Vittorio De Sica’s first real collaboration with scripter Cesare Zavattini is the undoubted opening to the post-WWII Neo-realism movement even though it’s at one & the same time a finely crafted studio picture of almost overwhelming emotion. Pulled between a mother who can’t give up her lover and a weak father who can’t live alone, the film almost effortlessly hits all the notes of passion & regret all the adaptions of ANNA KARENINA have blundered. The film, along with De Sica's later masterpieces, is undervalued as impure by theory-driven critics, but this superbly made & acted film is far more daring and revealing than most of the approved Neo-Realist canon. And it’s essential for understanding De Sica’s aesthetic.
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