Telefono Bianco

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Telefoni Bianchi ("white telephones") films were made in Italy in the 1930s in imitation of American films of that time. For example, there would be expensive Art Deco sets featuring white telephones (status symbol of bourgeois wealth), and children would have Shirley Temple curls. These films tended to be socially conservative, promoting family values, respect for authority, a rigid class hierarchy, and country life.

The Neorealist filmmakers saw their gritty films as a reaction to the idealized Telefono Bianco style. They compared and contrasted the high-almighty gimmicks of set and studio production, with the devastated beauty of everyday, rigorous human life and suffering, and chose to work on location and with non-professional actors instead.