Throughout the history of Italian cinema—from the silent historical dramas of such legends as Giovanni Pastrone and Enrico Guazzoni to the work of the Fascist period to the neorealist movement of the post-World War II era to the break with neorealism—Italian films have been the product of one individual’s “explosion of …love for reality,” filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini said.

Since the neorealist movement burst onto the national literary and cinematic scene during the 1940s, every Italian filmmaker has focused on depicting reality. Directors from Rossellini to De Sica and Visconti aimed to turn the viewer’s gaze to their interpretation of the political and social realities of their times. Later directors, such as Antonioni and Fellini, redefined realism as the portrait of both public and personal worlds.

Kristina Olson explains why a history of Italian cinema necessarily describes Italian national history, casting light on the sequence of historical events that chart Italy’s first century as a unified nation and questioning the intersection of art and political and personal realities. Olson is coordinator of the Italian program at George Mason University.