The great Italian films from the decade after World War II — such as “Bitter Rice,” “Bicycle Thieves” and “La Strada” — weren’t just the inventions of directors gaining international fame. They had roots in Italian cities, villages and the countryside.

Now an extensive collection of photographs from the era — actually, from 1932 to 1960 — is on view at the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco. The exhibit, titled “NeoRealismo,” centers on the postwar years, with the intense gaze of the “new realism” on Italians beyond the reach of the economic revival.