| |
|
Vittorio De Sica |
|
Director / Screenwriter /
Actor |
 |
|
1902 - 1974 |
|
Born July 7, Sora,
Latium, Italy |
|
Key
Production Country: Italy |
|
Key Genres:
Drama, Melodrama, War Drama, Family Drama |
|
Key
Collaborators: Cesare
Zavattini (Screenwriter), Alessandro Cicognini (Composer), Eraldo Da
Roma (Editor), Adolfo Franci (Screenwriter), Sophia Loren
(Leading Player), Paolo Stoppa (Leading Player), Carlo Ponti (Producer), Aldo Graziati (Cinematographer), Adriana Novelli
(Editor), Memmo Carotenuto (Character Player) |
|
|
Highly Recommended: The Children Are Watching Us (1944), Bicycle Thieves (1948)*, Umberto D. (1952)* |
|
Recommended: Shoeshine
(1946)*, Two Women (1960) |
|
Worth a Look:
Miracle in Milan (1951)*, The Gold of Naples (1954), The Condemned of
Altona (1962), The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971) |
|
Duds: Indiscretion
of an American Wife (1953) |
|
* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Links:
[
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Strictly
Film School ] [
Sony
Pictures Biography ]
[
Nextpix
Biography ] |
|
Books: [
Vittorio
De Sica: Director, Actor, Screenwriter ] [
Vittorio
De Sica: Contemporary Perspectives ]
[
The
Films of Vittorio De Sica ] |
|
|
    |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"In
retrospect, even De Sica's neo-realist work was marred by
melodrama; the authenticity of location-shooting is undermined
by schematic plots and excessive heart-on-the-sleeve
sentimentality. The superbly naturalistic, non-professional
performances in his best work, however, do convey an
overwhelming emotional power."
-
Geoff
Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Although his detractors have argued that shallowness was never
far away, it still seems unbelievable that the man who produced
four consecutive masterpieces, which told us more about the
plight and conditions of postwar Italians than any other films,
could later have turned out such vapid and dispiriting stuff as
Boccaccio 70, Marriage Italian Style,
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Woman Times Seven." -
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Like
many would-be documentarists, De Sica is actually uneasy about
feeling. When it arises, he shuts it off brusquely, as if he
mistrusted an over-sentimental reaction from his innate
coldness. I do not mean that he was callous, but that his films
skirt round feelings and prefer not to investigate
character... He stands now as a minor director. But the films
from 1943-1952, and The Gold of Naples, are still worth
seeing." -
David
Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"The
great humanist of Italian neo-realism, De Sica directed with an
emphasis on truth, simple humanity, the goodness of man, comedy
and faith." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"I've
lost all my money on these films. They are not commercial. But
I'm glad to lose it this way. To have for a souvenir of my life
pictures like Umberto D. and The Bicycle Thief." -
Vittorio De Sica |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we
haven't seen include The Roof (1956), Boccaccio '70 (1962),
Marriage Italian-Style (1964), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964),
After the Fox (1966), Woman Times Seven (1967), A Place for Lovers
(1969), Sunflower (1970), A Brief Vacation (1973), and The Voyage
(1973). |
|
|
|
7 |
| |
|
"The
films of Vittorio De Sica are among the most enduring of the
Italian post-war period. His career suggests an openness to
form and a versatility uncommon among Italian directors…
During his lifetime, De Sica acted in over one hundred films
in Italy and abroad, using this means to finance his own
directorial efforts… The influence of his tenure as actor
cannot be overestimated in his directorial work, where the
expressivity of the actor in carefully written roles was one
of his foremost technical implements. In this vein De Sica
has continually mentioned the influence on his work of
Charlie
Chaplin. The tensive continuity between tragic
and comic, the deployment of a detailed yet poetic gestural
language, and a humanist philosophy without recourse to the
politically radical are all elements of De Sica’s work that
are paralleled in the silent star’s films."
-
Joel Kanoff, International Dictionary
of Film and Filmmakers |
| |
 |
| |
|
● Top 250 Directors |
|
●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
|
|
|
See Also |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
Vittorio De Sica's Favourites |
|
L'Atalante (1934)
Jean Vigo,
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Sergei Eisenstein,
Carnival in Flanders (1935)
Jacques Feyder,
La Chienne (1931)
Jean Renoir,
Hallelujah! (1929)
King Vidor,
Kameradschaft (1931)
G.W. Pabst,
The Kid (1921)
Charles Chaplin,
Man of Aran (1934)
Robert Flaherty,
Le Million (1931)
René Clair,
Storm Over Asia (1928)
Vsevolod Pudovkin.
Source: Cinematheque Belgique (1952) |
|
|