| Shoeshine | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Vittorio De Sica |
| Written by | Sergio Amidei Adolfo Franci Cesare Giulio Viola Cesare Zavattini |
| Produced by | Giuseppe Amato Paolo William Tamburella |
| Starring | Franco Interlenghi Rinaldo Smordoni Annielo Mele Bruno Ortenzi Emilio Cigoli |
| Cinematography | Anchise Brizzi |
| Edited by | Niccolò Lazzari |
| Music by | Alessandro Cicognini |
| Distributed by | ENIC[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian/English |
| Box office | $34,677[2] |
Shoeshine (Italian:Sciuscià[ʃuʃˈʃa], fromNeapolitan pronunciation of the English) is a 1946 Italian film directed byVittorio De Sica. Sometimes regarded as his first masterpiece, the film follows twoshoeshine boys who get into trouble with the police after trying to find the money to buy a horse.
In 2008, the film was included on theItalian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[3]
Shoeshine became the first film to win theAcademy Award for Best International Feature Film at the20th Academy Awards in 1947.
Two friends, Giuseppe Filippucci and Pasquale Maggi, test-ridehorses. They are saving to purchase a horse, although they are only living off their income from shining shoes in the streets ofRome.
One day Giuseppe's older brother, Attilio, visits the boys and tells them that Panza (afence) has some work for them. Pasquale brings Giuseppe along to meet Panza, who gives them two blankets to sell. Giuseppe and Pasquale take the blankets to afortune teller, who buys them. After the sale, Panza, Attilio, and another man burst into the fortune teller's house, posing as policemen. They accuse the fortune teller ofhandling stolen goods, and finding Giuseppe and Pasquale, force them out and pretend to take them into custody. Attilio tells the boys to go away and keep quiet, letting them keep theblanketmoney (2,800lira) as well as 3,000 additional lira. With this money, the boys have enough to finally buy a horse.
After purchasing their horse and riding it, the boys return to the city. There the realpolice, accompanied by the fortune teller, bring them into the precinct for questioning. The police accuse the boys of stealing 700,000 lira from the fortune teller's home, which obviously was stolen by Panza and Attilio, posing as the policemen. The boys deny all charges and do not mention their knowledge of the three truecon men. Giuseppe and Pasquale are sent to ajuvenile detention center. On arrival, Giuseppe and Pasquale are separated.
The con men send Giuseppe a parcel filled with food and he shares it with his fellow inmates in his own cell. Another inmate, Arcangeli, finds a note in a piece of the bread Giuseppe shares. It is from Attilio's boss, and it instructs him not to expose his brother and comrades regarding the con. Giuseppe informs Pasquale; they agree not to divulge the truth.
Later, the boys are called into the police chief's office for questioning. Frustrated, the chief threatens tobeat the information out of them. Another policeman takes Giuseppe into a side room to beat him. Hidden from Pasquale's view, Giuseppe is taken back to his cell but is not beaten. Instead, a policeman beats a sandbag with a belt, while another child pretends to be Giuseppe screaming in pain. Pasquale, to stop what he thinks is the beating of his friend, reveals the names of Panza and Attilio to the police chief.
Giuseppe discovers that Pasquale betrayed his brother, and he confronts Pasquale in front of the other inmates.
A file is planted in Pasquale's cell, and Pasquale is flogged. At their official court hearing, Giuseppe and Pasquale are respectively sentenced to one and two years in prison. Giuseppe commits to Arcangeli's[4] escape plan. While a movie is being shown in the prison, they escape.
Pasquale tells the police chief where Giuseppe and Arcangeli went and leads them to where the horse is kept, but they get away on the horse. Pasquale runs off and finds Giuseppe and Arcangeli riding on their horse across a bridge. They dismount, and Arcangeli flees, but Giuseppe stays. Pasquale takes off his belt and starts to flog Giuseppe. Giuseppe falls off the bridge and hits his head on the rocks below and is apparently killed. Pasquale cries over his fallen friend's body as the police arrive and the horse trots off.
Upon its release,Shoeshine received critical acclaim both in Italy and internationally. Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 7 reviews, with an average score of 8.8/10.[5]
The film's use of non-professional actors, on-location shooting, and a focus on the struggles of ordinary people were characteristic of theneorealist style. Critics praised the film for its powerful storytelling, authentic performances, and social commentary. The performances of the two young leads, Rinaldo Smordoni (Giuseppe) and Franco Interlenghi (Pasquale), were particularly lauded for their naturalism and emotional depth.
Commercially, the film performed well in Italy, drawing large audiences and becoming a significant box office success. Its critical acclaim and Oscar win likely contributed to its continued success in international markets, further establishing Italian neorealism as a significant cinematic movement.
Shoeshine is one of the earlyItalian neorealist films. In 1948, it received an Honorary Award at theAcademy Awards for its high quality. This award was the precursor of what would later become theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Pauline Kael, in a 1961 review published, commented: "Life, asShoeshine demonstrates, is too complex for facile endings.Shoeshine was not conceived in the patterns of romance or melodrama; it is one of those rare works of art which seem to emerge from the welter of human experience without smoothing away the raw edges, or losing what most movies lose — the sense of confusion and accident in human affairs...The greatness ofShoeshine is in that feeling we get of human emotions that have not been worked-over and worked-into something (a pattern? a structure?) and cannot really be comprised in such a structure. We receive something more naked, something that pours out of the screen...Shoeshine has a sweetness and a simplicity that suggest greatness of feeling, and this is so rare in film works that to cite a comparison one searches beyond the medium — ifMozart had written an opera set in poverty, it might have had this kind of painful beauty...This tragic study of the corruption of innocence is intense, compassionate, and above all, humane."[4]
Orson Welles said ofShoeshine: "What De Sica can do, that I can’t do. I ran hisShoeshine again recently and the camera disappeared, the screen disappeared; it was just life.”
The film inspired the comic book seriesSciuscià, which ran from 1949 to 1956.[6]
