Word: sica
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Directed by VITTORIO DE SICA...
...small and simple thing, this last film by the late Vittorio De Sica. Clara (Florinda Bolkan) is a poor, feverishly depressed and angry woman, the sole support of a numerous, ne'er-do-well family. One day she collapses in the heat and clamor of the factory, where she works at the hardest but best-paying job. The doctor at the clinic to which she reluctantly reports diagnoses her fever as something more than a metaphor; it is a symptom of tuberculosis. Over the objections of husband and in-laws, she goes to the state-supported sanatorium...
...between this thought-provoking silence and the numbing intrusions on her spirit that we have witnessed in the film's opening sections could not be more vividly evoked. In a directorial career devoted largely to exploring the ways poverty assaults dignity (Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D), De Sica may have made more forceful statements, but never a more poignant one than he does here with the exquisite assistance of Florinda Bolkan...
...Sica, in his old age, allowed himself a note of ambiguity on this point, ending his film with a thoughtful closeup of Clara on the train bearing her back to reality. It seems just possible that besides restoring her physical health, her brief vacation may also have strengthened her mental balance. The energy formerly burned in impotent rage may possibly be turned outward, in an effort to make a permanent purchase on the modestly decent life she has been permitted to glimpse...
...that is left unclear. But it is certain that De Sica's last collaboration with his old colleague Cesare Zavattini is a wise, delicate and moving work, a worthy ending for an extraordinarily valuable career. ∎Richard Schickel