Italian director Vittorio De Sica

The Italian director Vittorio De Sica (1902-1974) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini are one of the most influential teams in neorealist cinema. Together, they made four neorealist films. This paper will discuss three of those films: Shoe-Shine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Umberto D. (1952). Each of these films were shot in Rome, the capital and center of the Italian government. The narrative of these films each reflect different aspects of a failing post-war Italian society; the overcrowded …

…greatest emotional impact of any film genre. The non-professionals possess a true feeling for their characters, and appear as though they were truly living every moment of the story. This has the effect of generating very strong emotions in the viewer regarding the characters and their plights. A sense of sincerity and authenticity, seldom present in modern cinema, can be attributed to De Sica's marvelous ability to coach people who had no previous acting experience.