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Frequently referenced excerpts and critics' polls
proclaiming The
Bicycle Thief (1948) one of the finest
films ever have brought fame to Italian
Neo-realist Vittorio De Sica, but he also deservedly
won an honorary Academy Award for Sciuscià
(Shoeshine) two years after its 1946 release.
As with all post war Italian neo-realism, an air
of tragedy looms over the tightly constructed black
and white drama, and expectations for eventual heartbreak
are exceeded. It's easy to see why Luis Buñuel cites
De Sica's earlier film as inspiration for his devastating
portrait of Mexico City slum life in Los
Olvidados.
Shoeshine
begins cheerfully enough, with a group of shoeshine
boys watching close friends Pasquale Maggi (Franco
Interlenghi) and Giuseppe Filippucci (Rinaldo Smordoni)
run horses at a local track. In spite of the daily
grind of their poverty stricken existence, the two
inseparable shoeshine boys share a dream of owning
a horse, and they pool their money to save for it.
Giuseppe looks up to the older Pasquale, orphaned
during the war and now living with Giuseppe after
being prevented from sleeping in an elevator.
The two boys' basic innocence
is forever lost when they meet Giuseppe's much older
brother Attilio clandestinely by the Tiber River
and inadvertently get involved with a black market
scheme to shake down a fortune teller. Not surprisingly,
this leads to their arrest and imprisonment with
other assorted juveniles that range from convicted
armed robbers to pitiful abandoned orphans. Their
friendship and conflicting loyalties are tested,
forming the crux the problem that leads inevitably
to the contrived but artistically satisfying denouement.
As in Buñuel's cinematic
exploration of slum life, Shoeshine's
tragedy evolves from the overall environment and
system as much as it does from the individual choices
the boys make. Doing the "right thing" in post war
Italy doesn't necessarily guarantee success, yet
following the accepted norms of the impoverished
post war culture leads to inevitable doom. How can
you figure out the correct course to take when all
roads lead to a broken down Roman system where no
one comes out unsullied? A master at portraying
stark realities of poverty while retaining glimmers
of hope and humanity, De Sica constructs a poignant
yet unsentimental film that compels audiences to
weep openly by the end. As Pauline Kael describes,
"It is one
of those rare works of art which seem to emerge
from the welter of human experience without smoothing
away the raw edges, or losing what most movies lose--the
sense of confusion and accident in human affairs."
The two main child actors give
unbalanced performances with Franco Interlenghi effectively
easing into the role of the more mature and sympathetic
Pasquale while the younger Rinaldo Smordoni amateurishly
hams up his role excessively, making his irritating
character far less believable. Using neophytes is
prototypical Italian
neo-realism, and De Sica works well with the ensemble
cast of children; however, the film would increase
its potency with a more natural acting young Giuseppe.
This is the first role for both main child actors,
and based on the performances it comes as no surprise
that Smordoni only had two more projects before his
film career ended while Interlenghi has gone on to
star in 75 films in his ongoing career.
Despite the economic constraints,
the cinematography is first rate and the Image Entertainment
DVD preserves the images clearly along with improved
subtitles that are easily read, making Shoeshine
a welcome companion piece to The
Bicycle Thief for anyone collecting
the most representative neo-realist
films. It's another influential De Sica classic
with imagery that plays like the lyrical poetry
of Baudelaire and shoots for the heart. But if your
looking for typical American mainstream films with
"feel good" messages and neatly tied up conclusions,
you'll need to seek solace elsewhere.
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