September 25, 2018 (XXXVII:5) Guiseppe De Santis: BITTER RICE (1949, 108 min) Online versions of The Goldenrod Handouts have color images & hot links: http://csac.buffalo.edu/goldenrodhandouts.html DIRECTED BY Giuseppe De Santis WRITING story by Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, and Gianni Puccini; screenplay by Corrado Alvaro, Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Carlo Musso, Ivo Perilli, and Gianni Puccini; dialogue by Franco Monicelli PRODUCED BY Dino De Laurentiis MUSIC Goffredo Petrassi CINEMATOGRAPHY Otello Martelli FILM EDITING Gabriele Varriale PRODUCTION DESIGN Carlo Egidi COSTUME DESIGN Anna Gobbi CAST Vittorio Gassman...Walter (as Vittorio Gassmann) Doris Dowling...Francesca Silvana Mangano...Silvana Raf Vallone...Marco Checco Rissone...Aristide These films are notable for examining the socio/economic plight Nico Pepe...Beppe of ordinary people in post-war Italy. He was nominated for an Adriana Sivieri...Celeste Academy Award as a co-writer with Carlo Lizzani for Best Lia Corelli...Amelia Writing, Motion Picture Story for Riso Amaro in 1951. Maria Grazia Francia...Gabriella Dedi Ristori...Anna De Santis directed 13 films. In addition to the aforementioned Anna Maestri...Irene Caccia Tragica and Riso Amaro, he wrote and directed: Under Mariemma Bardi...Gianna the Olive Tree (1950)*, Rome 11:00 (1952)*, A Husband for Maria Capuzzo...Giulia Anna (1953)*, Days of Love (1954)*, Men and Wolves (1957)*, Isabella Marincola...Rosa (as Isabella Zennaro) The Year Long Road (1958), La garçonnière (1960), Attack and Carlo Mazzarella...Gianetto Retreat (1964), Un apprezzato professionista di sicuro avvenire Ermanno Randi...Paolo (1972), Today and Another Day (1995, Documentary short).He Antonio Nediani...Erminio wrote for 21 films. In addition to the films he wrote and directed, Mariano Englen...Cesare he also wrote for these films: Don Pasquale (1940)*, Ossessione (1943), Desire (1946)*, Outcry (1946), Ultimo amore (1947)*, GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS (b. February 11, 1917, Fondi, Lazio, Riscatto (1953), Angels of Darkness (1954), I fidanzati della Italy—d. May 16, 1997 (age 80) in Rome, Lazio, Italy) studied morte (1957), and The Visit (1963). literature, philosophy and cinema during the 1930's, then began *Indicates films for which De Santis wrote or co-wrote the work as a film critic during the early years of World War II. screenplay Before directing his own films, he assisted Luchino Visconti on Ossessione (1942). He was the coordinating director for the OTELLO MARTELLI (b. May 19, 1902, Rome, Lazio, Italy— documentary Days of Glory (1945). After five years as an d. February 20, 2000 (age 97), Rome, Lazio, Italy) did assistant director and screenwriter, he began writing and cinematography for 82 films, some of which are: Liberazione directing his own features, starting with Caccia Tragica (Tragic (1920), La donna, il diavolo, il tempo (1921), The Erratic Mrs. Pursuit) in 1947, followed by Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice) in 1949. Delamere (1922), and Consuelita (1925); Old Guard and Il De Santis—BITTER RICE—2 cardinale Lambertini in 1934; Marcella and Hands Off Me! in DORIS DOWLING (b. May 15, 1923, Detroit, Michigan—d. 1937; The Duchess of Parma and The Ancestor in 1938; Lucrezia June 18, 2004 (age 81), Los Angeles, California) acted in 63 Borgia (1940) and The Hero of Venice (1941); Tragic Night, films and television series, including: And Now Tomorrow Loves of Don Juan, and The Gorgon in 1942; Paisan (1946); (1944); Bring on the Girls and The Lost Weekend in 1945; The Ultimo amore and Tragic Hunt in 1947; The Golden Madonna Blue Dahlia (1946), The Emperor Waltz (1948), and Bitter Rice and Bitter Rice in 1949; Stromboli (photography) and The (1949); Sarumba, Alina, and Cuori sul mare in 1950; Othello Flowers of St. Francis in 1950; Anna (1951) and Rome 11:00 (1951), Lights Out (1952, TV Series), Medic (1954, TV Series), (1952); A Husband for Anna and I Vitelloni in 1953; La Strada and Cheyenne (1955, TV Series); Wink of an Eye and The Party (director of photography), Days of Love, and The River Girl in Crashers in 1958; Perry Mason (1962, TV Series), Bonanza 1954; What a Woman! (1956); The Sea Wall and Holiday Island (1963, TV Series), Flipper (1967, TV Series), The Streets of San in 1957; The Law (1959); La Dolce Vita (director of Francisco (1972, TV Series), Get Christie Love! (1975, TV photography) and Stories of the Revolution in 1960; Woman in Series), Barnaby Jones (1974-1979, TV Series), and The Dukes the Window (1961); Boccaccio '70 (segments "La riffa", "Le of Hazzard (1980-1984, TV Series). tentazioni del dottor Antonio") and Redhead in 1962; Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1964), Menage Italian Style (1965), and 3 pistole SILVANA MANGANO (b. April 21, 1930, Rome, Lazio, contro Cesare (1967). Italy—d. December 16, 1989 (age 59), Madrid, Madrid, Spain) acted in 41 films, such as: The Last Judgment (1945), Elixir of Love (1947), Mad About Opera (1948), Bitter Rice (1949), Outlaw Girl (1950), and Anna (1951); Mambo and Ulysses in 1954; Tempest (1958), The Great War (1959), and 5 Branded Women (1960); The Last Judgment and Barabbas in 1961; My Wife (1964), Oedipus Rex (1967), and Teorema (1968); Death in Venice, The Decameron, and Scipio the African in 1971; Ludwig (1973), Dune (1984), and Slugs (1988). RAF VALLONE (b. February 17, 1916, Tropea, Calabria, Italy—d. October 31, 2002 (age 86), Rome, Lazio, Italy) acted in 95 films, some of which are: We the Living (1942) and Bitter Rice (1949); Under the Olive Tree, The White Line, and The Path of Hope in 1950; Anna (1951); Rome 11:00 and Don Juan's Night of Love in 1952; Perdonami! and The Adultress in 1953; Storm and Obsession in 1954; Andrea Chenier (1955), Love (1956), The Sins of Rose Bernd (1957), No Escape (1958), Two Women (1960), and El Cid (1961); A View from the Bridge and Phaedra in 1962; The Cardinal (1963), Harlow (1965), Nevada VITTORIO GASSMAN (b. September 1, 1922, Genoa, Liguria, Smith (1966), 1001 Nights (1968), The Italian Job (1969), Italy—d. June 29, 2000 (age 77), Rome, Lazio, Italy) acted in Cannon for Cordoba (1970), and A Gunfight (1971); Rosebud 130 films, some of which are: Incontro con Laura (1945); and That Lucky Touch in 1975; The Other Side of Midnight and Shamed and The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1947; The The Devil's Advocate in 1977; The Greek Tycoon (1978) and An Mysterious Rider (1948); Bitter Rice and Una voce nel tuo cuore Almost Perfect Affair (1979); Return to Marseilles and Lion of in 1949; Streets of Sorrow (1950); Double Cross, Black Crown, the Desert in 1980; A Time to Die (1980), The Godfather: Part and Anna in 1951; The Dream of Zorro (1952); Rhapsody and III (1990), Toni (1999), and Vino santo (2000, TV Movie). Mambo in 1954; War and Peace (1956); Big Deal on Madonna Street and The Love Specialist in 1958; The Great War and The GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS from World Film Directors Vol I. Miracle in 1959; The Last Judgment, Seduction of the South, and Edited by John Wakeman. The H.W. Wilson Company, NY, Barabbas in 1961; March on Rome and Sex Can Be Difficult in 1987 1962; The Eye of the Needle (1963); Let's Talk About Women and The Gaucho in 1964; The Secret Agents (1965); The Tiger Italian director, scenarist, and critic, was born in Fondi, an and the Pussycat and Woman Times Seven 1967; The Archangel ancient town between Rome and Naples. He studied literature and Where Are You Going All Naked? In 1969; Scipio the and philosophy at university, and then entered the Italian film African (1971) and La Tosca (1973); Scent of a Woman and We school, the Centro Sperimentale in Rome. De Santis first made All Loved Each Other So Much in 1974; The Immortal Bachelor his name as a film critic—as a prominent and rigorously severe (1975), The Career of a Chambermaid (1976), and A Wedding contributor to Cinema. (1978); Quintet and Two Pieces of Bread in 1979; La terrazza The magazine, under the nominal editorship of Vittorio and The Nude Bomb in 1980; Sharky's Machine (1981), Tempest Mussolini, the Duce’s son, and Luciano De Feo provided a (1982), Life Is a Bed of Roses (1983), Big Deal After 20 Years rallying point for a group of leftist young critics who prepared (1985), The Family (1987), Les 1001 nuits (1990), Once a Year, the way for the coming of neorealism—among them Visconti, Every Year (1994), The Dinner (1998), and La bomba (1999). Lizzani, and Antonioni. In 1941 De Santis wrote: “We are fighting for the dawn of an awareness that will lead toward realism. We have learned to scan the horizons of an imagination De Santis—BITTER RICE—3 that is forever opposed to the miserable conditions of man, his They are ambushed by bandits (including Alberto, a former solitude his difficulty in escaping, and which finds, even in comrade) who murder the farm official, steal the money, kidnap escapism, the imposing strength of reciprocal human Giovanna. The rest of the film deals with the pursuit of the communication. Our sympathies are joined always with a cinema bandits by Michele and members of the collective. Cutting from that breathes the intimate essence of one group to the other, the picture reality through historical education. explores the motive of both—the social The level of civilization cannot be idealism of the peasants; the tragic separated from the land that gave passion that binds Alberto to the woman birth to it.” gang-leader Daniela, and Giovanna (and The Italian neorealists, the money) are recovered. influenced by French cinema could Some contemporary reviewers found find no worthy models in their own Caccia tragica vulgar, sensational, and contemporary culture and instead confused, but for others the director’s looked back to the novels of the great passionate sincerity was “more nineteenth century Sicilian realist compelling than the novelettish detail,” Giovanni Verga, who had already and there was praise for his fluid inspired a brief flowering of verismo camerawork (with a striking and at that in the early days of the Italian time uncommon use of crane shots) and cinema, around the beginning of his attractive composition within the World War I.