My Voyage to Italy

In class we watched the documentary directed by legendary Hollywood director, Martin Scorsese, (Rated 12) to aide us in our own end of year projects.

The theme of the documentary was Italian Neo-Realism, which is heavily linked with our theme of dislocation.

Italian Neo-Realism came about just after WWII,it was what was happening in Italy at the time (1940's); they put on screen what was and what was happening around them, so this form of cinema had very powerful images. It was almost documentary like, although it was a fictional interpretation of the real life strife of the Italian people; it used real people, real streets and real locations.

Martin Scorsese said while watching these films as a kid with his family around him that he could see

"My family felt guilt and relief, that could be them"

They are also the reason he says he's never felt like a Hollywood director, Italian culture goes back thousands of years whereas American culture only a couple of hundred.

He feels Neo-Realism is about sacrifice, "sacrifice for freedom" and detaching and dislocation; "it sets up for something terrible"

"The soul of society is law, the soul of community is love. The power of simplicity is a hard thing to come across."