BITTER RICE   1949
(Riso Amaro)
Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
108 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles

One of the first masterpieces of Italian cinema and a forerunner of great things to come, this seductive gem taps into both the sensuality and desperation of post-war Italy. This is quite an amazing experience in that regard—despite all the poverty and hard work to survive, who can deny the dark eroticism seething under the surface of this flick? Maybe that is one of our problems in the modern world... we have achieved an easier lifestyle, but what has happened to poetry and eroticism?

Bitter Rice is set during the rice-planting season in northern Italy, and follows the circumstances of a two-bit thief (Vittorio Gassman) and a woman who falls fatally in love with him. It is one part neo-realism and one part melodrama, laced with politics and sensuality. It stars 18-year-old Silvana Mangano who simply sets the screen on fire, giving one of the most voluptuous performances in cinema history - a fusion of earthy passion and post-war cynicism. Silvana Mangano was a force of nature—without any stylized actor training, they just threw her in the film and let her explode. But at the same time director Giuseppe De Santis kept his finger on the beating pulse of the sweating proletariat... somehow fusing together Catholicism, sex and Marxism. Talking about dialectics! Totally melodramatic, gutsy, sensual, socially engaged, electrifying.

This will be a glorious high-definition screening.