The Children Are Watching Us

Há 75 anos estreava em Turim. Aos poucos fechando a filmografia do De Sica, esse é o primeiro em que Zavattini aparece como roteirista creditado. Tendo assistido o abertamente misógino Catene essa semana, cujo tema é similar ao filme do De Sica, aqui temos um exemplo altamente superior em escrita e realização tratando com sensibilidade as relações humanas, tudo que é obtuso em Matarazzo transborda em talento em Zavattini e De Sica. DVDRip no MakingOff.

Vittorio De Sica matures as a film maker with a sad family drama of a cheating mother, and a son who observes it all and how it effects the family. Tragic and real, for a expression that would be known as Neorealism. A path that would make Sica one of the most sort after directors of his era. The kid, Luciano De Ambrosis, fills his role to perfection, and Isa Pola was just the unreliable lady she needed to be. And the rest is a sad tale which doesn't really hit you hard until the film is over.

Libra

One of those ones that benefits from sticking with it. After the first half I wasn't much feeling the movie, but by the end I was completely captivated and that ending is heart-wrenching. Beautiful, wounded filmmaking.

I can tell it is sentimental to the extreme, but damn if it isn't effective, and damn if it isn't beautifully made and utterly compelling and damn if I didn't find myself utterly engrossed in its rather simple little melodrama. I'm almost embarrassed to like it so much, but those ninety minutes really did disappear in not time at all.

A powerful film about the intersection of resilience and loss of innocence. Unfortunately, it can get too melodramatic through obtuse sound design and characterization. But it truly does care for its protagonists and its antagonists (despite their faults), which redeems the film's relative flaws.

"Won't somebody think of the children?!" Awful, manipulative, sentimental crap. Watch as the bright-eyed precious little angel of a boy starts crying for the fifth or sixth time as the adults in his life disappoint him once again. I will say that the cinematography was good, even though the most interesting sequence was pretty much stolen straight from the tornado scene of The Wizard of Oz (down to the music, even).

A powerful film, but not quite up to the brilliance of De Sica's later work. Still, this film marks the beginning of his neorealist-type work and it is very worth watching.