Italian Neo-Realism through the lens of Gramscian cultural theory: Cinema as counter-hegemonic practice in post-war Italy

This article provides an extensive examination of Italian Neo-Realism (1945–54) through the intricate theoretical framework of Antonio Gramsci, focusing on his concepts of cultural hegemony, the organic crisis, the war of position, organic intellectuals and the representation of subaltern consciousness. Moving beyond a conventional film studies approach, this analysis posits neo-realist cinema as a significant, albeit ultimately contained, counter-hegemonic intervention within the specific historical conjuncture of post-war Italy. It is argued that the collapse of fascism precipitated an ‘organic crisis’, a rupture in the dominant hegemony that enabled neo-realist filmmakers to wage a cultural ‘war of position’. Directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti, while predominantly from bourgeois backgrounds, functioned as ‘organic intellectuals’ by articulating the lived experiences and nascent consciousness of Italy’s subaltern classes – the workers, peasants and unemployed. Through a detailed analysis of the movement’s core aesthetic strategies – location shooting, non-professional actors and unresolved narrative structures – the article demonstrates that these were not mere stylistic choices but potent political tools designed to challenge the dominant bourgeois ‘common sense’ and its cinematic manifestations. The article explores how films like Roma, città aperta , Ladri di biciclette and La terra trema served as cultural ‘trenches’ in this struggle, attempting to forge a new ‘national-popular’ consciousness. Finally, the analysis employs the Gramscian concept of ‘transformism’ to contend that neo-realism’s eventual decline was not a failure, but a process of neutralization whereby its aesthetic was co-opted and its political core defused. This positions neo-realism as a paradigmatic case study, revealing the profound possibilities and inherent limitations of cultural resistance within capitalist civil society.