Umberto D.

Umberto D. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Director : Vittorio de Sica
Cast : Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari
Umberto D. is an Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio de Sica.It tells the story about Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti) an old man lives in Rome who depends entirely on his pension.There are only very few main characters in this film which revolves around Umberto D., his pet dog (Flike) and a maid (Maria-Pia Casilio). Neorealist films focusses on day-to-day life of poor and middle class people who faces poverty and depression and usually in such kind of movies the characters will be played by unprofessionals.

Umberto lives in an apartment on a small room as a tenant.The landlady (Lina Gennari) informs Umberto to vacate the room as she believes that Umberto wont suite for her social life style anymore. Umberto has to pay an amount of fifteen thousand lire for the landlady.A maid in the apartment helps Umberto for his basic needs.Umberto is very close with his pet dog named Flike and his companion too.Umberto sells his books and watch to collect some money for the rent, but can able to gather only few amount.Meanwhile the maid will inform Umberto that she has an affair with two men, but both of them neglects her once they came to know she is pregnant.

Umberto feels very lonely,insecure and depressed.One day he calls the emergency to admit him on the hospital so that he can save some of his pension amount and can get a place to live.But soon after he was discharged, he goes back to his apartment and shocked to see that his room is on renovation process.Being understood that he can no longer be allowed in his room for the stay, he leaves the apartment with his dog.Umberto tries to put his beloved dog on one care takers house.But he changes his mind when he feels that care takers wont take care of flike as he wishes.He then leaves the place with Flike.On his way some children’s starts playing with Flike, by watching this  Umberto tries to leave the place silently.But this too fails as Flike follows and searches for Umberto.Finally Umberto tries for a suicide attempt on a rail track with flike.Flike then escapes himself from Umberto’s hand and runs away.Umberto then calls for Flike and realises his mistake and gains his will to live along with Flike.

The first half of the movie goes as usual , but i was really moved and impressed with the second half of the film in which i have admired Vittorio de Sica’s master work.Its simply a spellbounding towards the end.At one stage Umberto tries to beg with the help of Flike,but changes his mind later which shows only certain circumstances leads a person to take some wrong decisions, which Vittorio de Sica had also depicted in his earlier film “The Bicycle Thieves”.Umberto’s sincere care to keep Flike comfortable shows his kind heart.Even with minimal dialogues Vittorio de Sica had conveyed a lot through his frames which leaves the audience to think about from then on.

Awards:
Nominated for Best Screenplay at 1957 Academy Awards
Nominated for Grand Prix at 1952 Cannes Film Festival.