Lina Gennari

  • Raffaello Matarazzo – Treno popolare (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsItalian Cinema under FascismItalyRaffaello Matarazzo

    Plot: Lina, Giovanni and Carlo take the Roma-Orvieto train for a trip to the countryside.
    Quote:
    One of the beacon films of the European cinema of the Thirties. Celebrating the sound film as a rebirth of cinema, Treno popolare combines and harmonises, with genius, several characteristics of the cinema of the period. Talking pictures, of which it is too often said that they rendered cinema theatrical, also accentuated and stimulated realism. (…) This realism, born from sound and the possibility to make characters speak in their own langauage and with their true voices, here extends to a unanimist depiction of Italian society, and notably of the petite bourgeoisie of the time, portrayed with great veracity in its daily activity and behaviour.Read More »

  • Vittorio De Sica – Umberto D. (1952)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaItalyVittorio De Sica

    Quote:
    Shot on location with a cast of nonprofessional actors, Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist masterpiece follows Umberto D., an elderly pensioner, as he struggles to make ends meet during Italy’s postwar economic boom. Alone except for his dog, Flike, Umberto strives to maintain his dignity while trying to survive in a city where traditional human kindness seems to have lost out to the forces of modernization. Umberto’s simple quest to fulfill the most fundamental human needs—food, shelter, companionship—is one of the most heartbreaking stories ever filmed and an essential classic of world cinema.Read More »

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