User reviews

Umberto D was made towards the end of the Neo-realist period in Italian cinema, following on from Roma Citta Aperta (1945),Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice 1946),Paisa (Paisan 1946) and Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thieves 1948). Many critics see Umberto D has the finest example of the genre and Vittorio de Sica, the director, himself considered it to be his best work. Set in post-war Italy, it is the story of a retired public worker, trying to survive on a meagre state pension and being threatened with eviction from his landlady. His only friends are his small dog 'Flick' and his landlady's young maid Maria who has just discovered she is pregnant. Filled with despair over his situation he finally contemplates suicide.

The film sticks firmly to the neorealist conventions; the lead actor is a non professional actor (a college Professor who agreed to play the role), the use of studio sets is kept to minimum and the everyday lives of people are examined in minute detail. One could say that for long parts of the film nothing much happens, for instance when we follow Maria's early morning routine of grinding some coffee, but from these detailed vignettes, we learn a great deal of the thoughts feelings and emotions of the characters. These sequences are why it is a great film. The acting is wonderful, the impossible situations of the old man and of the unmarried but pregnant Maria are really brought to life for the audience. Although a tragic tale it does include many moments of humour and the ending although non-committal is uplifting. All in all a classic.

Who among us doesn't fear that one day he or she will meet the fate of Umberto D., a pensioner who discovers that he can't scrape together enough money in order to live? A retiree, such as myself, doesn't have to reside in ravaged, dehumanized, postwar Rome to witness the dreaded nightmare of outliving his or her finances and, even worse, the worry about our dog's fate if we are no longer able to provide the homes that they need? So why do I love this film so much when it causes me so much personal trepidation about my own future--and that of my precious best friend?

Aside from a very talented Napoleone, who plays the dog Flike for all but two dog scenes and manages to steal the show in the process, the two main human actors, Carlo Battisti and Maria Pia Casilio, both remarkably appearing as amateurs, are superb, which is a triumph in itself for the film's accomplished director, Vittorio de Sica. The photography of post-World War II Rome by G.R. Aldo, combined with the highly dramatic music of prolific film composer Alessandro Cicognini, completes the recipe for an outstanding cinematic success that has withstood the test of time. The striking image of Maria standing at the window as Umberto departs in the tram will remain with me for the rest of my life. This film is not only about the relationship of a man and his faithful little dog but about the love between Maria and Umberto in a world that seems to be totally void of compassion.

There are too many memorable scenes in this film to describe in one review, but the one segment that leaves an indelible mark on me is the instance when little Flike, for good reason, momentarily loses faith in his human companion, but I won't reveal any other information about the scene. If that situation alone doesn't deeply move you, I don't know what will.

One doesn't have to be in an advanced stage of life, such as myself, in order to fall in love with this movie. Umberto D's plight is one that should resonate with moviegoers of all ages and economic conditions. Hardship to the point of desperation could happen to any of us at any time. I have learned from adversity that nothing is ever guaranteed, so appreciate all that you have today, don't forget to kiss your precious, little doggie goodnight, and never lose your best friend's trust, not even for a brief moment in time. It will break your heart.

Vittorio DeSica's wonderful "Umberto D" was one of the last films of the Italian neo-realism movement and by far its best one. It is also one of my favorite movies ever. The movie's premise is simple: it is a slice of the life of a poor lonely pensioner, Umberto. Throughout the movie, we see Umberto struggle to find money to pay rent to his horrible landlady, love his dog Flike, and deal with the loneliness and disillusionment of the postwar era.

"Umberto D" is a character-driven film. It works very well because of its sharp observations on loneliness and poignant gestures. The gestures evoke powerful feelings without necessitating dialogue. Many of the scenes, even the ones that do not necessarily advance the plot, are hypnotically beautiful in their simplicity. Take, for example, a beautiful scene where Umberto finally needs to beg for money but cannot physically bring himself to do it. He extends his palm up, but when a passer-by stops to give him money, Umberto quickly flips his hand over, as if testing for rain. The film is full of these small gestures that quietly emphasize the desperate loneliness and poignancy of Umberto's situation.

The acting in this film is absolutely superb. Carlo Battisti, despite having never acted before, is wonderful as the titular character; his face is a fascinating blend of stubborn dignity and weariness of life. Maria Pia-Casilio, who plays the maid, is just as good as evoking life's loneliness and quiet desperation. The supporting cast is also very strong.

One of the very few criticisms I have heard of this film is that it is too sentimental and borderline sappy. While some scenes with Umberto and his dog Flike are sentimental, never is it "too" sentimental. DeSica knows how far he can push his film without making it sappy, and he wisely shows it as it is. Nothing feels forced. The subject material itself and the simplicity in which it is presented will bring tears. (If you don't cry in this movie, you need to have your heart professionally de-thawed.) But "Umberto D" is never dumbed down into sappiness and clichéd corniness. It is a very powerful film.

"Umberto D" is the masterpiece of the Italian neo-realist era. It's a rather bleak and very realistic movie, but it makes some fascinating commentary on the human condition, specifically the loneliness we face. Highly, highly recommended. 10/10.

Enough has been said about this wonderful movie already and I'm not going to repeat what others have written at length except to say that I've just come to this film totally unprepared and now feel emotionally shattered. I've watched it as the 44th movie in a collection of 50 so-called art-house films in a DVD collection from Criterion. These allegedly "essential" movies are presented alphabetically and that is how I've viewed them, so it's taken me quite some time to get to the letter U. If I'd started with this De Sica classic I may have felt disinclined to watch any of the others!

Indeed, in a lifetime of over 50 years of watching movies - everything from the truly execrable to the totally inspirational - this is the first and only film I've ever sought to review on this site. I know there are a few detractors out there on the message-boards who cannot see beyond their own cynicism, but I pity them. This movie remains timeless, as potent as when it was made in 1952. You don't have to be old, you don't have to be a dog-lover (although it helps), and you certainly don't have to be a fan of neo-realist Italian cinema. All you have to be is a good human being. Watching this movie is a sort of 'humanity test' and thankfully most of the reviewers here have passed it.

I'm sorry, "Cinema Paradiso", you've just been relegated to Second Best Foreign Film.

An elderly retired civil servant in Rome is about to be forced onto the streets due to the loss of his pension, with only his little dog to comfort him. I'm not even a dog lover and this movie STILL got to me. I rented this on video when I was in high school and my mom ended up watching it with me. The ending (which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it yet) is the only time I can remember when we have both been crying at the same time during a movie. This is truly a beautiful film and I have to see again soon.

This is storytelling at its simplest and most beautiful. An old man - his sole companion, a dog - tries to survive on a fixed, tight income while being mistreated by his landlady.

DeSica brilliantly captures the despair of his protagonist and makes this film unforgettably powerful. This film deserves to be seen by everyone, not just those who enjoy foreign-language films.

This film is touching, memorable and manages to draw us into Umberto's life without ever becoming maudlin. The denouement is heartbreaking, but the film never lapses into sentimentality. "Umberto D" truly is one of the greatest films ever made.

This touching story of a poor man in Italy after the war. The director, De Sica has also done the masterpiece "The bicycle thief". A very good and simple film that almost perfectly shows his fight to live a decent life his last years. The end is VERY sad(still I felt it had some hope). A highly recommended film. Also Carlo Battisti's performance is masterful. 9/10

There's an old guy in my family. He's down on his luck. If you try to help him, he uses it as a quick fix and soon goes back to his old ways. He's cantankerous, self-obsessed, contrary. He can light up your day with moments of genuine kindness and cutting humour. People he used to work with would come by now and again when he retired, but gradually they drifted away, leaving him all alone. The people he comes into day-to-day contact with tend to treat him condescendingly, thinly disguising their view of him as a pest.

Every family has one such character. There is no magical solution. You can feel sorry for the guy without really liking him.

Umberto D isn't a likable character, but he is all too human. The small journey from down-at-heel to suicidal is carefully drawn in this quiet, subtle, thought-provoking film. The dog begging, the train speeding past in a whirl of dust and noise, the stranger lying to get away from Umberto's whining; these are small moments of crushing defeat for the human spirit that are finely pitched in this well-crafted film. The film may not be timeless, the score is overly-sentimental and there are jarring jump-cuts. However, the message is universal - Umberto D is an antidote to the white plight movies turned out by cookie cutters in Hollywood about rich misanthropic lawyers who have to take on bad guys. Poverty, isolation, loneliness, and a kind of redemption at the end - unfortunately, they don't make movies like this anymore.

This movie from director Vittoria de Sica is a heartbreaking story of a destitute pensioner named Umberto Ferrari and his pet dog. The pensioner cannot bring himself to tell anyone of his difficult existence or to ask for help. Set in post-war Italy of the 1940's and 50's, the neo-realist movies of this period with their on-location shooting show the grinding poverty of many people at the time. With this vivid background, we see some very tender moments in the story that illustrate the bond between the man and his dog. We also get a sense of the mood in Rome at the start as police break up a protest by pensioners fighting for a decent income. Other scenes take the viewer into a hospital where patients recite the Rosary from their beds, have lunch at a pasta diner and go home to a walk-up apartment. With Umberto pitted against his cold-hearted landlady, we see how his life is made almost unbearable. In fact, the movie is very sensitive in its depiction of this man, one of many elderly people who were by themselves with little money. In this case, the elderly man, played by Carlo Battista, has a reason for living because of his canine companion. De Sica used amateur actors and Battista was a university professor in Florence who has captured the essence of his character. De Sica made his mark as the foremost director of the neo-realist school of cinema and as an accomplished character actor in his own right. I noticed the dedication to Umberto DeSica, who was apparently his father. In this film, DeSica has certainly produced an outstanding work of art about the plight of one aged citizen in a particular time and place. Thanks to TCM for its recent showing this neo-realist classic.

After lifelong service to the fascist government, a retired worker struggles to survive on his meager pension. As with De Sica's "Bicycle Thieves," this is a simple film employing amateur actors. In the only film he ever made, Battisti is fine in the title role of a man who basically wants a bed to sleep on, but finds that society does not consider his problems relevant. Also good is Casilio as a maid who is sympathetic to Umberto's plight but has problems of her own to resolve. Nothing much happens, but this is a gentle film with moments of humor. It is ultimately a love story - the love between a man and his dog! The dog is cute.

Vittorio De Sica once remarked that why should film makers go in search of extraordinary events when in the course of their daily lives they are confronted with ordinary events of extraordinary beauty.This statement sums best the very essence of this Neorealist classic. Umberto D directed by the master Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica is a sad albeit ordinary tale of the loss of human values in Italian society after the end of second world war.Everything about the leading character Umberto D is told in an ordinary indeed prosaic manner.It is rather bizarre but mention must also be made of the poor light in which women characters have been shown.This is due to the fact that in Umberto D,both the grumpy landlady and unmarried pregnant girl representing loss of moral values are women characters directly associated with the old man.The great thing about Umberto D is its canine protagonist named Flike who serves his master so well that he even prepares to die for his master's sake.In Umberto D, by showing a faithful dog who remains loyal to his old master,Vittorio De Sica has rightly depicted that animals are more truthful than some human beings.

Umberto D. may be the single most powerful film ever made. It's pretty much impossible not to be affected by it, and I'd imagine only a monster could get through it without shedding a tear. It's not all sad, and certainly cannot be called unrelentingly depressing. There are plenty of beautifully funny moments. The main character, Umberto, is one of the greatest characters I've ever met at the movies. It would be simple to make him just a man to pity: he is a poor old man who is down on his luck. But the artists behind the film have fleshed him out into an incredibly human character. The supporting characters, even those who show up for just a moment, are just as well created. And the acting is godly. 10/10, without a second thought. It's one of the best films ever made.

This was a very touching and wrenching film. It is indeed hard to watch because everyone is so dismissive of Umberto. But people can be like that, especially in desperate times, such as post war Italy when all the money was going to rebuild churches, not feed people. Better for proud hard working Umberto to put on a brave face and quietly disappear so nobody has to worry about him or be concerned about him. At the end he did find that he and Flike still had each other, this little dog didn't care if Umberto had any pride left or not, he loved him just the same. And Umberto needed him to be reminded of the simple joys in life. A very profound and moving film.

A sad but at the same time, touching and meaningful, movie like few I have seen, I came across this gem in the cable today. But instead other movies which use all kind of possible gestures to invoke the tears of the public, this movie is a real show of humanity like I've hardly seen before.

Geez, 50 years after, this movie has not dated in its subject of loneliness and aging. In the age of selfishness, a simple display of profound human feelings like this is completely necessary.

Would hope everyone was ready to appreciate this magnificent piece of Human Art. Thanks, Vittorio.

On the heels of all the neo-realism coming from Roberto Rossellinni and others during the mid-'40s to '50s, Vittorio DeSica gives us UMBERTO D, a film that tells the story of an aged man's devotion to his pet dog but no means of providing food and shelter for himself during hard times due to a small pension. The indifference to his plight from a hard-hearted landlord lady provides the conflict.

His only human relationship is with a young girl who happens to be pregnant and works as a maid in the apartment building he inhabits. Their relationship is at the core of the sub-plot that runs through the simple story and is nicely handled.

The scenes with the dog are poignant and tender moments that give the story some sense of depth, but DeSica ends his film on an ambiguous note after a heart-wrenching moment when the man tries to give the dog away to a happy child--and then almost takes his own life before an oncoming train when the dog manages to escape his clutches--and in doing, saves his life.

However, the final scene of reunion between dog and master doesn't really resolve the situation and it's here that the film is a letdown for this viewer. There is no future for either of them, so it's essentially a bleak ending to a sad situation. It's also a manipulation of audience sympathy.

Despite its faults, this is a sometimes moving and eloquent but somber look at the desperation of one man's old age.

Labeled by some as the "epitome of world cinema", Neorealism is perhaps tautologically represented by its appeal to genuineness - a call to realism, a display of actual life. Italian Neorealist films like De Sica's Umberto D. embody this overarching value, made apparent by many deliberate choices in production. Top-billed actors in this film are truly not actors at all, but brought to the screen on appearance alone. They live out their own stories, as true to the self as they possibly can be, realizing this powerful authenticity. Antagonists, interestingly, are professional actors cast opposite their usual roles, allowing a small inconsistency with this effort that, to a knowledgeable audience, would provide a short, yet sharp, dose of excitement. The most notable Neorealist pillar shown in Umberto D., however (aside from its setting at the Pantheon, of course), is its use of plot that is not exactly extravagant. The film is about a government retiree, and his loyal, canine companion, who struggle to make ends meet on his pension. A brief side plot exists as he interacts with his building's maid, and these are, more or less, the only large-scale stories told. To borrow from the television series Seinfeld, it's a film "about nothing" - but by telling this seemingly commonplace tale, De Sica opens this life and setting up to something beautiful. The simple story is mirrored by simple shots that other films, including those that came after this movement, would not dare. In one scene, the maid grinds coffee grounds - a task that would, in other films, take seconds - but in Umberto D., it is drawn out to its appropriate, real-life length. Seemingly banal details, like the building's ants, are shown with great intricacy. By placing emphasis on the minutia of day-to-day life, De Sica embodies us in the story, and it overflows with authenticity, making it seem as though the audience could jump through the screen and truly live these moments with the characters.