ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

JSCradnall This is the best cinema can do. If you watch it and aren't changed, bettered, you weren't watching or can't be.

George Wright This movie from director Vittoria de Sica is a heartbreaking story of a destitute pensioner named Umberto Ferrari and his pet dog. The pensioner cannot bring himself to tell anyone of his difficult existence or to ask for help. Set in post-war Italy of the 1940's and 50's, the neo-realist movies of this period with their on-location shooting show the grinding poverty of many people at the time. With this vivid background, we see some very tender moments in the story that illustrate the bond between the man and his dog. We also get a sense of the mood in Rome at the start as police break up a protest by pensioners fighting for a decent income. Other scenes take the viewer into a hospital where patients recite the Rosary from their beds, have lunch at a pasta diner and go home to a walk-up apartment. With Umberto pitted against his cold-hearted landlady, we see how his life is made almost unbearable. In fact, the movie is very sensitive in its depiction of this man, one of many elderly people who were by themselves with little money. In this case, the elderly man, played by Carlo Battista, has a reason for living because of his canine companion. De Sica used amateur actors and Battista was a university professor in Florence who has captured the essence of his character. De Sica made his mark as the foremost director of the neo-realist school of cinema and as an accomplished character actor in his own right. I noticed the dedication to Umberto DeSica, who was apparently his father. In this film, DeSica has certainly produced an outstanding work of art about the plight of one aged citizen in a particular time and place. Thanks to TCM for its recent showing this neo-realist classic.

Nicole C At first, the film takes a while to get going, and one wonders what this story is about. Throughout the film, Umberto's trouble with money gets increasingly intensified, as he ranges from pawning his belongings to near begging. In the olden days, this style very much shows the true realism. It had very little montage, in the sense that it didn't guide our associations, and more of the realistic filming that Andre Bazin favoured. (Bit of history for you). Everything to the shots, acting, and settings, were planned to give the most realistic portrayal as possible.The actors were mostly newcomers to the industry, and they did pretty well considering. Though maybe it would have been better to have actors with more experience, as the acting felt awkward at times. The film was well made in terms of continuity, and though some parts dragged, this could just be a depiction of life going on. It doesn't add unnecessary drama to fill in the time like most movies do nowadays.As the movie goes along, I find myself sympathizing with Umberto, and wish that he will be able to find a solution to his troubles. The end though, is pretty surprising as it is not a typical ending with closure. In fact, as with the rest of the film, it shows a more realistic ending and was really heartfelt. The addition of Flike as his companion is such a great idea as they played that angle perfectly. Flike is so cute!Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com

Greekguy First, let me admit that I love nearly all of the films generally grouped into the category of Italian Neorealism - whether it is works by Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini or Visconti or even the comedies of Comencini. To me, these films explore what it is to be human, and they do so with an eye for the mundane, the extraordinary and the exquisite, so that we are shown the boredom, the challenge and the joy of being alive. Because they want to do this, they play by different rules. These movies, even when their subjects include war or human passion or death, do not omit the everyday aspects of existence. For this reason, some viewers may find them slow, or ask why certain elements are included that do not directly serve the main plot. But that is precisely the point with films of this kind: the film is not the sum of its action, but the realisation of a tangible, fallible, fragile world in which certain actions take place.Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D." is about a retired civil servant who cannot survive on his pension. For the first time in his life, or so it seems, he is in debt. This shames him to a degree, but he has for the most part learned to cope with the shame and even work a few desperate angles to his advantage. However, what he cannot seem to surmount is the debt he owes to his landlady, who wants him out of the building in any case. That the man has nowhere to go but the poorhouse, and that in going there he would have to give up his dog Flike, troubles no-one else except his landlady's sympathetic young pregnant and unmarried maid (played wonderfully by Maria Pia Casilio in her first screen role).That, essentially, is the plot of the film. In showing this, De Sica manages to give us glimpses at sexual double standards, indifferent government, cold capitalism, the practical use of religious piety (a wonderful scene in the hospital involving a sister of mercy)and faithful canine love.The performances are very good across the board, but the star, Carlo Battisti, a professor of linguistics who never again starred in a film, is outstanding. On his slight shoulders he carries the weight of a world now vanished, a richer and better world that can only be appreciated to its fullest when looking back with wistful eyes.This film isn't perfect, but for me, it will do until perfect comes along.