#792: DE SANTIS, Giuseppe: Bitter Rice (1949)

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DE SANTIS, Giuseppe (Italy)
Bitter Rice [1949]
Spine #792
Blu-ray

During planting season in Northern Italy's Po Valley, an earthy rice-field worker (Silvana Mangano) falls in with a small-time criminal (Vittorio Gassman) who is planning a daring heist of the crop, as well as his femme-fatale-ish girlfriend, played by the Hollywood star Doris Dowling. Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violance, this early smash for producer extraordinaire Dino De Laurentiis and director Giuseppe De Santis is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.

109 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in Italian
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2016
Director/Writers


Giuseppe De Santis was 32 when he directed Bitter Rice.
Story by De Santis, Carlo Lizzani and Gianni Puccini.
Screenplay by Corrado Alvaro, De Santis, Lizzani, Carlo Musso, Ivo Perilli and Puccini.

The Film


The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-page foldout poster featuring an essay by critic Pasquale Iannone.

Commentary

None.

Giuseppe De Santis

A 2008 documentary by screenwriter Lizzani.

Interview

With Lizzani from 2002.

Trailer

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