''N.U.'' (short for ''Nettezza urbana'', Italian municipal cleansing service) is a short 1948
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
directed by
Michelangelo Antonioni. The film examines a weekday morning of Italian janitors, captured at work on the streets of post-World War II
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
Although undoubtedly
neorealistic in its style, this documentary does foreshadow some of Antonioni's own future trademarks, such as slow-moving camera that is enamoured with alienated and deserted urban landscapes and inanimate objects of architecture, nature, etc. and seemingly less than concerned with sweepers, washers and cleaners (almost indistinguishable from bums, and sometimes behaving much in the same way). The film's narration consists of barely several phrases; musically soundtrack alternates classical-like piano improvisations with jazzy pieces.
In 1948 ''N.U.'' won Antonioni
Nastro d'Argento
The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...
Best Documentary award.
Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies
/ref> So did his '' L'amorosa menzogna'' next year.
References
External links
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1948 films
Italian black-and-white films
1940s Italian-language films
Films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Italian short documentary films
1940s short documentary films
1948 documentary films
Black-and-white documentary films
Films shot in Rome
Documentary films about cities
Films scored by Giovanni Fusco
1940s Italian films
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