Illegal makeshift houses without a roof will be torn down by the police in this underrated and heartfelt piece by De Sica, as a poor newlywed couple forced out onto the streets struggle to build theirs in time.
De Sica is in a more commercial mode here before he caught the neorealist bug as he tells a largely compelling story of rivalry and friendship in a convent for girls, with a bout of action as nationalist politics get in the way.
A classic of Italian neorealist cinema that also marked the movement’s untimely end, De Sica’s work here about an old man and his dog can be heartbreaking (or to some, dreary) to a fault.
Continue reading →Such is the profound impact and influence of De Sica’s postwar masterwork that it has arguably become a metonym for the Italian neorealist movement.
Eternality Tan 