Neorealism in Italian Cinema. The best after the Bicycle Thieves
iView Author: Brijesh J M (Cochin, India)
Email: brijeshjm [AT] gmail.com
“Neorealism in Italian Cinema. The best after the Bicycle Thieves”
Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949) Directed by Giuseppe De SantisThe second best Italian neorealist movie ever made.
The film involves 4 protagonists. Walter (played by Vittorio Gassman) and Francesca (played by Doris Dowling), a couple who have committed a jewel theft and escape on a train, taking women to work in the rice fields of the Po Valley. Although they temporarily escaped from the law of the land, great problems await them there. Francesca meets the charismatic Marco, an Italian soldier (played by Raf Vallone). Mean time Walter takes up with a woman working in the rice fields, Silvana (played by the sensous Silvana Mangano, who had delivered an impressive performance in Death in Venice, by Visconti). Walter persuades Silvana to help him rifle the rice harvest. Followed by some impressive twist and turns where the couple lands in deep dilemma for the survival. But its very difficult to escape from one own basic instincts. Walter betrays Silvana, giving up her paste costume jewellery, Silvana shoots Walter and then takes her own life.
Film portrays the day-to-day existence of the women rice workers, who performs back breaking labour under terrible conditions for a rice allocation and a handful of lire. The elements of melodrama imported from the American hardboiled genre with traditional Italian flavour created a strange synthesis in which a variety of styles are evident. The fusion may look obscene today, than it did in the 1940s. But there is no denying the impact that the film had.
Though the film was one of the best neoralist movie made, it has drowned in the wave created by the best loved of all Italian and the world neorealist film Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) released in 1948, one year prior to the release of Bitter rice. This has created a chavoc in the marketing of the movie. The great deal of the film’s success was its erotic charge, the image of the extreme seductive and sensous Silvana Mangano. Her skirt tucked into her knickers, became one of the most famous images in cinema and revealed the entire plot of erotic obsession and violence. Silvana Mangano’s revealing out fits was drawing more tickets sales than the social commitment of the film, which derailed the production company’s marketing tactics. Result, while Bicycle Thieves won the heart of the serious film goers and film makers, Bitter Rice lost the identity in the initial days. It was after several years the film got the world wide acceptance and the laurels for a path breaking movie, what it deserves.
Giuseppe De Santis, was a writer on film and produces celebrated work in the magazine Cinema. His experience with celeberated film maker Visconti on Ossessione inspired him to produce his own work, and his first film, Caccia Tragicia (Tragic Pursuit, 1947) was a drama about Italian Partisans. With Bitter Rice, De Santis really made his mark and produced one of the defining works of Italian neorealist cinema. Bitter Rice is considered to be the second best movie ever made in Italy….second only to Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves.
Tags: Bicycle Thieves, Doris Dowling, Giuseppe De Santis, Riso Amaro, Tragic Pursuit, Vittorio De Sica, Vittorio Gassman, World Cinema
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D. Santosh
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Revathy
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Shilpa Shukla
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Interesting writeup, thanks for sharing.Rosellini was one who continued making great neorealist works even after this film from Stromboli till La Strada.
With due respect to bitter rice for me all time great neorealist movies coming out of Italy are :
5. I Vitelloni (Federico Fellini)
4. Mama Roma(Pierre Paolo Passolini)
3. La Strada (Federico Fellini)
2. Paisa (Rosellini)
1. Umberto D(Victoria D Sica)
Comments,reactions welcome.