Shoeshine

UPC: 014381117424

Studio: Image Entertainment

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Mild Violence]

Summary: Vittorio DeSica's Shoeshine (Sciuscia) is a must-see example of Italian neorealist cinema, ranking with such other neorealist classics as DeSica's Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Umberto D. (1952) and Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945). Using nonprofessional actors, DeSica and co-screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, also one of neorealism's leading figures, paint an uncompromising picture of the lives of Italian street children abandoned by their parents at the end of World War II. The film concentrates on two such children, Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smerdoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi). With no one else to turn to, the boys form a solid friendship, as well as a "corporation" of sorts: they eke out a living shining the boots of American GIs. The boys' hope for a rosier future is manifested in their dreams of owning a beautiful white horse. This, along with all their other aspirations, is eradicated when the boys are inadvertently shipped off to a reformatory. A failure in Italy (director DeSica noted that postwar Italian audiences preferred the glossy escapism emanating from Hollywood), Shoeshine was a huge success worldwide, as well as the winner of a special Academy Awards. Like Bicycle Thieves, it combines DeSica's frequent focus on children with his emphasis on post-war social problems. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review

Features: [None specified]

Shoeshine

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 91 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Main Title; Horse for Sale [7:54]
2. Black Market Blankets [7:04]
3. Locked Up [8:46]
4. Inspection [8:25]
5. Section 1 [6:51]
6. Care Packages [6:28]
7. Interrogation [4:12]
8. Visitors [4:01]
9. Spies [8:48]
10. Fistlight [6:07]
11. Day in Court [9:19]
12. Escape [8:55]
13. Revenge [3:15]

Lucia Bozzola

Co-written by leading Italian neo-realist screenwriter and theorist Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica's Sciuscià (1946) examines the impact of post-Fascist social decay on poverty-stricken children. Bookended by images of a horse that symbolizes Giuseppe's and Pasquale's dreams of innocent fun, Sciuscià captures the hope and despair of the pair's friendship, as they get caught up in a black market scheme and wind up in separate cells in a "reform school" run by corrupt officers. The dankly claustrophobic jail cells contrast sharply with the difficult but unfettered life that the boys lived on the streets; even a movie night provides little relief from their jailhouse existence. Shot on location with non-professional actors, including Rinaldo Smerdoni and Franco Interlenghi as the tragic friends, Sciuscià exemplified the neo-realist principle of eschewing Hollywood gloss to portray the brutal realities of contemporary life among the postwar Italian poor, and the film ends on a moment of utter bleakness. Though Sciuscià failed in Italy, it became an international success, like Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) before it, bolstering neo-realism's worldwide prominence. Nominated for a screenplay Oscar after winning critics' prizes, Sciuscià also won a special Oscar for "superlative quality made under adverse circumstances;" the first special Oscar for "most outstanding foreign film" was awarded two years later, to de Sica's and Zavattini's Bicycle Thieves. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Alessandro Cicognini  Composer (Music Score) 
Vittorio De Sica  Director 
Vittorio De Sica  Screenwriter 
Cesare Zavattini  Screenwriter 
Paolo William Tamburella  Producer 
Sergio Amidei  Screenwriter 
Adolfo Franci  Screenwriter 
Cesare Giulio Viola  Screenwriter 
Pacifico Astrologo  Actor 
Franco Interlenghi  Actor 
Antonio Carlino  Actor 
Bruno Ortensi  Actor 
Aniello Mele  Actor 
Angelo D'Amico  Actor 
Emilio Cigoli  Actor 
Francesco de Nicola  Actor 
Enrico de Silva  Actor 
Antonio Lo Nigro  Actor 
Gino Saltamerenda  Actor 
Rinaldo Smerdoni  Actor 

Country: Italy