Sciuscià, 1946
[Shoeshine]
In
an early episode in Shoeshine, two boyhood
friends, Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi),
bargain with an opportunistic fortune teller named Anselmi (Maria Campi)
over the sale of used American-made blankets before convincing the
shrewd woman to give them a reading of their future. As the boys huddle
curiously over a deck of tarot cards dealt on the table, the fortune
teller gradually deciphers their mystical sequence, like tantalizing
fragments of an unfinished existential puzzle that forms an image of
one's destiny. Revealing Pasquale's second card - the one that represents
the "outside" factor that would influence his fate - she
envisions the presence of a "gentleman" who seems protective
of the boy. The seemingly ambiguous divination proves to be accurately
(and ominously) portentous as a knock on the woman's front door disrupts
their casual meeting, followed by the appearance of a band of dubious,
abrasive men claiming to be from the police department who coerce their
way into the fortune teller's home in an apparent raid to confiscate
goods and profits as part of an investigation into her black market
trafficking. The convenient and timely arrival of the police is, of
course, a staged event, as Giuseppe's older brother Atillio and his
mob boss, Panza (Gino Saltamerenda) - who had earlier provided the boys
with the blankets as well as the specific address to go to in order to
conduct the sale - are discovered to be among the impersonating thieves.
From this singular act of unwitting complicity, Giuseppe and Pasquale's
destiny would be inextricably sealed as the fortune teller identifies
them as conspirators in the robbery and, unwilling to implicate Atillio,
the two are sent to a juvenile correction facility for questioning and
detention.
Vittorio De Sica creates a lucid, sincere, and impassioned portrait of
poverty, corruption, and desolation in Shoeshine.
From the introductory images of ubiquitous American soldiers at an
economically (and perhaps, militarily) ravaged town (note their presence
at the sanctuary of the horse rental stable as well as the high-traffic
streets where the shoeshine boys eke out a meager living from their almost
exclusively foreign patrons), De Sica establishes a recurring metaphor for
the pervasive external, environmental factors that invariably exert an
influence (if not govern) Giuseppe and Pasquale's lives that exist beyond
their control. In essence, it is this external force - the "outside
gentleman" that the fortune teller foretells - that serves, not only
as an oblique reference to the presence of Allied occupation forces in
postwar Italy, but also as a representation of the country's sentiment over
their ambivalence and inutility towards the direction and scope of the
reconstruction in their own country. Moreover, Pasquale's orphaning during
the war and the status of Giuseppe's family as refugees forced to share a
single room at a multi-family boarding house further underscore the boys'
(and, in turn, the country's) sense of transience, dislocation, and impotence
over their own plight and the determination of their future. It is through this
systematic disillusionment that the indelible bookend image of the two friends
and their beloved white horse becomes, not a euphoric expression of unbridled
freedom, but a desperate, resigned rejection of its severe, inscrutable, and
dehumanizing course.
© Acquarello 2004. All rights reserved.
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A
crowd forms in front of a government employment agency, as it does
every day, waiting - often in vain - for job announcements. Antonio
Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), one of the unemployed laborers who participates
in this daily ritual, is selected to hang posters in the city, a job
requiring a bicycle, which he has long sold in order to sustain his
family's meager existence for a few more days. He and his wife, Maria
(Lianella Carell), return to the pawn shop with a few remaining possessions,
their matrimonial linen, in order to redeem the bicycle. During his
first day at his new work, his bicycle is stolen. He combs the city
with his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), in search of the elusive
bicycle.
Within
this unremarkable premise lies the pure eloquence and profoundly affecting
story of Vittorio De Sica's 
Umberto
Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti) is a proud, retired civil servant
struggling to eke out a meager existence on his government pension.
The film opens one morning to a group of pensioners, including the
frail Umberto, taking their case for equitable compensation to the
streets of Rome, only for their demonstration to be quashed by the
local police for failing to file a permit. Umberto's rent is in arrears,
and despite his twenty year residence at the house, his landlady (Lina
Gennari) has threatened to evict him if he is unable to settle his
debt by the end of the month. His only sources of comfort are his
faithful and well-behaved dog, Flag, and the landlady's cheerful,
attentive maid, Maria (Maria-Pia Casilio), who is equally in danger
of losing her employment and lodging after discovering that she is
pregnant. In order to raise a portion of the rent money as a sign
of good faith until his pension arrives, he visits a cafeteria and
passes his pocket watch around the table to other diners in an attempt
to find a buyer. He ventures out in the evening in ill health to sell
his cherished books to a street merchant. He visits old friends in
an attempt to gain sympathy and request a loan. Yet, despite his exhaustive
efforts, the landlady is unwilling to accept partial payment, and
Umberto is faced with the agonizing decision to humble himself, or
to accept the unthinkable prospect of losing his home.