THE BICYCLE THIEF
Ladri Di Biciclette

An impoverished and unemployed man lands a job which requires him to use his bicycle. After it is stolen, he and his young son are thrown into a desperate and frenzied search throughout post war torn Rome.

One of the most devastating of all the Neo Realist films. Also noteworthy as the first film widely distributed without the Hayes office seal. The Hayes office had demanded that two scenes be cut. The first scene was when the young boy, after a grueling day of searching, leans against a wall to relieve himself; and the second scene was when the father chases someone he thinks is the thief into a bordello. Rather than cutting the scenes, the distributor played up the controversy, complete with huge posters of the boy positioned against the wall with the headline 'see it before they cut it out'! The film's national distribution without the seal, universal critical acclaim and an Academy Award win established The Bicycle Thief as one of the cinema's masterpieces and signaled the beginning of the end for the Hayes office.

Best Foreign Film Oscar 1949

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Script by Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Zavattini, Oreste Biancoli, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Adolfo Franci. Photo; Carlo Montuori. Music; Alessandro Cicognini. Cast; Lamberto Maggiorani, Lianella Carell, Enzo Staiola, Gino Saltamarenda.

Italy, 1948 92 minutes. Italian dialog with English subtitles.
ISBN 1-55881-420-5
$19.95

UMBERTO D

An old-age pensioner struggles to survive in post war Italy. Impoverished and unable to pay his rent, he has only his dog and a pregnant housemaid for friends. De Sica offers an intense realistic view of the man’s daily struggle to maintain his dignity and save himself and his dog from eviction and destitution.

“Dedicated to his father, the film marked the end of De Sica's great Neo-Realist period. Using non-professionals in real locations--Umberto was played by an elderly professor of philology— one of the director's most affecting films avoids sentimentality by its truth, harshness and accuracy. From child neglect in Shoeshine to discarded old age in Umberto D, De Sica's films showed, in his own words,'the indifference of society towards suffering. They are a word in favor of the poor and unhappy.’”——Holt’s Foreign Film Guide.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Script by Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica. Photo; G.R. Aldo. Music; Alessandro Cicognini. Cast; Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari.

Italy 1952 89 Minutes. Italian dialog with English subtitles
ISBN 1-55881-211-3
$19.95

BAMBINI CI GUARDANO
The Children Are Watching

The world as seen through the eyes of a four-year-old boy whose parents, an unfaithful mother and a suicidal father, are going through a divorce. This film marked De Sica’s first collaboration with Cesare Zavattini who contributed to practically all of De Sica’s later works.

“Here, with the recently orphaned De Ambrosis, De Sica showed himself a sensitive director of children as he was to prove still further in Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves. One of the first Neo- Realist films, it was influential in changing the face of Italian cinema.”—Holt’s Foreign Film Guide.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Script; Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Giulio Viola, Adolfo Franci, Margherita Maglione, Gherardo Gheardi. Photo; Giuseppe Caracciolo. Music Renzo Rossellini. Cast; Isa Pola, Luciano De Ambrosis, Adriano Rimoldi, Giovanna Cigoli.

Italy 1943 90 minutes Italian dialog with English subtitles.
ISBN 1-55881-212-1
$29.95

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
Ieri, Oggi, Domani

A trio of provocative short stories comprises this award winning feature. In the first, Sophia Loren plays a woman who is wearing her husband to death by having a child every year in order to avoid going to prison. In the second segment, she plays an arrogant, wealthy socialite who uses and disposes men. The film concludes with Loren playing a beautiful prostitute who wrestles with her conscience when a young seminary student falls in love with her.

ACADEMY AWARD WINNER BEST FOREIGN FILM 1964

Directed by Vittorio de Sica. Scripts; 1)Eduardo DeFilippo, Isabella Ouarantotti 2) Cesare Zavattini, Billa Bills Zanuso 3) Cesare Zavattini. Photo by Giuseppe Rotunno. Music by Armando Trovaioli. Performed by Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Guinre, Agostino Salvietta, Tina Pica, Armando Tlovaioli, Giovanni Ridolfi, Gennaro Di Gregorio.

Italy, 1964. 120m. Color. Dubbed in English.
ISBN 1-55881-469-8.
$19.95

SHOESHINE
Sciuscia

Two shoeshine boys in Post World War Two Italy dream of buying a beautiful white horse with their meager earnings and some quick cash they pick up by dealing in black market goods. After being set up by their accomplices, they are arrested and sent to a prison-like reform school. Once there, they are purposely separated, tricked into betraying each other and ultimately destroying each other. "Shoeshine", along with "Open City" and "The Bicycle Thief", heralded the Italian Neo-realist movement and created an international sensation.

It was hailed by critics as one of the most passionate and vivid Portrayals of forsaken youth in the Neo-realist cinema. James Agge, in his 1947 review called it "One of the few fully alive, fully rational films ever made." Orson Welles said that when he saw Shoeshine, "...the camera disappeared, it was just life".

NYFA is pleased to present the rare, complete, edition of Shoeshine, including the boy’s room shower sequence that was cut by some overzealous censors from some American prints.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Screenplay by Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Zavattini, Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Giulio Viola. Photography by Archise Brizzi. Music by Alessandro Cicognini. Stars Rinaldo Smordoni, France Interlenghi. Anielo Mele, Drone Ortensi, Pacifico Astrologe.

Italy: 1946 93 minutes. Italian dialog with English subtitles.
ISBN 1-55881-464-1
$29.95

THE ROOF
Il Tetto

A newly-wed bricklayer and his bride need a home. Taking advantage of a modern day "homesteading" law allowing anyone who can erect four walls & a roof overnight to live under it, they set out to build their dream home. In one single night, with the help of some friends, they construct a meager dwelling. De Sica presents a serio-comic race against time and the police.

“Unpretentious and well played, this is one of the last of the director's quality Neo-Realist films. It is no Bicycle Thieves or Umberto D being much lighter-weight, but it manifests the same sense of compassion for the poor.”--Holt’s Foreign Film Guide.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Script; Cesare Zavettini. Photo; Carlo Montuori. Music; Alessandro Cicognini. Cast Gabriella Pallotta, Giorgio Listuzzi, Gastone Renzelli, Maria Di Rollo, Giuseppe Martini Italy 1957 10l minutes. Subtitled.

ISBN: 1-55881-210-5
$29.95.

INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE

A woman vacationing in Italy is swept away by the Neapolitan spirit, meets a suave Italian lover and begins a strange and compelling love affair.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast;J ennifer Jones & Montgomery Clift.

Italy 1954, 63 min. English.
ISBN: 1-55881-213-X
$19.95

ALSO AVAILABLE

FELLINI
~ ANTONIONI
~ ROSELLINI
DE SICA
~ VISCONTI
~ PASOLINI
LOVE AND WAR

THE NEW YORK FILM ANNEX
1618 West 4th St
Brooklyn, NY 11223
(718) 382-8868
Customer Service @ NYFAVIDEO.COM

New Descriptions, Redesigned artwork, backgrounds and stylized logos (c) Copyright 1998 and previous years by
The New York Film Annex.