Italian neorealism of the 1940s produced poignant movies made in post-war Italy. Roma, città aperta directed by Roberto Rossellini (1945), Sciuscià directed by Vittorio De Sica (1946), Paisà directed by Roberto Rossellini (1946), La terra trema directed by Luchino Visconti (1948), The Bicycle Thief directed by Vittorio De Sica (1948), and Bitter Rice directed by Giuseppe De Santis (1949), are some well-known examples. In Japanese cinema, The 47 Ronin is a 1941 black and white two-part Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), and the post-war Drunken Angel (1948), and Stray Dog (1949), directed by Akira Kurosawa are considered important early works leading to his first masterpieces of the 1950s. Drunken Angel (1948), marked the beginning of the successful collaboration between Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune that lasted until 1965. Music Bing Crosby was the best selling pop artist of the 1940s. Crosby was the leading figure of the crooner sound as well as its most iconic, defining artist. By the 1940s, he was an entertainment superstar who mastered all of the major media formats of the day, movies, radio, and recorded music. The most popular music style during the 1940s was swing, which prevailed during World War II. In the later periods of the 1940s, less swing was prominent and crooners like Frank Sinatra, along with genres such as bebop and the earliest traces of rock and roll, were the prevalent genre. Literature For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway in 1940. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus in 1942. The Stranger by Albert Camus in 1942. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1943. Anti-Semite and Jew by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1943. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand in 1943. No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1944. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren in 1945. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank in 1947. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell in 1949. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams in 1944. Fashion As the 1940s went through times of hardship during and after WWII, the solution was significant rationing and fashion items and fabrics were no exception. Fashion became more utilitarian or function and comfortability over style. Besides this rationing, as a tribute, women's fashion also changed to reflect that and it was seen in the new silhouette that is featured