Chichester Cinema at New Park
Shoeshine
- Sciuscià
One of the first of the neorealist films to be made in post-war Italy.
Using nonprofessional actors, De Sica and co-screenwriter CesareZavattini, 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 (RinaldoSmerdoni) 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 G.I’s. 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. (Subtitles)
Italy · 85 · Vittorio De Sica · 1946min
