#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


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

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

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

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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