Streets As Sets
Neorealism was born from necessity. After World War II, Italian studios were bombed. Filmmakers had no choice but to shoot on location, with non-professional actors, in real streets. This limitation became an aesthetic that changed cinema forever.
The Bicycle Thief
De Sica's Bicycle Thieves is the neorealist manifesto: a simple story about a man who needs a bicycle for work, loses it, and searches Rome to find it. It is impossible to watch without feeling the weight of poverty.