Neo-realism focuses on social and political issues, while New Wave reflects individual expression.
Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave, as reactions to a post-World War II period, focused on films that were direct opposites of wartime studio flicks. Shot in non-studio sets, with natural lighting and realistic dialogue, they initially seem similar. The main differences between Neo-realism and French New Wave stem from the intentions behind the films.
Influences
In a post-war France starved for culture, cinema fed that hunger. Many French New Wave directors -- film critics and studious film lovers -- used their movies as an expression of film culture and the attempt to reinvent it. Woody Lindsey of the FilmDirectors website explains that Italian Neo-realism was a reaction to the fascist propaganda films that began in the 1920s, and the glamorous studio films of the 1930s, also known as "white telephone" films. On art deco movie sets, white phones were a status symbol of wealth, while Neo-realist films showed the economic struggles and difficulties of living under Nazi occupation, as a means to convey social and political issues.
Editing
Neo-realism relied on minimal editing -- as cuts and montages were seen as manipulative -- to preserve reality, while New Wave makes copious use of editing, including jump cuts and rapid montages. A jump cut occurs when editing ends an action performed onscreen, with the next frame resuming the same scene and action at a different point, producing abrupt jumps in the continuity.
Techniques
Neo-realist films attempt to portray life as realistically as possible, with long, uninterrupted shots and changes in the camera perspective, to make people in the audience forget they're watching a movie. New Wave films employ various camera angles and editing techniques, at times making it surrealistic or startling the audience. Such techniques remind the audience they're watching a film.
Intent
Lindsey says that Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini created a manifesto in 1942, requesting that filmmakers document social reality. Italian Neo-realist films follow these guidelines. Conversely, the French New Wave emphasizes individual expression. Every film, stamped with the filmmaker's vision, emphasizes personal authorship. With no manifesto, each director has an individual agenda.
Films
Well-known Neo-realist films include Roberto Rossellini's "Open City" (1946), Luchino Visconti's "The Earth Trembles" (1948) and Vittorio De Sica's "Shoeshine" (1946) and "Bicycle Thieves" (1948). Francois Truffaut's "400 Blows" (1959), Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" (1960), Alain Resnais's "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" (1959), and Claude Chabrol's "Les Biches" (1968) rank among the best-known New Wave movies.
Movements They Inspired
Craig Phillips of GreenCine.com reports that the Italian Neo-realists films influenced the French New Wave filmmakers 10 years later. The masters of the New Wave followed the same style of filming, avoiding studios and artificial lighting. The Neo-realists also influenced the Danish Dogma95 movement, which also had a manifesto -- the "Vows of Chastity" -- and filmed with natural settings and lighting. According to Simon Hitchman on NewWaveFilm.com, New Wave's spirit of independent cinema influenced many of U.S. filmmakers, including John Cassavetes, Arthur Penn, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese.
