La vita semplice (1946)

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Nice, little neo-real naval war drama with kids

Francesco De Robertis is an important predecessor of neorealism whose modest but very real contribution is maddeningly ignored. He was 'disappeared' from the history books due to a couple kinds of inconvenience. He was a patriotic naval officer who followed Mussolini into the Salo regime. He was an important mentor of Roberto Rossellini whose tutelage of and collaboration with the more familiar name created potential embarrassment after the war, as well as some possible demystification as to who really established many of the hallmarks of his student's style.

A pity, but if you really want to know more, De Robertis'es officially 'lost films' are actually largely in circulation via the Italian newsstand route on video and DVD or on TV reruns.

A VHS tape from a magazine series was how I found this title. It's nothing mindblowing, but a very proficiently made movie about a couple of true to life non-actor delinquent kids with a longing for the sea, pleasing as low key naturalistic naive kitchen sink drama in the first half, a good documentary about life on military-shipboard once they stow away amongst much bigger people they look up to and hide from, a moderately thrilling action film in the clinch with a nice rousing, sentimental conclusion, a very good, basic, honest humble entertainment.

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The movie was the second film to be shot in Venice during what is known as the Republic of Salò (when Mussolini was deposed and the country occupied by the Germans) and when all cinematic activity was transferred north, as Italy's main studio facilities (Cinecittà) were situated in Rome, which was occupied. It is very difficult nowadays to find any information about any of the films produced during the Republic of Salò and it is virtually impossible to find any prints at all. Most of the documentation available about Italian cinema also seems to exclude these films on purpose; most critics even dismiss the fact that any cinematic activity even took place in Venice during the last years of the war. It is clear that this particularly difficult period has always been looked at from a political point of view and the result is that political debates over the years have simply erased over twenty films. It is probably true that most of the personnel who worked in Venice in 1944-45 were fascist sympathizers but some others just wanted to resume their career in films despite the political upheavals. Whatever the case may be, no other details other than the ones already displayed, are now available about the film.