The Story

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE OF THE 4K RESTORATION

"The experience of the war was decisive for all of us...we sought to liberate ourselves from the weight of our sins...Shoeshine was a small stone, a very small stone, a contribution to the moral reconstruction of our country." — Vittorio De Sica

Two shoeshine boys in post-war Rome try the make a living from American soldiers and dream of buying a horse, but eventually, run afoul of the law and the black market. An early classic of the Italian neo-realist movement, De Sica’s exposé of the Roman prison system guaranteed no director would be allowed back into an Italian jail system to make a film for a very long time. Shoeshine was the first film awarded an Oscar as Best Foreign Film for proving “to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over reality”. 

I came out of the theatre, tears streaming, and overheard the petulant voice of a college girl complaining to her boyfriend ‘Well I don’t see what was so special about that movie’. I walked up the street crying blindly, no longer certain whether my tears were for the tragedy on screen, the hopelessness I felt for myself, or the alienation I felt from those who could not experience the radiance of Shoeshine.” — Pauline Kael

There are no barriers at all between De Sica and these children whose tragic lives he understood perfectly.” — Martin Scorsese

When working with [scriptwriter] Zavattini, De Sica was able to explore the pitiful and most frail aspects of what it means to be human, especially through the difficulties of the working-class poor.” — Ted Perry

The 7pm screening on Wednesday 26 April will be introduced by Noa Steimatsky, a film historian now writing a book on Cinecittà at War. She is the author of The Face on Film (2017) and Italian Locations (2008).

Rating

M

Duration

93 min

Cast

Rinaldo Smordoni, Franco Interlenghi, Anielo Mele

Director

Vittorio De Sica