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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1962 |
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| Genre: |
DRAMA
FOREIGN
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| Origin: |
Italy |
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| Colour: |
BW |
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| Length: |
89 |
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A pensioner (Carlo Battisti) reduced to penury chooses between begging and killing himself.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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| In Shoeshine , De Sica attacked Italy for not taking more care of its youth; here, he lashes out on behalf of the elderly. It's a moving but profoundly pessimistic analysis of old age, showing - as de Sica put it, "the indifference of society towards suffering. They are a word in favour of the poor and unhappy." Though the film is powerful and realistic, the leading actor is a non-professional and it shows; and the doom and gloom become overpowering. The film is the last of de Sica's "neo-realist" period. |
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| "No other medium of expression has the cinema's original and innate capacity for showing things in what we might call their 'dailiness.'" |
| (Cesare Zavattini, writer) |
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from his own story