De Sica neorealist classic is the heartbreaking story of an elderly man and his faithful dog
UMBERTO D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Wednesday, August 27, free, 7:00 (rescheduled from Wednesday, July 23)
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org
We don’t think we’ll ever stop crying. Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist masterpiece Umberto D. stars Carlo Battisti (a professor whom De Sica saw one day and thought would be perfect for the lead role; it would be Battisti’s only film) as Umberto Domenico Ferrari, an elderly former bureaucrat who is too proud to sacrifice his dignity in order to pay his mean-spirited landlady (Lina Gennari), who rents out his room by the hour while he’s out walking his beloved dog, Flag, and trying to find some way to get money and food. Umberto D. is befriended by the boardinghouse maid (Maria Pia Casilio), who is pregnant with the child of one of two servicemen, neither of whom wants to have anything to do with her. As Umberto D.’s options start running out, he considers desperate measures to free himself from his loneliness and poverty. His relationship with Flag is one of the most moving in cinema history. Don’t miss this remarkable achievement, which was lovingly restored last decade by eighty-six-year-old lighting specialist Vincenzo Verzini, known as Little Giotto. Umberto D. is screening July 23 in Long Island City as part of Socrates Sculpture Park’s free summer Outdoor Cinema series and will be preceded by live music; Italian food from Pomegranate will be available for purchase as well. The sixteenth annual series continues through August 27 with such other international fare as Matías Piñeiro’s Viola, Linda Västrik’s Forest of the Dancing Spirits, and Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins. [Program note: Umberto D. has been rescheduled as part of a double feature August 27 with Maxim Pozdorovkin and Mike Lerner’s Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.]