Directed by Vittorio De Sica
The first foreign film to receive an Oscar, this piercing melodrama follows two hard-working orphans imprisoned for a petty crime. Fresh performances and deft plotting magnify the boys’ neglect and exploitation by a corrupt society. “The camera disappeared,” Orson Welles once said of it, “the screen disappeared; it was just life."
Producer: Palo William Tamburella. Screenwriter: Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Giulio Viola, Cesare Zavattini. Cinematographer: Anchise Brizzi. Editor: Niccolò Lazzari. Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Rinaldo Smordoni, Aniello Mele, Bruno Ortensi, Emilio Cigoli.
35mm, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles, 95 min.
