Now on DVD – Tony Zaza

Now on DVD

Tony Zaza
 

This
startling transfer to DVD preserves the essential mastery of Vittorio De Sica
in its presentation of his deep-focus black and white cinematography that made
use of actual locations using a portable camera and natural light. To have
achieved this exquisite deep composition with available light is simply a
moment of cinema magic and a landmark of technical virtuosity.

A film of
great humility about an aging Italian pensioner, Umberto D
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’> centers on the essential
attributes that make us human and relegates sentimentality to the streets from
which the film gains much of its sense of authenticity and truth. In the
neo-realist tradition that ended sadly with this film, defects of character as
well as of society are as important as the clich�s of experience, defining the
background characters.

Propelled by the underlying serenity of loneliness,
Umberto struggles, sometimes with joy and sometimes with bitterness, against
the forces of indifference and a society that has become disagreeably inhabited
by the self-centered and self-indulgent.
The film works as a metaphor for the post-war malaise that stagnated in
Italy and desensitized a nation trying, like Umberto, to salvage his dignity
and rebuild a life of comfort.  De
Sica’s stunningly inventive conclusion has Umberto’s little dog become the pawn
in a final conflict of compromise and sacrifice where a man and a nation
wrestles with self-preservation and social justice.