Bitter Rice

Riso amaro

Nominated for an Academy Award and harshly condemned by the church, this drama attracted international acclaim and success, rightfully earning its place in the history of neorealist cinema.

  • Director

    Giuseppe De Santis

  • With

    Silvana Mangano, Doris Dowling, Vittorio Gassman, Raf Vallone

  • Italy 1949. 105min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    PG

  • English subtitles

On the run from the law, a thief and his girlfriend hide among rice workers in rural northern Italy. This portrait of exploitation of women in rice fields, as they start to develop a political conscience, diverges from neorealist style with its noir aesthetics, dark sensuality and violent melodrama. It made Silvana Mangano, as spellbinding in the film’s dance sequences as she is elsewhere, an international icon.

35mm courtesy of Cinecittà.

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