A talk presented by Elisabetta Ferrari (Lecturer in Italian Studies at Melbourne University) on Vittorio De Sica organised in partnership with Melbourne Cinémathèque. The presentation serves as prelude to the Vittorio De Sica Retrospective between 12 and 26 February 2020.
February 12-26
VITTORIO DE SICA: CINEMA, ITALIAN STYLE
Vittorio De Sica (1902-1974) will forever be associated with neorealism, the movement he consolidated with a string of influential masterpieces detailing the hardships of working-class life immediately after the Second World War. Yet the actor and director, across a career spanning six decades, ranged widely in his stylistic approaches and concerns. He explored Commedia all’italiana and fabulist fantasy, and made socially incisive romantic comedies and frothy sex comedies. He also worked in Los Angeles as well as Rome and his late work, such as the elegiac triumph The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, successfully combines neorealist principles with Hollywood grandeur and technique. Born in Sora, near Rome, De Sica spent his early years in Naples. His bank-clerk father encouraged his entry into acting and by the 1930s De Sica was a matinee idol, with a debonair screen persona akin to Cary Grant’s. He would continue to act his entire life, often cheerfully taking on lightweight roles to fund his own films, while parlaying his acting talent into a directorial empathy with performers both professional and amateur. It was while acting on a film in 1935 that De Sica met screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, leading to a partnership that defined not only both men’s careers but also the neorealist movement. Of De Sica’s 35 films, Zavattini worked on the scripts of 26, a number of which appear in this season. Working with Zavattini, De Sica would direct four films that would go on to win Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film; in fact, the pair’s work on Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves received the honorary awards that inaugurated the category. This season presents many of the key works of De Sica’s landmark directorial career including his defining contributions to neorealism and the peak of his iconic collaborations with Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren, Marriage Italian Style.
Free event. RSVP essential: T 9866 5931; E iicmelbourne@esteri.it
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