The cinematic movement that flourished after the Second World War was seeking to deal realistically with the events leading up to the war and with the social problems that were engendered during the war and afterward.
The lack of money led directors and scriptwriters to the discovery of the new Italy. The eye of the camera was expanding to catch elements denied by Fascism, it gave life to the markets and the streets. The films` style was a documentary-like objectivity with actors that either were or looked like ordinary people involved in commonplace situations. Ideologically, the characteristics of Italian neorealism were: a new democratic spirit, a compassionate point of view and a refusal to make easy moral judgments, a preoccupation with Italy's Fascist past and its aftermath of wartime devastation, a blending of Christian and Marxist humanism and an emphasis on emotions rather than abstract ideas.
The main purpose was to create a greater sense of realism and to give the scenes more authentic power. The movement brought the use of actual locations rather than studio sites and an avoidance of neatly plotted stories in favor of loose, episodic structures that evolve organically. This documentary visual style was focused on human relations and on the interaction between man and his environment.