251. Umberto D (1952)

Running Time: 91 minutes
Directed By: Vittorio De Sica
Written By: Cesare Zavattini
Main Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari, Ileana Simova, Elena Rea
Click here to view the trailer

THAT DOG ALWAYS GETS ME

By this time tomorrow, I hope to have less than ten films to go and by this time next week, I hope to have less than three, with the ultimate goal still being to finish it all up on Halloween day. If I've calculated correctly, I shouldn't have too much trouble hitting that goal, which means only eight more days till total victory!

Meanwhile, there's still fourteen more reviews to write, so let's get down to it...

Umberto D. is a pretty simple, little story about an aging government worker, retired and on a pension, who is fighting to get his pension raised. To put it bluntly, Umberto is poor as dirt. He can't even afford to pay his landlady, who pesters him everyday to "pay up" or face eviction. In fact, Umberto can barely afford to even eat, paying for a meal at a local kitchen and feeding half of his plate to his beloved dog, Flike. One day, when returning home and fighting the landlady to even gain access into the room he rents, he suspects he may be coming down with something. Umberto pushes his "illness" so far, in fact, that he manages to get himself committed to a hospital, where he can lay low until he earns enough money to pay his landlady and secure his room. While in the hospital, Umberto's dog is left in the care of the maid of his residence, who manages to lose him when the landlady leaves the door open. Once discharged, Umberto searches for Flike, finally finding him at the dog pound. Realizing he's on his last legs financially, however, Umberto knows that he must make a drastic decision.

SPOILER ALERT!

So yeah, not really a whole lot happens here. We have a man who's poor - we establish that early - and then we just kind of watch him while he continues to be poor. I wouldn't be surprised if something went over my head here, but judging it on it's surface, I'd call Umberto D a fairly boring soiree at the movies. I mean, sure it's sad and everything, but not so sad that I cried and then at the end, with tear filled eyes, proclaimed it to be the greatest thing ever. Cute dogs will make anybody a little sentimental, it's a fact of life. I mean, let's say Umberto D. gets so fed up, he scoops up Flike and jumps in front of the oncoming train. Then we have a movie and probably the saddest movie of all time and one that I can get behind, dissect and talk about the social injustices that forced such a sweet old man and his little doggy into the path of suicide. But that doesn't happen and we get a happy ending that feels just as tacked on as the one from The Last Laugh.

This would be my fourth Vittorio De Sica film, three of which I watched for THE BOOK - the other two being The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and The Bicycle Thief. The latter made it into one of my TOP 20 list, while the former was at least compelling enough to get a passing grade. I've also seen Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a film that I liked well enough to give a '7/10' earlier this year and which featured the gorgeous Sophia Loren and the great Marcello Mastroianni. Then you turn to this one, his most famous film, I think and it just sort of left me wanting a lot more. I'd actually seen Umberto D once before and remember rating it well. However, that was at a time when I was far less picky. I feel like there's a lot going on in this film that I'm not picking up on. A lot of messages that are being sent out about the state of things in Italy at that time or at a more impressionable time in the director's life. I think, though, that a lot of people miss those messages and I think a lot of the praise for this film simply goes to it because it is so sad and we do nearly see a man driven to suicide because of the system. Hell, that dog probably raked in a lot of sympathy votes, as well. I'm not saying it's bad movie, per se - all I'm saying is that for my money, it's De Sica's worst film, where not a lot happens and the overall message is a personal one that is clouded by the sadness of the dog stuff.

RATING: 5.5/10  Maybe I'm just going '5.5' for the sole reason that my last three ratings have been a '6' or I could just be trying to convey that this was my least favorite film of the past four films I've seen.

MOVIES WATCHED: 987
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 14

October 23, 2015  4:20pm

522. Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)

Running Time: 94 minutes
Directed By: Vittorio De Sica
Written By: Vittorio Bonicelli, from novel by Giorgio Bassani
Main Cast: Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Helmut Berger, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli

LAST REVELRIES

Today's my day off and I woke up extra early this morning to greet my wife lying beside me, as we both decided to do our own thing for a little while. Her watching her shows and me opting to tick another film off of the 1001 list, which is now at less than 175 movies to go. Today's feature: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

The film opens with a group of young friends (pre-college age) riding their bikes to the Finzi-Contini estate, a beautiful, walled property with acres and acres of trees, greenery and ultimately a mansion and tennis courts. The property is of course owned by the Finzi-Contini family, a well to do Jewish-Italian family, of which we meet the two younger Finzi-Continis: Alberto (Berger) and Micol (Sanda). Among the bikers is Giorgio (Capolicchio) who has a mad crush on Micol. Giorgio comes from less wealth, is also Jewish and has known Micol since the two were children, playing in the Finzi-Contini garden. Micol seems interested in him too, but gives him a hard time about getting close to her - sometimes welcoming his advances, other times giving him the cold shoulder. Meanwhile, new edicts from Mussolini are handed down via the local newspaper: no Jews are to marry outside of their religion, nor are they allowed to employ domestic help. Thanks to their social status, the Finzi-Continis aren't too bothered by the news and go about their business without a care. When Micol goes away, Giorgio who vowed to her never to return to the property, becomes a frequent visitor to the Finzi-Contini home, as the older members of the family allow him to use their library (since Jews are no longer allowed to use the public library). Later, as Girogio returns from visiting his brother in France, he realizes that the pressures of political resistance are heightening.

SPOILER ALERT!

Can't say I loved it or anything, but will say De Sica has a way of getting his political points across without completely marring his films with the stuff. Take The Bicycle Thief for instance, a story intended to symbolize growing communism and a shining example of Italian neorealism. Those are mighty big words to the average movie going Joe and something that's bound to be off putting too. However, if you look at the surface of The Bicycle Thief, you have a perfectly fine story about a man who gets his bike stolen during a time when his bicycle is his bread & butter. It's sort of the same situation here (to lesser effect, however), as we get a perfectly acceptable story about adolescents basking in their youth, while an invisible countdown clock ticks down in the background. The BOOK notes that these youngsters enjoy their "last revelries" and that's exactly the story that De Sica is trying to get across, or at least the one that he got across to me.

My favorite scene, where Giorgio finds Micol lying naked with Bruno, staring at him with an icy stare. They say so much in their exchange of glances. Sanda was incredibly provocative in this.

The actual garden of the Finzi-Continis represents a great memory, a fond recollection that these characters (if they live) will look back on and it's really a "you can't go home again" scenario. Giorgio, if he makes it through the war, will one day as an old man remember many horrors surely. He'll cry when he speaks about his father who will probably die in a concentration camp and then his mind will shift to the Finzi-Continis, whom he'll also cry about at first. Then he'll remember those days on the estate, the giant dog, those budding trees that grandma brought back from holiday and that time he and Micol escaped a rain storm to sit in the back of a carriage. He'll recall that time he spotted Micol is a post coital state, lying nude beside Bruno. He'll realize then that his father was right, that the sting eventually went away and that now it's just a memory - a happy one compared to the horrors that his family witnessed.

All in all, I can't go full throttle on my recommendation, but it's certainly a fine film and was a fine way to spend an hour and a half. I always enjoy old movies from France, Italy or any other European countries, as I just love looking at all the old architecture, wondering how long these building had been standing and whether they're still standing. The score to this is also another thing to gush about, as it's such a brilliant one.  The replaying of the tune "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" was a beautiful touch and collaborated well with the gorgeous Dominique Sanda, as she donned her white heels and laid on a bed, eyeing Giorgio. I'm sure I've heard that tune in a Woody Allen movie before, if not, it's just like something he'd use. Am I crazy or did Romolo Valli look just like Robert De Niro? A fine actor too. Actually, the whole cast was fine and after seeing both this and The Bicycle Thief and enjoying both, I realize I really need to take in more De Sica.

RATING: 6.5/10  Good, but I've seen better. Still nothing to dread here if you're a prospective BOOK watcher and most will probably get more out of it than I did. I'm just not that knowledgeable on foreign history and always worry that that's why I have a hard time easing into these films.

MOVIES WATCHED: 828
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 173

COMING SOON
Badlands (1973 - Terrence Malick)
Days of Heaven (1978 - Terrence Malick)
Story of Women (1988 - Claude Chabrol)
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955 - Thorold Dickinson)

July 16, 2014  3:24pm

201. Ladri di biciclette/The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Running Time: 89 minutes
Directed By: Vittorio De Sica
Written By: Cesare Zavattini, Oreste Biancoli, Suso d'Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gerardo Guerrieri, from the novel Ladri di biciclette by Luigi Bartolini
Main Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Gino Saltamerenda, Vittorio Antonucci
Click here to view the trailer

WHO KNEW A STOLEN BICYCLE COULD BE SO COMPELLING?

Technically this wasn't supposed to be the next movie I watched, but since I canceled my Netflix account today, I needed to watch this yesterday, via their streaming service, so as not to miss out on it. It's also worth noting that I only have six more movies from the 1940s left to watch and I'll have watched everything from the beginning of THE BOOK through to 1950!

Antonio Ricci (Maggiorani) is an unemployed man, living in postwar Rome, with his son Bruno (Staiola) and wife Maria (Carell). When the film opens, workers stand outside an unemployment office and wait to hear their names get called and Antonio's does. It seems that Antonio has the skills required to hang movie posters and at whopping wages that would allow him to feed his family and then some, he's ecstatic. There's only one hitch: he has to have a bicycle to do the job and because his family needed the money, he recently had to pawn his bicycle. He offers to do the job on foot, but the unemployment agent insists he have a bicycle or else he'll find someone else. Antonio takes the job, promising to be there the next morning, come hell or high water. When he gets home and tells Maria about it, she offers to hock the bed sheets so that they can get the bike out of the pawn shop and so that's what they do. The next morning, Antonio has a new lease on life and is more than ready to start his new job. However, he's just getting started when a teenage, hoodlum steals his bicycle. He tries to chase down the bike-napper, but to no avail and eventually he loses him in the hustle and bustle of the city. Now, he's back to square one and he's crushed. He vows to spend as much time as it takes trying to find the bike and so that's what he, his son and some friends do. The film takes place over the course of about thirty-six hours.

SPOILER ALERT!!

THE BOOK is quick to note that this is a fine example of Italian neorealism, but you know what? I really didn't know that when I was watching this movie. THE BOOK also notes that the intended themes were mostly lost on American audience, which would explain why "The Bicycle Thief" (or "Bicycle Thieves" which is the literal translation) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. I think that second fact holds very true for me personally, because as I said I didn't give two hoots about it being a neorealist film or that it was a communist film and instead formed my own ideas and themes throughout the picture. I formed many thoughts on this film and what it meant to me and in order to clarify them more clearly and accurately, I'll break it down paragraph by paragraph:

FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS
I found that the bicycle, for Antonio, represented freedom and happiness, as he'd be able, through the use of his bike, to provide for his family with this new job. Look, work is a drag, but the money we earn is what keeps our lives moving. It's how we're able to provide for our family and buy the things we want. I kind of wish they'd shown more of Antonio doing his job, before the bike was stolen, because we could've seen a man starting to reform his life, getting into a new work routine and viewed him, if only for a short time, as a happy person. I feel that a lengthier beginning would've only hammered home the impact of what having his bike stolen meant to Antonio and how everything he'd dreamed about for the past twenty-four hours, was now gone. Look at how happy Antonio is when he gets his bike back and even when he and his son are fixing it up the next morning. How happy he is when he's handed an omelet by his wife, tells her goodbye and heads out for his first day on his new job, his new life. It's something we can all relate to, because we all get up everyday and go to work and sure, most times we're not as gaga about it as Antonio was, but we realize it's a necessity and when you look at it from Antonio's point of view, it's something to be proud of - having a job.

THE THIEF
To me, the thief represents a group of people that are always going to be there to ruin what you work so hard for. This world will always be full of assholes, who do what they want, when they want to do it, with no regard for anyone else. Had the thief known how much the bike meant to Antonio, would he have still taken it? Sure he would've, because what does a common street thief care about Antonio, as long as he can make a buck or two. The other thing I want to say about the thief, is how I really didn't know, toward the end, if that was the same man that stole Antonio's bike or not. Was I really not supposed to know or was it just me, who couldn't recollect what the thief looked like? See, I liked not being sure, because that kind of put us in Antonio's shoes, because really, he wasn't sure either.

THE ENDING
How many of you urged, through your screens, for Antonio to steal the bike at the end? Once he did, how many of you hoped he'd get away with it? I did, on both points.

Did you ever ask someone an ethical question and they say something like, "Well I'd have to be put into that situation to provide an accurate answer?" That's kind of what "The Bicycle Thief" does to it's audience, at the end. It puts us in Antonio's shoes and if you root for him to steal the bike and root for him to pedal faster and elude the people who are trying to chase him, then maybe that's what you'd do in that situation. I mean, I hope I wouldn't stoop to stealing someone else's property, I don't think I would, but none of us know the feelings that were inside that character, how desperately he wanted that job and to be able to provide for his wife & son. Even when he tries to just forget about the bike and have lunch with his son, he can't help but be drawn back to thinking about all the money he'd have made and all the things he and his family would've been able to do. He gets sucked right back in and in his moment of despair, he thieves a bike of his own.

---

Anyway, screw the communism and the neorealism and just watch this movie for what it is. Don't try reading too far into it and trying to understand the intended themes, because it's not worth it and a fabulous movie is provided, without all that mumbo jumbo tied into it. Sure, it wasn't the best movie I've seen this season or anything, but it was very good and whether or not it'll make the TOP 20 (in a season with a multitude of contenders) will have to be seen, when the time comes. It's a movie that makes you think, feel and really makes you ache for it's characters.

RATING: 7.5/10  Now I'm kind of itching to see more De Sica movies, as I feel, just through this one picture, that he really knew how to speak to his audiences, while at the same time making movies that meant something to him.

MOVIES WATCHED: 687
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 314

May 23, 2013  4:02pm