Bazin, Andre. “Germany Year Zero.” in Andre Bazin and Italian Neorealism, ed. Bert Cardullo. NY: Continuum, 2011, 57-60 This reading was really interesting. Bazin talks about the responses a child’s face elicits in us, and our selfishness in wanting children’s faces to reflect adult feelings. (He even goes so far as to say that children are not even really people!) I have never really thought of our obsession with youth with actual children in mind, more the idea of a child, so this was a thought-provoking read. Films with children reflect what adults can conceive of and can make sense of, while Germany, Year Zero refuses to do that, and in Bazin’s eyes, this faithfulness to reality is a sign of Rossellini’s originality.

Matthews, Peter. “Divining the Real.” Sight and Sound. August 1999. 22-25 We’ve spoken a lot about Bazin in the course of my film study at RMIT, and this was a really great reading to build more of an idea of Bazin as a person, with a lot of information about his earlier years.

Rossellini, Roberto. “A Few Words About Neo-Realism.” Springtime in Italy: A Reader on Neo-Realism. Ed. David Overby. Connecticut: Archon Books, 1979, 89-91 I always like what the director says about their own work, whether in director’s commentary or in essay. Rossellini’s “words about Neo-realism” is no different. I loved the way he put this: “Neo-realism is the greatest possible curiosity about individuals; a need, appropriate to modern man, to speak of things as they are, to be aware of reality, in an absolutely concrete manner…” In essence, it’s complete truth in depicted the world in film. Rather than falling back on cliches, it’s attracted to the concrete. The techniques of documentary film help in achieving this realness.