Vittorio De Sica: Contemporary Perspectives

Anna Migliarisi is an assistant professor in the English Department at
Acadia University, Nova Scotia.

This volume successfully collates both previously published and
specially commissioned critical texts by leading film scholars and
critics on Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica (1902–74), long held as
one of the masters of the post–World War II neorealist movement.
Organized chronologically, the texts explore De Sica’s achievement
using a variety of critical approaches and methodologies: close readings
of individual films, theoretical analyses of De Sica’s form and
technique, and examinations of the social, historical, and cultural
frameworks that influenced De Sica’s apparent evolution in style and
genre, from the earliest works including Bicycle Thieves (1948) and
Umberto D (1952) to The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) and The
Voyage (1974).

The previously published material includes Andre Bazin’s “De Sica:
Metteur en scene,” Bert Cardullo’s “The Art of Shoeshine,” Peter
Bondanella’s “Neorealist Aesthetics and the Fantastic: The Machine
to Kill,” Pauline Kael’s “Shoeshine,” and (De Sica’s long-time
friend and screenwriter) Cesare Zavattini’s “Some Ideas on the
Cinema.” Original papers, such as Howard Curle’s “A Home in the
Dutch of Saint Agnes: De Sica’s The Roof,” and Faye McIntyre’s
“In Love and War: Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women,” add fresh,
persuasive insights into De Sica’s work.

The editors provide a useful introduction that contains an overview of
the critical literature on De Sica and engaging discussions on the
centrality of De Sica’s masterpiece, Bicycle Thieves (1948); on De
Sica’s career as an actor; and on the matter of De Sica’s realist
style. This introduction is followed by a chapter entitled “De Sica on
De Sica,” a composite of previously published material on De Sica, his
philosophy, and his sources of inspiration. The volume also features a
filmography of De Sica’s works and a series of black-and-white still
and frame reproductions.

This important addition to literature on De Sica is recommended
particularly for film students and critics.