The Children Are Watching Us (1943)

 Vittorio De Sica's "The Children Are Watching Us"

Although Vittorio De Sica's 1943 breakthrough film "The Children Are Watching Us" is not of the same grain as many of his Italian neo-realist films to follow, it still bears some merit and remains De Sica's first stamp as a true auteur. The film was made while Italy was still under the fascist regime. In this way, the film could be seen as an extension of this regime. After all, the film iterates the importance of Italian citizens to be on their best behavior, as 'the children are watching,' after all. However, De Sica does something with the film that turns it into something more than just a moral instruct. It's a film about the disintegration of a family, the dismissive way we treat children, our selfish nature, and the trauma put upon a young child.

The film centers on a young Italian boy who lives with his middle class parents and their servant Agnese. After the boy's mother leaves in the middle of the night to pursue a romantic relationship with a man she's been having an affair with, the young boy is left sad and heartbroken with his despondent father and Agnese. The boy's father takes him to his aunt who will not have him. He then takes him to his grandmother who is brutish and angry that the boy is around. After an incident in which he accidentally pushed a vase onto his cousin's head. After the father takes him back, the mother comes back to be with her son again. After continuing to work on their relationship, the family go on vacation to a beachside motel. After running into her old lover, the mother leaves once again and abandons her family. The father feels he has no choice but to enroll his son in a boarding school. The film ends with him abandoned by everyone. 

While watching the film, I noticed very subtle similarities to Francois Truffaut's 1959 masterpiece "The 400 Blows." Particularly, the whole plotline involving a son's perspective of his mother's infidelity towards an innocent father. There is even a particular shot that seems to resemble Truffaut's film. The scene in which the young boy is running along the beach has a very similar style to the scene of Truffaut's Antoine running along the beach, both boys trying to escape their situation. 

A lot of the film's visual style is very different from the neo-realist style De Sica would come to be known for later. A large reason for this is because this film was still financed and under the umbrella of the powerful fascist government. Neo-realist cinema, out of necessity, was not so funded and required cheap production, unskilled actors, and a visual realness that made neo-realism what it was. "The Children Are Watching Us" used professional actors and studio sets. Because of this, the visual style of the film feels more like an Italian melodrama. 

Despite the lack of proximity to the neo-realist movement, "The Children Are Watching Us" still feels very much like a De Sica film (along with his writing partner Cesare Zavattini). The tragic fate of the characters, along with the heightened melodrama through the eyes of this young child create a depressing tale only fit for De Sica's common themes. It's a film well worth a watch and is the ignition point for the career of one of Italy's greatest filmmakers.