Time remains kind to the reputation of Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) even if the range of his achievement has grown somewhat obscure. He’s now associated almost exclusively with the Italian style called neorealism, which had a relatively brief vogue in the years immediately after World War II. The impetus derived from two films that shared a poignant immediacy and enviable international prestige in 1945-46: Roberto Rossellini’s “Open City” and Mr. De Sica’s “Shoeshine.”
As a rule, neorealism had more appeal in the export market; the Italian film public preferred to get reacquainted as swiftly and frequently as possible with Hollywood glamour and escapism. The neorealist breakthrough, destined to loom larger in cinematic theory and scholarship than in annual box-office impact, reflected a resourceful dependence on thrifty production methods and authentic, sometimes war-ravaged locations.
The most acclaimed and influential examples were also parables of struggle, sacrifice, privation and misfortune. Many advocates argued that they demonstrated the advantages of casting unknown or nonprofessional actors in roles as ordinary or humble characters. While the argument had some merit, it ultimately lent itself more effectively to exaggeration than professional practice. Mr. De Sica, a star of Italian stage and screen before he began directing, habitually acted out scenes for his actors whether they were pro or nonpro.
As vulnerable as any other tendency, neorealism seemed to be losing momentum soon after Mr. Rossellini and Mr. De Sica completed notable follow-ups to their initial breakthroughs, “Paisan” and “Bicycle Thieves,” respectively. By the time Mr. De Sica and his principal screenwriting collaborator, Cesare Zavattini, began a third postwar project, “Miracle in Milan,” they were transforming their earlier style with giddy, outrageous flights of fancy. They returned to neorealism of an earnest, straightforward kind in two later movies, “Umberto D” and “The Roof,” but it was apparent that they did not regard the style as an ironclad moral or artistic obligation.
A new DVD edition of “Miracle in Milan” (and “Shoeshine”) remains conspicuously overdue. Still available in older VHS or laserdisc copies, the movie rewards a fresh look time and again. The recent vogue for “March of the Penguins” has given an odd comic ripple to an early sequence in which a group of homeless and shivering Milanese huddle inside successive rays of sunlight on a dismal winter morning. It’s as if Mr. De Sica’s characters were anticipating the penguin huddle, although without its noble paternal justification.
Director and screenwriter were breaking out of a thematic and stylistic pattern (and perhaps something of a straitjacket) while elaborating this fable about the creation and dissolution of a shantytown whose precarious utopian existence depends on a saintly founder, a childlike hero called Toto. Eventually, its survivability depends on divine intervention and a timely ascent to heaven, the only feasible remedy for eviction and endless strife.
Despite a previous and no doubt abiding sympathy for the poor and dispossessed, the filmmakers insist that people are troublesome. Toto is a paragon, but not even he can spare the community from acquisitive, violent or treacherous behavior. Released in 1951, the movie should have been the envy of Charlie Chaplin, hard up for inspiration at that point. Mr. De Sica contrived to revive the spirit of classic Chaplin while finding a very specific and topical setting in which to observe and satirize human nature.
The versatility and influence of Vittorio De Sica would probably be easier to appreciate if Americans could rediscover not only “Miracle in Milan” but also his Italian starring vehicles of the 1930s. For us, his directing career begins with “The Children Are Watching Us,” his fifth feature. Its middle-class setting now seems novel and disarming, but one recognizes the aptitude for directing juveniles and observing potentially painful family and social conflicts.
In this case, he isolates the bewilderment of a little boy whose parents break up, reconcile and then break up again, leaving him at the mercy of their betrayals and capitulations. Although not a war orphan, like the boys of “Shoeshine,” this younger child is a more helpless hostage to estrangement. Vittorio De Sica didn’t need a single doctrine, style or social class in order to share an eloquent understanding of human susceptibility and loss.
TITLE: “Miracle in Milan”
RATING: No MPAA rating (released in 1951, years before the advent of a rating system; adult subject matter)
CREDITS: Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Screenplay by Cesare Zavattini, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Mario Chiari, Adolfo Franco and Mr. De Sica, based on a novel by Mr. Zavattini. In Italian with English subtitles
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes
VIDEO EDITIONS: In VHS from Home Vision Cinema and laserdisc from the Criterion Collection; no DVD edition in the U.S.
TITLE: “The Children Are Watching Us”
RATING: No MPAA rating (first released in Italy in 1942; adult subject matter)
CREDITS: Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Screenplay by Cesare Giulio Viola and five others, based on Mr. Viola’s novel. Cinematography by Giuseppe Caraccilo. In Italian with English subtitles
RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes
DVD EDITION: The Criterion Collection
WEB SITE: www.criterionco.com
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