Fourth session of the new film and talks programme Um Filme Falado: Oliveira e a História do Cinema (A Talking Picture: Oliveira and the History of the Cinema), conceived and moderated by Anabela Mota Ribeiro. This programme, dedicated to the relationship between various significant moments and trends in the history of cinema and the work of Manoel de Oliveira, proceeds with the theme Neorealism, with a screening of the Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D (1952). After the screening, there will be a conversation with photographer André Cepeda and film researcher Cristina Fernandes, moderated by Anabela Mota Ribeiro.

14 JUN | SAT | 5PM

NEOREALISM

UMBERTO D

Vittorio De Sica | ITA | 1952 | 89’

If actor-turned-filmmaker Vittorio De Sica is a central figure in Italian neorealism, so is Cesare Zavattini, screenwriter of Umberto D and many other landmark films from the same period, making him one of the main ideologues of neorealism. Umberto D is one of the cardinal points of Zavattini's ethical and aesthetic program: filmed in Rome as it was still recovering from the post-war period, and starring non-actor Carlo Battisti, Umberto D presents a kind of Chaplinesque plot transposed to the concrete environment of post-war Italy, where a retired civil servant tries to survive and maintain his dignity under the threat of being evicted from his rented room. The pessimistic impact of the film was such that the conservative Giulio Andreotti, at the time undersecretary of the council presidency (and responsible for Italian film production), wrote an open letter to De Sica, accusing him of “doing the country a disservice”.