Cesare Zavattini Movies
Italian screenwriter and film theorist Cesare Zavattini started as a writer of traditionalist, commonplace short stories and novels. His first screenplay, Daro un Milione (1935), fell so comfortably into formula that it was easily adapted into the Hollywood film I'll Give a Million (1938). His sensibilities toughened by the war, Zavattini began formulating the theories which helped launch the Italian neorealist movement of the postwar era. Zavattini's script for The Children Are Watching Us (1943) was the first of 23 collaborations with director Vittorio De Sica, the most internationally famous of which included Shoeshine (1943), The Bicycle Thief (1948), and Umberto D (1952). When De Sica decided that neorealism was becoming a cliché, and thus went on to such sentimental, box-office-safe comedies as The Gold of Naples (1954) and Marriage Italian Style (1964), Zavattini obligingly altered his writing style. Any accusations that Zavattini had abandoned neorealism were quelled by his searing screenplay for De Sica's Two Women (1962). As European movie tastes veered more toward the French New Wave, Zavattini attempted to touch base with this school; but his work on such films as A Young World (1966) and Woman Times Seven (1967) was disappointingly derivative, obliging critics to label the once-progressive writer as an "Old Timer." Zavattini regained pride of place with his final collaboration with De Sica, Sunflower (1969), which succeeded despite the noncreative interference of producer Carlo Ponti (whose wife, Sophia Loren, was the star). Cesare Zavattini's final contribution to cinema was an acting assignment in 1989's Strand -- Under the Dark Cloth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1948
Anna Magnani provides the box-office luster for this pedestrian wartime melodrama. Filmed on location in Milan, the story revolves around a jackbooted Nazi officer. A textbook study in sadism, the officer regains his humanity when he is nursed through a raging illness by peasant woman Magnani. The screenplay is by neorealism maven Cesar Zavattini, who'd certainly done better work than this. Filmed in 1946, Lo Sconosluto di San Marino (The Unknown of San Marino) was released in the U.S. in 1948, where it suffered in comparison to the onslaught of superior Italian productions of the era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani
This landmark Italian neorealist drama became one of the best-known and most widely acclaimed European movies, including a special Academy Award as "most outstanding foreign film" seven years before that Oscar category existed. Written primarily by neorealist pioneer Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio DeSica, also one of the movement's main forces, the movie featured all the hallmarks of the neorealist style: a simple story about the lives of ordinary people, outdoor shooting and lighting, non-actors mixed together with actors, and a focus on social problems in the aftermath of World War II. Lamberto Maggiorani plays Antonio, an unemployed man who finds a coveted job that requires a bicycle. When it is stolen on his first day of work, Antonio and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) begin a frantic search, learning valuable lessons along the way. The movie focuses on both the relationship between the father and the son and the larger framework of poverty and unemployment in postwar Italy. As in such other classic films as Shoeshine (1946), Umberto D. (1952), and his late masterpiece The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971), DeSica focuses on the ordinary details of ordinary lives as a way to dramatize wider social issues. As a result, The Bicycle Thief works as a sentimental study of a father and son, a historical document, a social statement, and a record of one of the century's most influential film movements. ~ Leo Charney, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lamberto Maggiorani, Lianella Carell, (more)
- 1948
French filmmaker Rene Clement's international reputation was secured with Au Dela des Grilles. A French-Italian production, the film sagaciously teamed the most popular stars of each nation: France's Jean Gabin and Italy's Isa Miranda. Gabin is cast as a murderer who escapes prosecution by stowing away on a ship. Suffering from a toothache, he disembarks in Italy in search of a dentist, only to have his few possessions stolen. This setback leads to an extended emotional interlude involving Gabin, a waitress (Miranda) and the waitress' daughter (Andrea Checchi). While keeping in line with the realistic nature of Clement's postwar films, Au Dela des Grilles harks back to the more lyrical style of his prewar efforts. Released in English-speaking countries as Behind the Barriers and The Walls of Malapaga, Au Dela des Grilles won the 1948 "Best Foreign Film" Academy Award, and also earned Clement the "Best Director" prize at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Isa Miranda, (more)
- 1947
Vittorio DeSica's Shoeshine (Sciuscia) is a must-see example of Italian neorealist cinema, ranking with such other neorealist classics as DeSica's Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Umberto D. (1952) and Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945). Using nonprofessional actors, DeSica and co-screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, also one of neorealism's leading figures, paint an uncompromising picture of the lives of Italian street children abandoned by their parents at the end of World War II. The film concentrates on two such children, Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smerdoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi). With no one else to turn to, the boys form a solid friendship, as well as a "corporation" of sorts: they eke out a living shining the boots of American GIs. The boys' hope for a rosier future is manifested in their dreams of owning a beautiful white horse. This, along with all their other aspirations, is eradicated when the boys are inadvertently shipped off to a reformatory. A failure in Italy (director DeSica noted that postwar Italian audiences preferred the glossy escapism emanating from Hollywood), Shoeshine was a huge success worldwide, as well as the winner of a special Academy Awards. Like Bicycle Thieves, it combines DeSica's frequent focus on children with his emphasis on post-war social problems. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pacifico Astrologo, Franco Interlenghi, (more)
A very early Vittorio De Sica effort, The Children Are Watching Us was originally released in Italy as I Bambini Ci Guardano. Director De Sica collaborated with another neorealist pioneer, Cesare Zavattini, on the screenplay. The film, a real tearjerker, concerns a young mother (Isa Pola) who can't stand the pressures exerted on her by family responsibilities. She deserts her husband (Emilio Cigoli) and her brood, permanently ruining the life of her four-year-old son, Prico (Luciano de Ambrosis). Avoiding the rococo gestures and dramatic overstatement that might have attended this film had it been made in Hollywood, De Sica fashions a subtle tale about real people caught up in a real situation. De Sica's sensitivity toward the younger cast members of The Children Are Watching Us would manifest itself in many of his formative films, notably Sciuscià and The Bicycle Thief. Made in 1942, the film was not released in Italy until 1944. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Cigoli, Isa Pola, (more)
- 1942
Originally released in 1942, Four Steps in the Clouds (Quattro Passi fra le Nuvole) was a major stepping stone in the starring career of Gino Cervi. The story begins as young unwed mother-to-be Maria (Adriana Benetti) desperately casts about for a means of avoiding disgrace. Making the acquaintance of good-natured Paolo Bianchi (Cervi), Maria persuades him to pose as her husband and meet her family. Immediately ingratiating himself with Maria's parents, Paolo plays his part so well that only a completely unforeseen disaster could spoil the charade. And when that disaster inevitably arrives, it is Paolo who comes to the rescue -- simply by telling the truth for the first time in the picture! Four Steps in the Clouds was superbly remade by Alfonso Arau in 1995 as A Walk in the Clouds, with Keanu Reeves in the Gino Cervi role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gino Cervi
- 1937
Daro un Milione (I'll Give A Million) was another felicitous collaboration between director Mario Camerini and his favorite star Vittorio de Sica. The story gets under way when a cynical millionaire announces that he intends to disguise himself as a hobo and given a million lire to anyone who treats him nicely. As a result, every bum in Rome is given the royal treatment on the off-chance that they're the millionaire. While the tramps revel in this sudden wave of good fortune, the real millionaire finds true love with a pretty circus performer who knows nothing about the "I'll Give a Million" campaign. Co-written by Cesare Zavattini and Giaci Mondani Daro un Milione was remade in Hollywood in 1938, with Warner Baxter as the millionaire, Marjorie Weaver as the heroine, and Peter Lorre and John Carradine as two of the happy hoboes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio De Sica, Assia Noris, (more)
