Umberto D.

An elderly retired civil servant in Rome is about to be forced onto the streets due to the loss of his pension, with only his little dog to comfort him. I'm not even a dog lover and this movie STILL got to me. I rented this on video when I was in high school and my mom ended up watching it with me. The ending (which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it yet) is the only time I can remember when we have both been crying at the same time during a movie. This is truly a beautiful film and I have to see again soon.

Enough has been said about this wonderful movie already and I'm not going to repeat what others have written at length except to say that I've just come to this film totally unprepared and now feel emotionally shattered. I've watched it as the 44th movie in a collection of 50 so-called art-house films in a DVD collection from Criterion. These allegedly "essential" movies are presented alphabetically and that is how I've viewed them, so it's taken me quite some time to get to the letter U. If I'd started with this De Sica classic I may have felt disinclined to watch any of the others!

Indeed, in a lifetime of over 50 years of watching movies - everything from the truly execrable to the totally inspirational - this is the first and only film I've ever sought to review on this site. I know there are a few detractors out there on the message-boards who cannot see beyond their own cynicism, but I pity them. This movie remains timeless, as potent as when it was made in 1952. You don't have to be old, you don't have to be a dog-lover (although it helps), and you certainly don't have to be a fan of neo-realist Italian cinema. All you have to be is a good human being. Watching this movie is a sort of 'humanity test' and thankfully most of the reviewers here have passed it.

I'm sorry, "Cinema Paradiso", you've just been relegated to Second Best Foreign Film.

Vittorio De Sica once remarked that why should film makers go in search of extraordinary events when in the course of their daily lives they are confronted with ordinary events of extraordinary beauty.This statement sums best the very essence of this Neorealist classic. Umberto D directed by the master Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica is a sad albeit ordinary tale of the loss of human values in Italian society after the end of second world war.Everything about the leading character Umberto D is told in an ordinary indeed prosaic manner.It is rather bizarre but mention must also be made of the poor light in which women characters have been shown.This is due to the fact that in Umberto D,both the grumpy landlady and unmarried pregnant girl representing loss of moral values are women characters directly associated with the old man.The great thing about Umberto D is its canine protagonist named Flike who serves his master so well that he even prepares to die for his master's sake.In Umberto D, by showing a faithful dog who remains loyal to his old master,Vittorio De Sica has rightly depicted that animals are more truthful than some human beings.

A sad but at the same time, touching and meaningful, movie like few I have seen, I came across this gem in the cable today. But instead other movies which use all kind of possible gestures to invoke the tears of the public, this movie is a real show of humanity like I've hardly seen before.

Geez, 50 years after, this movie has not dated in its subject of loneliness and aging. In the age of selfishness, a simple display of profound human feelings like this is completely necessary.

Would hope everyone was ready to appreciate this magnificent piece of Human Art. Thanks, Vittorio.

Umberto D was made towards the end of the Neo-realist period in Italian cinema, following on from Roma Citta Aperta (1945),Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice 1946),Paisa (Paisan 1946) and Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thieves 1948). Many critics see Umberto D has the finest example of the genre and Vittorio de Sica, the director, himself considered it to be his best work. Set in post-war Italy, it is the story of a retired public worker, trying to survive on a meagre state pension and being threatened with eviction from his landlady. His only friends are his small dog 'Flick' and his landlady's young maid Maria who has just discovered she is pregnant. Filled with despair over his situation he finally contemplates suicide.

The film sticks firmly to the neorealist conventions; the lead actor is a non professional actor (a college Professor who agreed to play the role), the use of studio sets is kept to minimum and the everyday lives of people are examined in minute detail. One could say that for long parts of the film nothing much happens, for instance when we follow Maria's early morning routine of grinding some coffee, but from these detailed vignettes, we learn a great deal of the thoughts feelings and emotions of the characters. These sequences are why it is a great film. The acting is wonderful, the impossible situations of the old man and of the unmarried but pregnant Maria are really brought to life for the audience. Although a tragic tale it does include many moments of humour and the ending although non-committal is uplifting. All in all a classic.