An international breakthrough for neorealism, Vittorio De Sica's Academy Awardwinning film is an indelible fable of innocence lost amid the hardscrabble reality of 1940s Italy. On the streets of Rome, two boysbest friends Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi)set out to raise the money to buy a horse by shining shoes. When they are inadvertently caught up in a robbery and sent to a brutal juvenile detention centre, their loyalty to each other is severely tested. A devastating portrait of economic struggle made all the more haunting by its child's-eye perspective, Shoeshine stands as one of the defining achievements of postwar Italian filmmaking.An international breakthrough for neorealism, Vittorio De Sica's Academy Awardwinning film is an indelible fable of innocence lost amid the hardscrabble reality of 1940s Italy. On the streets of Rome, two boysbest friends Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi)set out to raise the money to buy a horse by shining shoes. When they are inadvertently caught up in a robbery and sent to a brutal juvenile detention centre, their loyalty to each other is severely tested. A devastating portrait of economic struggle made all the more haunting by its child's-eye perspective, Shoeshine stands as one of the defining achievements of postwar Italian filmmaking. Italy 1946 91 minutes Black & White 1.37:1 ItalianSpine #1272 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, undertaken by The Film Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Sciuscià 70 (2016), a documentary by Mimmo Verdesca, made to mark the film's seventieth anniversary New program on Shoeshine and children in Italian neorealism featuring film scholars Paola Bonifazio and Catherine O'Rawe Radio broadcast from 1946 featuring director Vittorio De Sica Trailer New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Forgacs and Shoeshine, Joe?, a 1945 photo-documentary by De Sica New cover by F. Ron Miller
Directed by Vittorio De Sica Shoeshine (known in its native Italian language as Sciuscia a Sicilian corruption of the English word ""shoe-shiner"") was filmed on location in postwar Rome using non-professional actors. It was inspired by the real stories of those struggling to overcome the oppressive forces of a corrupt and ineffective political system. De Sica's film depicts the troubled lives of two young boys caught up in the chaos of a world plagued by poverty and unemployment. Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi) work on the street where they shine the shoes of American troops. They dream of a better life seeking solace in a horse that they ride to escape their harsh reality. When the boys are implicated in a petty crime they are punished by the society that has robbed them of their innocence resulting in tragic consequences. Shoeshine is widely regarded as one of the finest films to have emerged from the Italian neo-realist cinema and became the first foreign language film to receive an Oscar; available for the first time ever on DVD!
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