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50-504: Vittorio De Sica ( / d ə ˈ s iː k ə / də SEE -kə , Italian: [vitˈtɔːrjo de ˈsiːka] ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema , four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves (honorary), while Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Il giardino dei Finzi Contini won

100-671: A Million (1935), Il signor Max (1937), Department Store (1939), Manon Lescaut . Between 1931 and 1940, he starred in and directed 23 productions. During 1934 in Verona, De Sica first met screenwriter Cesare Zavattini , for many years they would become inseparable collaborators and created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age , like Sciuscià ( Shoeshine ) and Bicycle Thieves (released as The Bicycle Thief in America), both directed by De Sica. In 1940, supported by producer Giuseppe Amato, De Sica debuted as

150-486: A background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film. They were shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in rundown cities as well as rural areas. Neorealist films typically explore the conditions of the poor and the lower working class. Characters often exist within a simple social order where survival is the primary objective. Performances are mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, devoid of

200-746: A director and created Rose scarlatte . In 1944, De Sica received an invitation from Goebbels to make a film in Prague , but refused, using an offer from the Catholic Film Centre in Rome as an excuse. De Sica's 1946 drama Sciuscià won the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 1947. Despite the film's critical success, it failed in the Italian box office because the public craved easier films and mostly went to comedies. It

250-606: A double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. Rissone agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father. After finally divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959 in Mexico, but this union

300-449: A film directed by Rossellini in which De Sica played the title role. In 1937 Vittorio De Sica married the actress Giuditta Rissone , who gave birth to their daughter, Emilia (10 February 1938-23 March 2021). In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento , he met Spanish actress María Mercader (cousin of Ramon Mercader , Leon Trotsky 's assassin), with whom he started a relationship. De Sica never parted from his first family: he led

350-501: A more realistic approach to making films. Italian cinema went from utilizing elaborate studio sets to shooting on location in the countryside and city streets in a realist style. Although the true beginning of neorealism has been widely contested by theorists and filmmakers, the first neorealist film is generally thought to be Visconti's Ossessione , released in 1943, during the occupation. Neorealism became famous globally in 1946 with Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City , when it won

400-481: A new subject of knowledge, which itself builds and develops. It produces a new world in which the main elements have not so many narrative functions as they have their own aesthetic value, related with the eye that is watching them and not with the action they are coming from. Although Umberto D. is considered the end of the neorealist period, later films such as Federico Fellini 's La Strada (1954) and De Sica's 1960 film Two Women (for which Sophia Loren won

450-634: A romantic protagonist in Ferenc Molnár 's Gli occhi azzurri dell'imperatore . During that period he met Umberto Melnati , an actor from Livorno , with whom formed a successful comic duo and collaborated in many films and theatre plays. On 3 October 1930, they premiered in Teatro Manzoni with L'isola meravigliosa based on Ugo Betti 's play. They were soon spotted by Mario Mattoli who was then an impresario in Teatro Mazoni. Mattoli

500-499: A soldier. After the war he finished his studies and became a judge. Writing in his spare time, he published his first collections of poems in 1922. These, titled Il re pensieroso (The Thoughtful King), were written while he was in German captivity from 1917 to 18. La Padrona , his first play, was first performed in 1927, and the play's success made him devote himself entirely to the theatre. In 1931 he moved from Parma to Rome. In 1938 he

550-466: A very close relationship with his father and later dedicated to him the film Umberto D. The first interest in cinema sparked in Vittorio due to his father's occasional performances in silent movies: he filled in for the pianists. As an adult, Vittorio De Sica described their family state in his early years as 'tragic and aristocratic poverty'. In 1914, the family moved to Naples. Upon the outbreak of

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600-724: Is considered the best Italian comedy of the 1930s. In 1937, De Sica married Giuditta Rissone, around that time the duo with Melnati was ended. In 1940, the spouses reconciled with Tofano and founded the mutual company again, where all the management tasks were taken over by Tofano. Together they released a series of successful plays: La scuola della maldicenza (based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan ), Ma non è una cosa seria written by Luigi Pirandello , Il paese delle vacanze by Ugo Betti , Liolà , etc. In 1945-46, he played in two spectacles directed by Alessandro Blasetti : Il tempo e la famiglia Conway written by John Boynton Priestley and Ma non è una cosa seria by Luigi Pirandello . During

650-599: The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film . Indeed, the great critical success of Sciuscià (the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ) and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Award. These two films are considered part of the canon of classic cinema. Bicycle Thieves was deemed the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics in 1952, and

700-528: The De Gasperi cabinet, characterized the official view of the movement: Neorealism is "dirty laundry that shouldn't be washed and hung to dry in the open". Italy's move from individual concern with neorealism to the tragic frailty of the human condition can be seen through Federico Fellini 's films. His early works La Strada (1954) and Il bidone (1955) are transitional movies. The larger social concerns of humanity, treated by neorealists, gave way to

750-595: The First World War , they moved to Florence . Eventually, they settled down in Rome. At the age of 15, De Sica started performing as an actor in amateur plays staged in hospitals for recovering soldiers. He started studying to become an accountant when in 1917 through a family friend Edoardo Bencivenga he got a small part in the Alfredo De Antoni film The Clemenceau Affair . De Sica was laureated in 1923. Described as strikingly handsome, already in

800-693: The British television series The Four Just Men . In 1961, he starred in The Two Marshals alongside Totò . His passion for gambling was well known and because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies, like Count Max (which he acted in but did not direct) and The Gold of Naples , as well as in General Della Rovere ,

850-583: The Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival as the first major film produced in Italy after the war. Italian neorealism rapidly declined in the early 1950s. Liberal and socialist parties were having difficulties presenting their message. The vision of the existing poverty and despair, presented by neorealist cinema, was demoralizing a nation anxious for prosperity and change. Additionally,

900-460: The Italian film industry to lose its centre. Neorealism was a sign of cultural and social change in Italy. New realism films are considered to be films with specific styles and philosophies that emerged during the turbulent period after World War II. Its films presented contemporary stories and ideas and were often shot on location as the Cinecittà film studios had been damaged significantly during

950-501: The Oscar for Best Actress) are grouped with the genre. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini 's first film, Accattone (1961), shows a strong neorealist influence. The Neorealist period is often simply referred to as "The Golden Age" of Italian cinema by critics, filmmakers and scholars. The extent to which Italian neorealism was truly innovative continues to be debated among film historians. Despite its wide influence, some have argued that it

1000-607: The United States, where classicism was prevalent before World War II, to Europe, where realism was prevalent. Furthermore, as some critics have argued, the abandoning of the classical way of doing cinema and so the starting point of the French New Wave and the Modern Cinema can be found in the post-war Italian cinema and in the neorealism experiences. In particular, this cinema seems to be constituted as

1050-532: The comedy Bread, Love and Dreams . De Sica's character, Marshal Antonio Carotenuto, immediately became the public's favourite. The film was an enormous success, it was nominated for Academy Awards and won the Silver Bear at Berlinale. It was followed with three sequels: Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954), Scandal in Sorrento (1955), and Bread, Love and Andalusia (1958). In 1959, De Sica appeared in

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1100-420: The documentary-style films of Francesco De Robertis . Two of the most significant precursors of neorealism are Jean Renoir 's Toni (1935) and Blasetti's 1860 (1934). Both Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni worked closely with Renoir. In the spring of 1945, Mussolini was executed and Italy was liberated from German occupation. This period, known as the "Italian Spring", broke from old ways and fostered

1150-727: The dynasty and became an actor and film director. He was a Roman Catholic and a communist . De Sica died at 73 after surgery due to lung cancer at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris. Vittorio De Sica was given the Interfilm Grand Prix in 1971 by the Berlin International Film Festival . Italian neorealism Italian neorealism came about as World War II ended and Benito Mussolini 's government fell, causing

1200-418: The early 1920s he began his career as a theatre actor and joined Tatiana Pavlova 's theatre company in 1923. With Pavlova he worked for two years and toured South America . In 1925, he joined the company of Italia Almirante Manzini and was soon referred to as the second-best in her troupe. Two years later he joined the company of Luigi Almirante , Sergio Tofano and Giuditta Rissone . De Sica debuted as

1250-400: The early 1950s the neorealist torch was picked up by artists like Sicily's Bruno Caruso , whose work focused on the warehouses, shipyards and psychiatric wards of his native Palermo . Neorealist films were generally filmed with nonprofessional actors, although in a number of cases, well-known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types in front of

1300-443: The early years, De Sica combined his theatre and cinema careers: in the summer months, he was engaged in filmmaking and spent the winters performing on stage. In cinema, his first notable role was in 1932 Gli uomini, che mascalzoni directed by Mario Camerini . The song Parlami d'amore Mariù became a hit and remained his signature song for many years. In the 1930s his credits included many notable performances such as in I'll Give

1350-417: The exploration of individuals. Their needs, their alienation from society and their tragic failure to communicate became the main focal point in the Italian films to follow in the 1960s. Similarly, Antonioni's Red Desert (1964) and Blow-up (1966) take the neorealist trappings and internalise them in the suffering and search for knowledge brought out by Italy's post-war economic and political climate. In

1400-469: The first positive effects of the Italian economic miracle period—such as gradual rises in income levels—caused the themes of neorealism to lose their relevance. As a consequence, most Italians favored the optimism shown in many American movies of the time. The views of the post-war Italian government of the time were also far from positive, and the remark of Giulio Andreotti , who was then a vice-minister in

1450-572: The highlight of the film. De Sica was born on 7 July 1901 in Sora, Lazio . His father Umberto De Sica was from Giffoni Valle Piana , Campania ; he was a journalist, and in the later years worked for the Bank of Italy. Teresa Manfredi, his mother, had Neapolitan origins. De Sica was baptised in the church of San Giovanni Battista in Sora under the name Vittorio Domenico Stanislao Gaetano Sorano De Sica. He had

1500-461: The lack of consistent film styles of neorealist film. Peter Brunette and Marcia Landy both deconstruct the use of reworked cinematic forms in Rossellini's Open City . Using psychoanalysis , Vincent Rocchio characterizes neorealist film as consistently engendering the structure of anxiety into the structure of the plot itself. The period between 1943 and 1950 in the history of Italian cinema

1550-456: The new realism film adopts a documentary format, striving to showcase historicity, and striving to use the least cutting and video editing techniques, as well as tolerance for filming equipment. Open City established several of the principles of neorealism, depicting clearly the struggle of normal Italian people to live from day to day under the extraordinary difficulties of the German occupation of Rome, consciously doing what they can to resist

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1600-408: The occupation. The children play a key role in this, and their presence at the end of the film is indicative of their role in neorealism as a whole: as observers of the difficulties of today who hold the key to the future. Vittorio De Sica 's 1948 film Bicycle Thieves is also representative of the genre, with non-professional actors, and a story that details the hardships of working-class life after

1650-420: The plot or the tone. The resulting film, The Earth Trembles , starred only nonprofessional actors and was filmed in the same village (Aci Trezza) in which the novel was set. More contemporary theorists of Italian neorealism characterize it less as a consistent set of stylistic characteristics and more as the relationship between film practice and the social reality of post-war Italy. Millicent Marcus delineates

1700-418: The popular mainstream films, some critics felt that Italian cinema should turn to the realist writers from the turn of the 20th century. Many of the filmmakers involved in neorealism developed their skills working on Calligrafismo films in the early 1940s (although the short-lived movement was markedly different from neorealism). Elements of neorealism are also found in the films of Alessandro Blasetti and

1750-564: The season 1945-46 he spent playing in The Marriage of Figaro and collaborated with Luchino Visconti , Vivi Gioi and Nino Besozzi . In 1948-49 he acted in two new plays: The Time of Your Life and The Magnificent Cuckold written by Fernand Crommelynck and adapted by Mario Chiari . The Magnificent Cuckold became De Sica's last theatre performance after which he concentrated fully on cinema and TV projects. Between 1923 and 1949 De Sica took part in over 120 theatre performances. In

1800-468: The self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films often feature children in major roles, though their characters are frequently more observational than participatory. These characters are both sympathetic and cynical, constantly portraying the pain, misfortune, social struggles, and working-class struggles in social life, with the aim of criticizing the injustice of the real social system and resisting reality. In terms of production,

1850-555: The success in Italian box office was tepid. The relationship with the government remained bad, after the release of Umberto D. prime minister Giulio Andreotti sent De Sica a letter accusing him of 'rendering bad service for the country'. In 1951, De Sica co-authored (with Alberto Sordi ) and played in Mamma Mia, What an Impression! In 1952, he played along Gina Lollobrigida in In Olden Days and then again in 1953 in

1900-566: The theme of redemption. Sometimes referred to as "the Italian Kafka ", the criminal investigation is a characteristic motif in his plays. In The Inquiry , the procedure moves gradually from the realistic to the metaphysical level, without it ever being clearly revealed what the object of the investigation is. His best-known play is probably Corruzione al Palazzo di Giustizia (Corruption in the Palace of Justice). In it, an investigation into

1950-465: The war. The neorealist style was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine Cinema , including: Largely prevented from writing about politics (the editor-in-chief of the magazine was Vittorio Mussolini , son of Benito Mussolini ), the critics attacked the Telefoni Bianchi ("white telephone") films that dominated the industry at the time. As a counter to

2000-621: The war. This movie focuses on exploring the concerns and behaviors of struggling working-class characters through the presentation of outstanding non professional actors. The light portrayal of events reveals the indifference, dirtiness, and violence of society, showcasing the conflict between public and private perspectives. In the period from 1944 to 1948, many neorealist filmmakers drifted away from pure neorealism. Some directors explored allegorical fantasy, such as de Sica's Miracle in Milan , and historical spectacle, like Senso by Visconti. It

2050-406: The world. It also influenced film directors of India's Parallel Cinema movement, including Satyajit Ray (who directed the award-winning Apu Trilogy ) and Bimal Roy (who made Do Bigha Zameen [1953]), both heavily influenced by Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948). The birth and development of Italian neorealism films marked the transition of the world film center from Europe and

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2100-505: Was accused by the fascists of being a Jew and an anti-fascist. After World War II , he was accused of being a fascist, but was cleared of all charges. In his later years, he worked at the library of the Ministry of Justice. Altogether he wrote 27 plays, the most highly regarded written in the final period of his career, from 1940 until his death. His works explore the nature of evil, the existential guilt experienced by his protagonists, and

2150-481: Was also heavily criticized by the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Correction. This alienation by the Italian authorities made it difficult for De Sica to finance his subsequent projects. To produce Bicycle Thieves , De Sica had to invest own money and rely on the support of several Italian businessmen. The film brought De Sica his second Oscar as well as multiple other awards and accolades, however, again

2200-447: Was also the time period when a more upbeat neorealism emerged, which produced films that melded working-class characters with 1930s-style populist comedy, as seen in de Sica's Umberto D . At the height of neorealism, in 1948, Visconti adapted I Malavoglia , a novel by Giovanni Verga, written during the 19th century realist verismo movement , bringing the story to a modern setting, which resulted in remarkably little change in either

2250-456: Was cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history. De Sica was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor 's 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway 's A Farewell to Arms , a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica's acting was considered

2300-474: Was dominated by the impact of neorealism, which was properly defined as a moment or a trend in Italian film rather than an actual school or group of theoretically motivated and like-minded directors and scriptwriters. Its impact nevertheless has been enormous not only on Italian film but also on French New Wave cinema, the Polish Film School , Brazilian Cinema Novo and ultimately on films all over

2350-613: Was impressed by the quality of their rehearsals and offered to join his company Za-Bum . With Za-Bum , De Sica, Rissone and Melnati played in Una segretaria per tutti , Un cattivo soggetto , Il signore desidera? , Lisetta , and many other revues written by Mattoli and Luciano Ramo. The duo became famous on the national level after the success of radio sketch Düra minga, dura no and a popular song Lodovico sei dolce come un fico sang by De Sica. In 1933, De Sica, Rissone, and Tofano founded their own company. The period of Tofano-Rissone-De Sica

2400-607: Was more a revival of earlier Italian creative works than a groundbreaking movement. Important forerunners of Italian neorealism include: Ugo Betti Ugo Betti (4 February 1892 in Camerino – 9 June 1953 in Rome ) was an Italian judge, better known as an author, who is considered by many the greatest Italian playwright next to Pirandello . Betti studied law in Parma at the time when World War I broke out, and he volunteered as

2450-459: Was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris. Meanwhile, he had already had two sons with her: Manuel (1949-2014), a musician and composer, and Christian (b. 1951), who would follow his father's path as an actor and director. Only when Christian was 18, the siblings found out about each other and started communication. Christian's son and Vittorio's grandson Brando De Sica continued

2500-614: Was notable also due to De Sica's acquaintance to Aldo De Benedetti and Gherardo Gherardi , the screenwriters with whom he had a long and fruitful collaboration. Tofano-Rissone-De Sica performed mostly light comedies , but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti . In 1936, the company was reformed into Rissone-De Sica-Melnati, and eventually disbanded in 1939. The play Due dozzine di rose scarlatte , written by Aldo De Benedetti, premiered on 11 March 1936, in Teatro Argentina. It

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