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This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

If 'Bicycle Thieves' was about showing someone reach a state of desperation where he has to compromise his sense of morality, De Sica's 'Umberto D.' is about the struggle between dignity and necessity borne out of the same sense of desperation. With 'Umberto D.', De Sica continued the neorealist tradition of capturing the social and financial fallout of WWII from the POV of an ordinary person of the working class which in this case is an elderly pensioner. Just like 'Bicycle Thieves' this is a relentlessly harrowing experience which at times is tough to watch due to the sheer brutality of the poverty and the surrounding circumstances that Umberto gets trapped by. As I have mentioned before, he constantly gets confronted by the decision of having to choose between upholding his self-respect and sense of dignity or be pragmatic and do what's necessary to survive. This dilemma gets perfectly encapsulated in a particular moment in the film(Umberto sticking his hand out and then pretending to check the rain) which I dare say is one of the greatest and most honest moments I have ever seen in a film. The father-daughter dynamics in the relationship between Umberto and the maid Maria is beautiful. Her problems can be seen as somewhat of a metaphor for post war Italy itself, though De Sica never overtly underlines that connection in any way or form. Of course one has to acknowledge how perfectly De Sica captures the relationship between Umberto and his dog Flike. The dog is the only thing(other than Maria) with whom Umberto has a connection and who gives him company and care unconditionally throughout all his troubles. One can see De Sica being a little more ambitious with the camera here than his previous efforts. There is one particular shot where the camera is placed in the adjacent room and we look into Umberto's room through a hole on the wall. The way the camera zooms in during that shot reminded me of similar shots in David Lynch's films. As was the case in 'Bicycle Thieves', Alessandro Cicognini's score is emotionally impactful and complements the themes beautifully. In terms of acting, De Sica again found a way to make a complete amateur deliver a deeply moving performance rich with authenticity. Carlo Battisti is exceptional as the titular Umberto Domenico Ferrari.Although I still prefer 'Bicycle Thieves', but 'Umberto D.' is pretty much a masterpiece too. It is a deeply personal and emotionally rich film about the brutality of poverty that forces people to undermine their dignity. Highly Recommended.

The sad tale of an old man evicted from his home hardly sounds like a fun night at the movies and wouldn't set the box office on fire, but what we have here is arguably the greatest Italian neo-realist film ever. "Umberto D." tackles nothing less than the meaning of life in a seemingly offhanded way. And it takes a dog to supply some of the answers. Told in simple terms, the story exposes many of life's deepest moral dilemmas. Performances are spot on, especially by Carlo Battasi as the title character. And let's not forget about Flike, the dog! He deserved an Oscar!! Without a trace of maudlin sappiness, "Umberto D." is heartbreaking, uplifting, and unforgettable.

From director Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis), I knew nothing about this Italian film before I found it in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, and I had no idea of the concept or plot before watching it, so it was going to be interesting to try. Basically elderly pensioner and retired civil servant Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti) is taking part in a street demonstration held by other pensioners who are demanding an increase in their money, but the police clean the streets of the crowd, and all he can do is return to his cheap furnished room in a boarding house and his dog Flick. Umberto is threatened to be evicted from the house by the landlady Antonia Belloni (Lina Gennari) who is demanding the rent he owes, all he can do to make the money he needs is sell his books and his watch, he does not want to beg in the streets as he has his pride. He is not able to get a loan from any of his acquaintances as well, his only true friend is the boarding house servant and simple girl Maria (Maria Pia Casilio), she is pregnant with the baby of one of two soldiers, neither of them will admit they are the father. Umberto's financial difficulties are delayed more when he contracts a sore throat and is admitted to hospital, when he is allowed to leave he has a frantic search for Flick who has disappeared, he eventually locates him in a dog pound, but he is indeed evicted from the house and is now homeless. Umberto feeling at his lowest plans to kill himself, so he first wants to find a home for his dog, unable to do this he decides that his pet must die with him, and cuddled up together he stands in the path of an incoming train, but he cannot go through with suicide and moves away, so the film ends with Umberto and Flick just playing together in a park, reaffirming the love for his dog, and for life. Also starring Alberto Albani Barbieri as Fiancé and Elena Rea as Sister. The director said "the ideal film would be ninety minutes in the life of a man to whom nothing happens, that statement does almost seem true as not a lot happens, but the poignant moments definitely work well, with Battisti certainly giving a fantastic performance as the old man going into despair and attempting to fight it, he is supported by non professional actors, shot on location this film works really well as an observational piece of a man ostracised from the society he formerly helped secure, it is a watchable drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. Very good!

I should preface by saying that this is the first Vittorio de Sica movie I have watched, and at the time of writing this, I have yet to see his earlier works. I had wanted to watch Umberto D. to get myself familiar with the Italian "Neoverismo" or Neorealist movement, and it helped that my library held a copy of Umberto D as opposed to these other tales.But what a story it is! Umberto D. Ferrari, after working his whole life in a government position, finds that his meager pension can no longer support himself; it's either rent or food. Umberto has months of back-rent owed to his monstrously conceited landlady, who holes him up in a bug-infested bedroom and constantly taunts and threatens the man with eviction. We watch Umberto struggle as he seeks to maintain some semblance of dignity and humanity, primarily through his relationship with the landlady's dark-eyed, disingenuous maid, and his one true companion and love, his pet dog, Flike. As the movie progresses, we watch as Umberto becomes more miserable, desperate, and dejected, as society no longer has need of an irritable old man, and Umberto increasingly contemplates drastic solutions to end his suffering.Carlo Battisti, the eponymous character, emotes with a fussiness, irritability, and resignation that I know all too well in the faces of elderly people in my own family and community. Umberto D. is a man who has worked his whole life and now finds himself without family, without friends, and increasingly, without a roof over his head. His slide into destitution is heartbreaking to watch.Lina Gennari plays the landlady as a never-ending wellspring of inhumane, bourgeois pretension. La Padrona has delusions of turning her tenement house into a place of class and high culture, plans that are frustrated by the presence of a dejected old man and his mutt.Maria Pia Casillo, discovered as a high-school student by De Sica, plays the landlady's maid, and is the closest thing to a human friend Umberto has. She is hiding a pregnancy from la Padrona, fearful that once discovered, she will lose her job as housemaid. She does not know who got her pregnant, one of the soldiers who daily parade outside the house (the one from Naples? the one from Florence?); this frank admission of sexual misconduct horrifies Umberto, who acts, in his limited capacity, as a grandfather for Maria.Flike the dog's expressiveness and liveliness justify all the affection and praise Umberto lavishes on the dog. Umberto won't go a conversation without talking about how lovely Flike is, and as the film progresses he is increasingly more concerned about Flike's well-being than his own.Aside from the landlady and Flike, all the characters in De Sica's Umberto D. are played by non-actors. This gives an earthiness, a weight to their performances. Hard, pockmarked faces inhabit this Rome, whose tall, soaring Renaissance architecture seems to emphasize the smallness of its inhabitants. Ugly faces, old faces, weaselly scoundrels and smiling nuns... all these and more populate the camera as it follows around Umberto and Flike. The camera moves in a lifelike fashion, like an observer, and we watch Maria grind coffee beans in tears as she reflects on her pregnancy, or we watch as Umberto tries to beg but can't bring himself to debase himself in public. These little, mundane human actions are what make the film for me, whether it is Maria dropping everything she's doing to watch the soldiers outside her window, or as an elderly man contemplates taking his dog from the pound or having him put down, and you can see the thousand different painful emotions playing in his hard, worn eyes. They sound unimportant, and they are, but De Sica infuses them with dignity and empathy.We get the sense that this is a real story playing out. From the opening, ineffectual protest of retired pensioners, to the penultimate, wretched scenes at the train tracks, we feel that De Sica has us in his confidence, and is sharing a deeply personal story with us (the film is dedicated to De Sica's father). The film's final moments end on an open note, but ultimately one of hope and humanity in a world that has progressively and aggressively sought to dehumanize Umberto and throw him away with the rest of the trash.The film's notes mention the vicious criticism it received at the hands of the bloated, bureaucratic Christian Democratic Party and corrupt, ineffectual Communist Party, both who hated the film for its subversion and pessimism. Considering post-war Italy's turbulent history, this pessimism might be justified. But this pessimism is ultimately tempered with hope. Because at the end, a man can still love and live for someone, even if that someone is a dog.NOTE: This review is based off of the Criterion DVD. For those more interested in the DVD itself, the picture looks well and the quality is what you would expect from a Criterion release (that is to say, very good!). The monaural mix had no problems (though I listened through headphones on a laptop). The film's liner notes contain a short essay on the film, plus thoughts by Vittorio de Sica on Umberto D. There is no film commentary, but the DVD's extras contain a 51 minute documentary on De Sica's filmography, often narrated and hosted by De Sica himself. Also included are some thoughts and notes by Carlo Battisti, Umberto Eco, and others on the film, and an interview with Maria Pia Casilio about her relationship with De Sica and how she came to work on the film. All of this is excellent and informative and the documentary in particular was a fun watch, if only for De Sica's magnetic personality.