neorealism

[nee-oh-ree-uh-liz-uhm]

noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter),  any of various movements in literature, art, etc., that are considered as a return to a more realistic style.

2. a philosophy developed chiefly by 20th-century American philosophers, including Montague and Santayana, characterized by a presentationist epistemology and by the assertion of the real status of universals.

3. Movies.,  a style of filming prominent in Italy after World War II, characterized by a concern for social issues and often shot on location with untrained actors.

neorealism

/ ˌniːəʊˈriːəlɪzəm /

noun

1. films a movement to depict directly the poor in society: originating in postwar Italy

Other Word Forms

• neorealist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of neorealism¹

First recorded in 1915–20; neo- + realism

Example Sentences

Though the series’ debt to noir fiction and film is foregrounded — as when Marty takes a date to see Robert Wise’s 1949 “The Set-Up” at an art house where the marquee reads “Noir Nights. American Neorealism Series” — “The Lowdown” doesn’t itself quite qualify as noir; it’s too cheeky.

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Because of its towering reputation — lauded as one of our city’s finest films, a hallmark of American neorealism and the pinnacle of the Black independent filmmaker movement dubbed the L.A.

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And I think that I started to gravitate to Italian neorealism, British social realism.

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One of the founders of Italian neorealism, Visconti apparently didn’t bother introducing himself to the young French actor.

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They borrowed from French New Wave, Italian neorealism and Brazil’s Cinema Novo to offer an unblinkered look at everyday Black life, often filming in Watts and other Black neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles.

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