Overview
Three topic to choose
- Compare and contrast Roberto Rossellini’s Open City (1945) and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) with reference to their approach to reality in two different moments of Italy’s history.
- “In the world there are more Zampanos than bicycle thieves” (Federico Fellini, in Bondanella, Peter. History of Italian Cinema. p. 153 – 147 if using the older edition). Discuss this statement as Fellini’s expression of his “moral attitude” toward the world, as well as his response to the attacks that followed the screening of La strada at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.
- Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura analysed through its characters and their existential anxiety.