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What are the Elements of a Good Film? — A Screenwriter’s Perspective
Cesare Zavattini, an Italian screenwriter, once wrote a famous piece of writing called “Some Ideas on the Cinema”, which delves into several of his notions on the nature of filmmaking. He had great significance in the cinematic and philosophical world as a theoretician of neorealism, and he often credited Antonio Gramsci’s influence on his work as well.
His own thinking impacted the works of André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. He had a professional and personal relationship with Vittorio De Sica, and had numerous moralistic notions that he premised the work of his life on. Exploring his views on cinema would mean delving into this topic with the perspective of a cherished screenwriter of Italian Neorealist cinema.
A breakdown of several of his most meaningful and revolutionary ideas on the nature of cinema
- A meditation on one’s relationship with reality. On this, Zavattini’s stance was that
“reality is hugely rich, [and] that to be able to look directly at it is enough; and that…