Vittorio De Sica: The Italian neorealist

Vittorio De Sica's most remarkable film is perhaps Two Women (original title La Ciociara, translated as “The Woman from Ciociara”). Starring Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo and others, the films centres on widowed Roman shopkeeper Cesira (Loren) and her devout teenage daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown). Set against the backdrop of World War II, upon the impending German invasion of Rome, the mother-daughter duo flees to Cesira's native province of Ciociara, a poor, mountainous region of Italy.
Here an attraction develops between Cesira and Michele (ably played by Belmondo). However, Michele is taken prisoner by German soldiers who want him to guide them in the mountainous terrain. He is never heard from again.
For several months, the two women eagerly anticipate the arrival of the Allied forces. However, tragedy strikes them -- on their way home they are raped by Goumiers (Moroccan Allied soldiers) serving in the French Army. The duo is devastated and the daughter suffers a nervous breakdown. The denouement sees the mother and daughter receive the bad news that Michele has been killed by the Germans. Thereupon the two painfully strive to survive the last days of the war and regain their humanity.
Two Women, adapted by De Sica and Cesare Zavattini from a novel with the same title by Alberto Moravia, bagged many laurels along the way. The film won Loren the Best Actress Award, Cannes Film Festival (1961) as well as the Academy Award for Best Actress (1962). Another honour was the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film (1962). Critics hailed the film as a classic.
Together with Zavattini, De Sica created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealisitic age, such as Sciuscia (Shoeshine) and Ladri di Bicilette (The Bicycle Thieves). These were heartbreaking studies of poverty in post-war Italy. Sciusia won the Academy Award in 1948 for the Best Foreign Film. Ladri di Bicilette won the Academy Award (1950) for the Best Foreign Film. In 1971 De Sica received the Interfilm Grand Prix Award at the Berlin Film Festival.
After the box office flop of Umberto D. (1952), a bleak study of old age, De Sica turned to lighter work, appearing in front of the camera more often. Although Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) won him another Oscar, critics believed that his film direction career was at an end. However, belying the sceptics, just before he died De Sica made The Garden of the Finzi-Contini (1970) and the final work, A Brief Vacation (1973).
De Sica (July 7, 1902-November 13, 1974) grew up in Naples and began his working life as an office clerk to support his impoverished family. Drawn to acting from his early days, he began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlova's theatre company in 1923. He formed his own company with his first wife Giuditta Rissone and Sergio Tofano. Though the forte of the company was light comedies, they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors such as Luchino Visconti.
De Sica died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. His memory lives on and his works continue to inspire succeeding generations of filmmakers.
Compiled by Cultural Correspondent