Vittorio De Sica is chief among the neo-realists of the post-WWII era. His BICYCLE THIEVES is considered one of the greatest films ever made. He would write simple stories, filmed them with pacing that lacked any hint of manipulative drama and cast untrained actors who he felt embodied the parts naturally. This tale about an old man and his dog is a shining example of the power that those details combined can create.
Working from a screenplay by Cesare Zavattini, the tale begins with a crowd of elderly pensioners marching in the streets demanding an increase in their meager wages. Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti, only film performance) is retired from the public works office and can now barely support himself and his loyal pet dog, Flike. He is way behind on his rent and his snobbish landlady Antonia (Lina Gennari, THE SIGN OF VENUS) threatens to evict him if he doesn't pay the full amount that he owes by the end of the month. As the situation gets worse for Mr. Ferrari, he struggles to make ends meet while retaining his dignity.
In the hands of a Hollywood hack, this story of an old man and his pet would be maudlin and forced, but in the hands of De Sica, it is honest and poignant. Just imagine how your typical family animal movie would have handled the scene at the pound.
Umberto's only human friend seems to be the young maid, Maria (Maria-Pia Casilio, INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE), who is pregnant and unsure which of her boyfriends is the father. She helps him as much as she can, but she too has her own problems, which will most likely lead to her being kicked out by the landlady as well. Their relationship is touching and their lives seem to parallel each other only at opposite ends of life's timeline.
In Roger Ebert's review of the film for his Great Movie series, he brings up the sentiment of Chaplin films several times to contrast exactly what De Sica achieves. Many of the sequences in UMBERTO D. could have so easily went for melodrama, but they don't. Ebert is so right when he says unlike Chaplin's Tramp, Umberto does not care if we love him and that's why we do.
De Sica never tries to wrench our emotions; he just allows the situations to play out naturally. This is partly achieved by the effortless performance of Battisti. It is said De Sica waited until he found the right person to play the character. He looked all over Italy, finally discovering what he was looking for in a professor of Glottology at the University of Florence. Battisti brings a sad dignity to the performance that is amazing. You'd never know he hadn't acted before this role.
By not beating his themes over our heads, De Sica is able to accomplish much more. The simple story seems to tackle grand issues such as the loneliness of aging, what will we do to survive and the reason for living in general. If De Sica tried to play up these grand issues, we'd laugh at the film's pretentiousness and snicker at its sappiness. Again, it's in the natural flow of the narrative and unforced conflict that makes the film work so well. The film moves us not because it pushes all the right buttons; it moves us because it understands story and character well enough that it doesn't have to.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
