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Vittorio De Sica (July 7, 1901 - November 13, 1974)
was an Italian neorealist director and actor.
Born into poverty in Sora
(Frosinone), he began his career as a
theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined
Tatiana Pavlova's theatre
company in 1923.
In 1933 he founded his own company with his wife Giuditta Rissone and Sergio Tofano. The company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais, and
worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti.
His meeting with Cesare Zavattini was a very important event:
they wrote together some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age, like Sciuscià (Shoeshine) and Ladri di
biciclette (The Bicycle Thief).
One of his best-received is La
Ciociara (Two Women) (1961): Sophia Loren won the Oscar for her performance, and critics widely regard the film a classic. De Sica
died in Paris on November 13, 1974.
Notable films (as director):
- Gli
uomini che mascalzoni (1932)
- Il signor Max
(1937)
- Rose scarlatte
(1939)
- Grandi
magazzini (1939)
- Maddalena, zero in condotta (1940)
- Teresa Venerdì
(1941)
- I bambini
ci guardano (The Children Are Watching Us) (1942)
- Sciuscià (Shoeshine) (1946)
- Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (1948)
- Miracolo a
Milano (Miracle
in Milan) (1951)
- Umberto D (1952)
- L'oro di
Napoli (The
Gold of Naples) (1954)
- La Ciociara
(Two Women) (1961)
- Ieri, oggi e
domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) (1963)
- Matrimonio all'italiana (Marriage
Italian-Style) (1964)
- Caccia alla
volpe (After the Fox) (1966)
- Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (The
Garden of the Finzi-Continis) (1970)
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