alr

Umberto D.

Screening on Film
Directed by Vittorio De Sica.
With Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari.
Italy, 1952, 35mm, black & white, 89 min.
Italian with English subtitles.

A powerful diary of loneliness and old age written by the palsied hand of slow suffering, Umberto D. tells the story of an elderly man struggling for dignity and survival in a society indifferent to the needs of its frailest members. Cruelly marginalized and eventually forced onto the streets, with only his dog for companionship, Umberto is victim to an impersonal, uncaring state and a petty, hardhearted society. With minimal dialogue and a small cast of nonprofessionals, De Sica uses Carlo Battisti’s devastating performance as Umberto, the atmospheric streets of Rome and G.R. Aldo’s brilliantly crepuscular cinematography to etch an emotionally resonant portrait of societal breakdown as a quiet yet terrifyingly absolute disintegration.

Part of film series

Read more

Vittorio De Sica. Neorealism, Melodrama, Fantasy

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2024 McMillan-Stewart Fellow

Read more

The Practice (and Other Works) By Martín Rejtman

Read more

Chronicles of Changing Times. The Cinema of Edward Yang

Read more
Gene Hackman crouched beside a toilet with audio equipment

From the HFA Collection...

Read more

Being In a Place. Rediscovering Margaret Tait