Happy Birthday, Vittorio De Sica! Born today in 1901, this Italian actor and director was a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
His meeting with Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini was a very important event: together they created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealist age.
The most notable of these is the 1948 Italian black and white neorealist drama film 'Ladri di biciclette' ('Bicycle Thieves'). This was the first film of which De Sica is best known for co-writing and directing.
Set in the post-World War II Val Melaina neighborhood of Rome, unemployed Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around his war-torn environment.
His wife, Maria (Lianella Carell), sells the family's bed linens to retrieve Antonio's bicycle from the pawnshop so that he can take the job.
However, disaster strikes when Antonio's bicycle is stolen, and his new job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his lively son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), Antonio combs the city, growing increasingly desperate for justice.
Two years later, 'Bicycle Thieves' received an Academy Honorary Award for most outstanding foreign language film. this occurred at the 22nd Academy Awards in late March 1950. Because of this, 'Bicycle Thieves' had helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Award.
Another two years later, De Sica directed the second film of which he is best known. This was the 1952 Italian black and white Italian neorealist drama/narrative film 'Umberto D.'.
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti) returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady, Antonia Belloni (Lina Gennari), demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog, Flike, will be turned out onto the street.
Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid Maria (Maria-Pia Casilio) for temporary safekeeping.
According to American actor, film historian, television presenter, and author Robert Osbourne of Turner Classic Movies, 'Umberto D.' was De Sica's favorite of all his films.
Also in 1952, 'Bicycle Thieves' was deemed the greatest film of all time by the British monthly film magazine Sight & Sound poll of filmmakers and critics.
Half of a century later, another poll organized by the same magazine ranked it sixth among the greatest-ever films.
The feature was also cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the most influential films in cinema history. Today, it is considered part of the canon of classic cinema.
De Sica was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in Hungarian film director Charles Vidor's ('Gilda') 1957 American DeLuxe Color CinemaScope war/romance drama film 'A Farewell to Arms'. The event occurred at the 30th Academy Awards in late March 1958.
However, the film was panned by critics and proved to be a box office flop. Nonetheless, De Sica's acting was considered the highlight of the film
The film had been adapted from American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and sportsman Ernest Hemingway's titular 1929 literary realism war story fiction novel.
In the early 1970s, De Sica directed his third and final film of which he is best known. This was the 1970 Italian war/drama film 'Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini' ('The Garden of the Finzi-Continis').
The film is based upon Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international Giorgio Bassani's 1962 historical fiction novel of the same name.
This classic Italian drama focuses on the intellectual Finzi-Contini family, Jewish aristocrats who live on an idyllic estate.
Siblings Alberto and Micol Finzi-Contini (Helmut Berger, Dominique Sanda) regularly hold parties with their friends, largely sheltered from the growing anti-Semitism in their country. When the Fascist movement becomes stronger, however, it affects everyone in the orbit of the family.
The following year, the film won the Golden Bear at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival. This occurred at in late June 1971.
One year later, the film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. This occurred at the 44th Academy Awards in mid-April 1972.
Four of the films De Sica directed won Academy Awards. These included the 1946 Italian black and white neorealist drama film 'Sciuscià' ('Shoeshine'), and 'Bicycle Thieves' won Academy Honorary Awards.
Indeed, the great critical success of 'Shoeshine' was the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
However, it was his 1963 Italian black and white comedy/romance anthology film 'Ieri, oggi, domani' ('Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow') and 'The Garden of the Finzi-Continis' to both win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
According to his personal life, De Sica's passion for gambling was well known. Because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies.
De Sica was a Roman Catholic. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family. He led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays.
It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. His first wife agreed to keep up the façade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father
De Sica had been married twice. His first wife was Italian film actress Giuditta Rissone (m. 1937; div. 1954) and his second wife was Spanish film actress Maria Mercader (m. 1968) They had remained wed until De Sica had passed.
De Sica was a father to three children. Of these, the most notable are Italian composer Manuel De Sica and Italian actor, director, scriptwriter and singer Christian De Sica.
In 2005, 'Umberto D.' was included in TIME Magazine's "All Time 100 Movies". The film's sets had been designed by Italian architect and art director Virgilio Marchi.
De Sica had been active from 1917–1974.
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