuchi (2002), explains the power dynamics
begun during the Meiji period by describing early industrialized Japan as a
faceless economic superpower whose cultural influence on the globe is still so
weak that no matter how strong its economy becomes, Japan is culturally and
psychologically dominated by the West (2). More recently, in the 1980s,
Japanese cultural products, represented by anime and manga, started gaining in
cultural influence around the globe. Iwabuchi, however, points out that this kind
of influence has happened because Japanese cultural products have become
culturally odor-less products, that are already Westernized or appear neutral
rather than being Japanese (Iwabuchi, 2001). Observing the flux of Japanese
culture represented within U.S. media, such as Memoirs of a Geisha (Rob
Marshall, 2005) which uses English-speaking Chinese actresses to play Japanes
geisha, a Japanese film scholar, Keisuke Kitano (2005), questions his own
society: Since when has Japan started depending on other nations
entertainment industries to create an image of Japan? (10) Iwabuchi
emphasizes that no such pure Japanese culture that remains the same has ever
existed. Rather, Japan certainly experienced a hybridization of civilizations as
its national identity has become an amalgam of Japan and the West.

As these scholars observe, a power dynamics of the West over Japan is still alive.
Spirited Away dramatizes such dynamics by using a powerful character,
Yubaba, to symbolize the West. In order to show the consequences of Western
economics and cultural values, the film enacts issues common to modernized
Japan through what happens in the Yuya and to the main characters.
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JUMP CUT
A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

Devaluing spirituality and human relationships

One of the problems taken up by the film is peoples disinterest in spiritual
values in contemporary life. The way the film depicts spirits derives from an
indigenous Japanese religion, Shintoism, which the film embodies in myriads of
gods called Yaoyorozuno kamigami who are the consumer spirits who visit the
Yuya. Shintoism posits that the human and spirit worlds exist in the same
realm, and spirits inhabit every substance, including rocks, statues, food, and
rivers. The origin of these spirits is explained in mythology, in the text, Manyo-
shu:
Myriads of gods from all over Japan Heaven was so near to earth that an arrow shot from the earth
visit the Yuya. made a hole in the bottom of it through which objects fell which are
still found upon the earth. Spirits, both good and evil, were supposed
to exist everywhere and Shinto was an unorganized worship of these
deities. (Underwood, 1934, p. 16, cites Manyo-shu)

Since spirits exist in the same realm as human beings do, Shintoism teaches
people to have a faith in and respect for spirits that exist in material substances;
thus people should have a concern for nature and the rest of the physical world.

Miyazaki, however, implies that in the modern age, the worlds of spirits and of
humans have become separated because humans have neglected spiritual
values. In Spirited Away, according to what Chihiros father explains, the Yuya
is a ruined amusement park that was built in the time of the "bubble economy."
That is, people built the amusement park, which symbolizes a post-industrial
The stink god comes to the Yuya to leisure-oriented mentality, when the economy was booming. In the beginning of
get refreshed. the film, as Chihiros family is driving past the amusement park, they see stone
shrines thrown to the side of the road. Traditionally Japanese people have
believed that gods who protect the road dwell in those small shrines so the
shrines should be respected. Here construction workers disregarded them to
build the theme park and Chihiros own modern family does not care that these
shrines are devalued. In other words, the environment around the theme park
indicates that people cared more about creating another place for their own
leisure than preserving a place for the spirits and also the spirits of the place.
Those neglected divine spirits have become so injured and tired that they too
now have to go to a leisure center like the Yuya, a leisure center where in an
ironic reversal the presence of human beings is undesired. In one case of an
abused sprit needing to recover, the spirit of river comes to the Yuya as a stink
god because humans constantly throw refuse into the river. Once the spirit takes
a bath and Chihiro removes the stinking refuse from it, it turns back into a
noble river spirit. Such an incident within the Yuya imply that the Yuyas
business depends for its success on the neglect of spiritual value in post-modern
Japan.

The incident with Chihiro and the stink god is not only about neglected spiritual
Bulky refuse that the workers pull off values, however; it also creatively demonstrates one of the strengths of
the Stink God. animated film flexible visual expression. Miyazaki masterfully utilizes that

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"Spirited Away," p. 2
the Stink God.
After getting rid of the refuse, the
Stink God transforms itself back into
its original form, the River God.
The boar god in Princess Mononoke
surrounds itself with dark tentacles...
... representing its rage against
humanity.
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animated film flexible visual expression. Miyazaki masterfully utilizes that
strength to animate the imagination and to visualize unseen emotions.
Previously, in Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997), when a boar god who was
supposed to protect the forest and humans got injured by an arrow, it
transformed itself into a cursing god raging against humans. Its rage was
manifested as dark stringy tentacles around the boar that demonstrated both
the rage's force and also the ugliness of human actions when considered from
the perspective of nature. Likewise in Spirited Away, by making the noble river
spirit into a filthy stink god, Miyazaki indicated that filth that the noble spirit
had to wrap itself in was a manifestation of the stains upon nature caused by the
human society's current way of life.
In Spirited Away Miyazaki also visually separates the worlds of spirits and
humans. Stylistically he depicts the human world as realistically as possible and
the world of spirits as fantastic. In the beginning of the film, before Chihiros
family wanders into the world of spirits, Miyazaki utilizes cinematic moments
that are unusual in animation but more often found in live-action films. Only
after the family enters into the town of the Yuya does the mise-en scene become
more fantastically animated. The shadowy spirits and buildings and everything
that is in the amusement park take on life, but now a fantasmic life. Those visual
cues that indicate a movement from verisimilitude to the fantasmic indicate the
two worlds are now separated or at least that the spirits, neglected in the world
of humans, no longer wish to coexist with humans in this highly industrialized
world.
One of the origins of Shinto may have come in olden times when agriculture
sustained human societies; people animated nature and believed that their care
and respect for it pleased its spirits who protected the nation and provided
prosperity. However, after the coming of Western industrialization, peoples
faith was no longer in nature but in a successful economy. Applying this kind of
thinking to his own art, once, in an interview, Miyazaki decried contemporary
post-industrial society as a system that watered down anime's expressive
possibilities. Anime, according to Miyazaki, could well represent love and
justice. However, as he put it,
"Our old enemy 'poverty' somehow disappeared, and we can no
longer find an enemy to fight against" (Miyazaki, 1988).
In other words, after Japan's industrial success since the Meiji restoration in
1890s and recovery from WWII cast out poverty from the nation, people still
remain possessed by an illusion of gaining a wealthy everyday life and continue
living with a gap between their ideal and real life. As a result, an endless and
unsatisfying cycle of production and consumption has begun destroying
harmony among family and community (Harootunian, 2000). Zizek (1989)
points out that people of late capitalism are well aware that money is not
magical. To obtain it, it has to be replaced through labor, and after you use it, it
will just disappear, as will as any other material. Allison (1996) adds to this
point:
"They know money is no more than an image and yet engage in its
economy where use-value has been increasingly replaced and
displaced by images (one of the primary definitions of post-
modernism) all the same (p. xvi).
So, as Miyazaki puts it, the concerns of the late-capitalist Japan are now not for
love and justice, but for money and pleasure.
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Bos transformation to a fat rat, and other Yubabas henchmen to Bo.

The film represents such a shift of values through the character of Yubaba. The
one thing she cares about besides earning money is her baby, Bo, who is the
only one character who receives her motherly affection. However, she cares
more about money than her own baby. In an important development in the
plotline, Yubaba has a twin sister, Zeneba, and the two have been rivals with
different views of life. One day Zeneba sneaks in to Yubabas office to find the
boy Haku who, under the command of Yubaba, stole a golden seal from Zeneba.
Zeneba punishes Yubaba by transforming Bo into a fat rat and Yubabas
henchman into Bo. After Zeneba left, Haku confronts Yubaba, who is not yet
aware of Zeneba's doings. In this scene, Yubaba sits in her bathrobe in front of
the fireplace, admiring a pile of gold brought by the workers. Haku walks up to
her and says, You still havent noticed that something precious to you has been
replaced? A close-up of Haku cuts in, then, a point-of-view shot of Haku
looking directly at Yubabas eyes, then Yubabas eyes looking back to him.
Wondering what he meant by something precious, Yubaba takes a piece of
gold to check if it is fake or not. She looks back into Hakus eyes, smiling slightly
to indicate that he is wrong about the gold being replaced. A close-up of Haku
cuts in again, his face appealing to her with strong emotion. Still Yubaba does
not notice what he meant by precious. Only when the fake Bo makes a noise
besides her, she notices that her replaced "precious" thing is her own baby. This
sequence reveals the degree to which Yubaba, who has dedicated her life to
managing the Yuya for profit, has lost her heart, her capacity to care for other
living beings, including her own son. This scene strongly reinforces the theme
that modernization has altered values and broken family ties.

In contrast to Yubaba, Zeneba is the only character aware of the vanity of

money, pleasure, and materialism. When Haku is cursed by Zeneba, Chihiro
visits Zeneba to ask if she can take the curse away from him. In contrast to the
Yuya, which is a many storied building, Zenebas house is a simple small home.
In a plain room, unlike Yubabas room, Zeneba lives by enjoying cooking,
knitting, and other domestic skills. When Zeneba makes thread for sewing, she
says, I can do it by my magic, but it does not mean anything (My translation:
there is no English subtitle for this line). She says this after she made fun of her
sister for being too greedy. Her words here indicate that the use of magic at the
Yuya appears to be successful, fast to make a profit, yet costing the precious
quality of humanity. In the film's symbolism, such magic is equated with
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quality of humanity. In the film's symbolism, such magic is equated with

machines that make mass-production possible in the contemporary world, so
Zeneba's words and her whole characterization as a touchstone of value clearly
critique a fordist production system. In other words, even though it is possible
and sometimes necessary to use machines, too much of it can destroy spiritual
values in society.

Identity confusion
Related to its presentation of the loss of spiritual values, the film elaborates an
extensive critique of another contemporary global issue: identity confusion. A
symptom of identity loss is seen in the way that cultures today encourage people
to constantly refashion their self-image, so that individuals construct their
identity based on ideals presented in popular media. More and more, people
become unsatisfied with their lives because of the gap they see between their
real life and the ideal luxurious life promoted within late capitalist economy,
which needs more and faster consumption to make more profit. Because of the
gap between the real and the fantasy, people in late capitalist society become
ever more unsatisfied with themselves. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why
people are more and more attracted to anime, where transformation of identity
are easily visually accomplished.

To illustrate, we may name a few examples from a popular daily life

phenomenon among anime fans, called cosplay. The word, cosplay, is the
combination of costume + play (or role-play.) Namely, it is the practice among
anime fans that involves wearing their favorite anime characters costumes to
enjoy daily life while in the role of the character. Under the umbrella of cosplay,
there is also a practice called "cross play." In cross play, males wear female
anime characters costume, and vice versa. As you might imagine, your body
shape, gender, or age do not matter once you wear the costume because you are
what the costume is. When you are cosplaying, your identity depends on what
A cosplayer posing as an anime
character. others know about the character, not on who you are. Cosplay, therefore, allows
the players to change their identity. In other words, cosplay is about the
interchange or transformation of identity across reality and fantasy. In this
modern age when people are seeking to create and to own the latest products, a
persons identity becomes what the society produces and what they own. The
products, after all, are produced for a mass audience, so that consumers become
lost in the mass production of identity.

In Spirited Away, oblivion via loss of name is a major plot device; as the film's
trailer emphasizes,

Will Chihiro get back her name? Will she find her way back to the
world of human?

Chihiro, a ten year-old girl who got her name taken awaybegins to
work in a town unlike any other.

Miyazaki stresses the importance of having a proper name to warn us against

the possibility of losing our identity in the post-modern world. When Chihiro
first gets hired by Yubaba, Yubaba alters Chihiros name to Sen. Later Haku
Male cross-players.
explains to Chihiro that Yubaba controls people by stealing their names. The
plot operates on the premise that if Chihiro forgot her original name, she would
forget about her past and never be able to go back to where she was from. This
name change along with Chihiro's being forced to work in an assembly line type
job in order to survive sets up the film's major theme: that entering into the
capitalist system confuses people by changing what they identify themselves

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"Spirited Away," p. 2
Chihiros full name written on her
employment contract. But parts of her
name are stolen
by Yubabas magical power.
No-Face makes gold to tempt people,
and
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capitalist system confuses people by changing what they identify themselves
with. Before they identified themselves with who they were; but now they
identify themselves with what they are in society according to what they own or
produce. The film's plot echoes Marx's famous statement (1852),
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but,
on the contrary, their social being that determines their
consciousness. (181)
In addition, in the way that the film references early capitalism of the Meiji era,
Yubaba's taking away Chihiros family name has several other goals; Yubaba
intends to distinguish the ruling class from the commoners and second to take
away Chihiros dignity. In Japan, up until the beginning of Meiji era, people
other than the ruling class were not allowed to publicly use their family name.
When the feudal Edo system that recognized only the family name of samurai or
ruling class began to fall, the new Meiji government allowed everyone of all
classes to use their family name. Having the family name, hence, provides
dignity to common individuals and their families. By showing her power to steal
Chihiros family name, Yubaba claims membership in the upper class; she
humiliates Chihiro by demoting her from being a member of a family to a mere
employee, now a slave to her employer.
Besides Chihiro and Haku, a key character representing identity confusion is
No-Face, who has only a shadow-like body and a mask. The mask does not hide
his face for he has no face; rather, the mask constructs his outside identity.
Since the mask symbolizes a product that people can buy with money, here it
indicates an unoriginal identity that people can construct by giving into
materialism.
No-Face appears to be the most greedy and uncontrollable of all the characters.
He draws people to himself by producing gold and grows by eating them. When
he eats those greedy men and women, he gains a pseudo-identity through them.
Since his diet consists of greedy people, he just gets filled with more and more
human greed, thus making him himself more and more greedy. As he gains his
identity through materialist desire, he wants more material to satisfy himself.
He eats up all the food at the Yuya, but still is never satisfied. No-Face
represents capitalist production and consumption, a system that grows by
feeding upon human greed. Finally he tries to eat Sen and rampages around the
Yuya, crying, Im lonely, Im lonely. I want Sen. I want Sen. In the interview
included in the DVD, producer Toshio Suzuki explains that No-Face wants to
enter into somebodys heart to quench his loneliness. Yet only the method he
thinks of is tempting others with false wealth. He can gain attention from
almost everyone except Sen, whose heart seeks the most valuable thing, not gold
or money. No-Face thus wants to have that heart after unsuccessfully trying to
satisfy himself with other material. He follows Chihiro when she leaves the Yuya
to go to Zenebas house, and she knows that his problem has resided with his
staying in the Yuya. In other words, she has learned that the problem is for one
to stay in and be conformed to the capitalist system that continues feeding
him/her a contentment based on delusion.
Both No-Face and Chihiro travel on a train to Zeneba's. Like No-Face, Miyazaki
depicts all the passengers on the train as shadows. The difference is that they
are not wearing a mask like No-Face. No-Face was eager to gain his identity
through a product, but people outside the Yuya focus on a different goal. The
train Chihiro and No-Face are on is the down train that takes them to the
suburbs or rural areas. This train sequence produces a nostalgia of
Page 5 of 7
"Spirited Away," p. 2
it grows as it eats greedy people at
the Yuya.
Chihiro and No-Face on the train.
A shadowy man on the train.
No-Face finally enjoys knitting at
Zenebas home.
http://ejumpcut.org/archive/jc51.2009/SpiritedAway/2.html
3/22/14, 8:24 PM
homecoming. Noises of preparing entertainments or of operating machines are
not heard on the train. Rather people are getting further from the Yuya, the
industrial metropolis. One shadow man takes two big traveling bags and exits;
he does not look like a businessman carrying a small business case but may
represent a man who finished his migrant work and is going to see his family. At
a station, we see a mother and a little girl holding hands. This is in contrast to
the Yuya, where the prominent relationships represented are those of co-
workers or employer/employees, not of family bonds. Outside of the Yuya, i.e. a
capitalist mentality, exists a sense of home, however neglected in modern late
capitalist generations. No-Face finally settles down at Zenebas house where he
can help Zeneba, who lives outside of a capitalist mentality. When Chihiro takes
leave to go back to the Yuya from Zenebas house, Zeneba gives her blessing to
Chihiro, Do not let go of your own name (my translation). That is, do not let
your identity conform to what a capitalist ideology would force it to be.
On her way back to the Yuya, Chihiro meets Haku, who has forgotten his true
name. Their conversation reveals that Haku is actually a noble spirit of river
dammed up to build a mansion. Before this scene, Kamajii mentioned that
Haku came to the Yuya both because he had nowhere else to go and because he
wanted to become Yubabas apprentice to gain her magical power, which in the
film is equated with her capital. Thus, as a character, Haku symbolizes the
victim of industrialization who lost himself and tried to gain capital to survive.
After a while at the Yuya, Haku forgot his name completely. Luckily, Chihiro,
who once almost drowned in that river, remembers its name, and the moment
she tells Haku his true name, he regains his true identity. After they arrive back
at the Yuya, Chihiro successfully rescues her parents so now it is time for
Chihiro to go back to the human world. For his farewell, Haku promises to quit
being Yubabas apprentice, since regaining his true identity made him realize
the folly of working under the system of the Yuya, which took away his
memories of his true self.
Conclusion
In the very last scene, as Chihiro emerges from the spirits' world and is driving
away with her parents, Disney added some English subtitles where there is no
Japanese dialogue. The English subtitles go like this:
Chihiro's father: A new house and a new school? It is a bit scary."
Chihiro: I think I can handle it."
If one were only to see this film with the English subtitles, it would tempting to
think this film mainly as a coming-of-age story. Moreover, other lines of
dialogue omitted in the English subtitles function to add more layers to the film
(some of them are mentioned in this essay with my translation). Yet, the main
theme of the film remains a depiction of an evil that Miyazaki wants to destroy
the human greed that sustains a system of capitalist consumerism. Miyazakis
Spirited Away is a masterpiece in the way that it shows both the goodness of
simplicity and the purity of the youthful heart, as well as the way it allegorizes
the evils of Japanese post-modern social and human conditions. Miyazaki has
said that he does not produce films to promote hope, and that determining what
is evil does not solve everything (Kanae, 1997). Through Haku and Chihiro,
Miyazaki tells us what we should keep in our hearts. Through the Yuya, we learn
about the kind of social condition we are living. This film, therefore, is an
allegory of Japanese contemporary society, but also a magic mirror that reflects
global capitalist social conditions in a fantastical fashion. The world of Miyazaki
anime is a fantasy, but is not free from the issues we face in society today. With
his poetic imagination and keen acumen, he presents our world as shaped by his
Page 6 of 7
"Spirited Away," p. 2 3/22/14, 8:24 PM

his poetic imagination and keen acumen, he presents our world as shaped by his
wish that we could face the problems of capitalistic societies without losing our
ethics and aspirations. He does so by letting a youthful character, who has not
yet had her identity molded to mainstream society, question this society with
cunning and high spirit.
Haku as a boy. Go to Bibliography

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Haku in his dragon god form.

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"Spirited Away," bibliography 3/22/14, 8:24 PM

JUMP CUT
A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

Bibliography
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Leskov. Retrieved February 21, 2008 from
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Cavallaro, D. (2006). The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson, NC:

McFarland & Company.

Harootunian, H. (2000). Overcome by modernity: History, culture, and

community in interwar Japan. NJ: Princeton University Press.

Interview, Yasuyoshi Tokuma Disney alliance. (1996, August 30th). Nikkei

Sangyo Shimbun. Retrieved March 9, 2008 from The Hayao Miyazaki web,
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