Sciuscià (1946)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica

Film Review

If Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City (1945) laid the foundation for the rebirth of Italian cinema in the aftermath of World War II, Vittorio De Sica's Sciuscià  (a.k.a. Shoeshine) would provide it with the impetus that would allow it to flourish in the following decades, establishing neo-realism and redefining the role of director as that of auteur.  Although Sciuscià had poor box office receipts in Italy, it was extraordinarily successful in other countries, particularly the United States.  The film was critically acclaimed, winning several awards, including the first Oscar (at the 1947 Hollywood Academy Awards) to be given to a foreign language film.  Along with De Sica's other great films, Ladri di biciclette (1948) and Umberto D. (1952), Sciuscià is now regarded as a masterpiece of Italian neo-realism.

Sciuscià is one of a number of successful collaborations between De Sica (who, at the time, was better known as a film actor) and his screenwriter, Cesare Zavattini.  They were inspired to make the film when they learned about two boys, Scimmietta ('Little Monkey') and Cappellone ('Big Hat'), who made a living by shining shoes.  De Sica was keen to use non-professional actors in his film and initially considered engaging the two boys to play the two lead parts, but then decided against it because they were "ugly, almost deformed" (to use his words - even neo-realism had its limits)  The parts went to two unknown street children, Franco Interlenghi (Pasquale, the older boy) and Rinaldo Smordoni (Giuseppe).

When filming began, De Sica had another actor in mind for the part of Pasquale, and so shot the early scenes in the film twice, once with each of the two budding actors, before deciding (with some help from his friend Luchino Visconti) on Interlenghi.  (The 'rejected' boy appeared in the film as an extra.)  After the film was released, both Smordoni and Interlenghi enjoyed celebrity and were offered work in other films.  However, whilst Smordoni soon passed into obscurity (he ended up as a public transport worker), Interlenghi had a successful, high-profile acting career for well over a decade.

The film's Italian title Sciuscià (pronounced "shu-sha") is a Neopolitan corruption of the English word "shoeshine", and was the word shouted out by boy shoe polishers to attract customers in Italy after WWII.

When the film was awarded its Oscar, De Sica famously refused to attend the ceremony in America to receive the award; apparently, he was reluctant to share the coveted trophy with his fellow screenwriters.   However, he later accepted the award at a special ceremony at the American Embassy in Rome.

It is interesting to compare De Sica's approach with that of his neo-realist contemporaries (Visconti, Rossellini, Pasolini, Antonioni).  Whilst the subjects of De Sica's films are often grim, set against the harsh realities of a ruined economy - unemployment, poverty, homelessness - there is a softer edge to the realism than is generally found in neo-realist cinema.  This can be seen in the photography, which is much more refined, more artistic (note the striking use of 'backlighting', for example), far less crude, than in, say, the films of Rossellini, and which gives De Sica's films a fairy tale feel.   Sciuscià is a good example of this: De Sica uses this approach to emphasise the beauty of childhood innocence in the film's gentle opening sequences.  It takes a while before the brutality of the adult world can crush this sense of childlike optimism, but when it does so, the impact is just as heart-felt, if not more so, than in any other great neo-realist film.  Much of the power in De Sica's cinema derives from the way in which the director manages to convey the strength and nobility of the human spirit, the capacity for hope and imagination, in the grimmest, most squalid of situations.  Of all the great neo-realist directors, De Sica is arguably the one having the most profound sense of poetry and irony.

Another characteristic of De Sica is that he doesn't use his films to make condemnatory statements about others; he's not interested in playing the 'blame game'.  In his films, his characters are victims not of other individuals' or society's evil acts, but of a cruel combination of circumstances.  The Second World War left Italy, like much of continental Europe, in ruins, with a wrecked economy, mass unemployment, and streets filled with homeless, parentless infants.  In this social context, who could condemn a child for acting as a black market go-between or a man for stealing to keep his family from starving to death?  The two “heroes” of Sciuscià, Pasquale and Giuseppe, are just two of the many millions struggling to stay alive and sustain their dreams within a society that is bearly able to hold itself together.  The film is not about pointing the finger, but about observing the world around us.  Even the film's 'obvious' villains - the crooks that land the boys in prison, or the prison officers (deceitful, violent, susceptible to bribery) are shown in a forgiving light, and not the real cause of the tragedy that closes the narrative.

The film is far less preoccupied with causes than with their effects.  What happens to Pasquale and Giuseppe is an inevitable consequence of the world in which they live.  Had the circumstances between more favourable, they would undoubtedly have gone on to lead happy and fulfilled lives, but that would not have made a film worth seeing.  With blistering humanity, the film shows us how a seemingly eternal friendship can so easily be transformed into hatred.  It shows us how two people who love one another (to the extent that they cannot bear to be separated) can end up destroying one another, just through a few almost inconsequential quirks of fate.  It is the tragic fragility of human relationships which is what Sciuscià is about, nothing more, nothing less.  This is what makes it such a powerful piece of cinema and one that will continue to strike a chord with future generations of those who watch it.  Whilst human beings walk the face of the Earth, Vittorio De Sica's parable-like Sciuscià will continue to have an impact.

Film Synopsis

In Rome shortly after the end of World War II, two boys, Pasquale and Giuseppe, earn money by polishing the shoes of American soldiers.  Their dream is to buy a horse, but they don't yet have enough money to make their dream a reality.  One day, Giuseppe's brother, a black marketeer, gets the two boys to sell American blankets to a fortune teller.  Although the boys get the money they need, they are implicated in a robbery.  Having bought the horse, Pasquale and Giuseppe could not be happier, but their triumph is short lived.  Identified by the robbed fortune teller, the two boys are arrested and sent to a juvenile prison.  Pasquale is tricked into denouncing Giuseppe's brother and, in revenge, Giuseppe hides a file in the older boy's cell.  Their friendship destroyed, Giuseppe thinks nothing of selling their horse to pay for his escape from prison.  Pasquale's final act of betrayal has devastating consequences...