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| Vittorio
De Sica |
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| Director
/ Screenwriter / Actor / Producer |
| 1902 - 1974 |
| Born July 7, Sora,
Latium, Italy |
| Key
Production Country: Italy |
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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) |
| Links:
[
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 ] |
| DVD's:
[ Amazon
] |
|
1,000 Greatest Films: Shoeshine
(1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Miracle in Milan (1951), Umberto D. (1952) |
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"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) |
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"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) |
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"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) |
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"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) |
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"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 |
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