Bitter Rice (1949)

 Giuseppe De Santis' "Bitter Rice"

Perhaps one of the more melodramatic Italian neo-realist films I've ever seen is Giuseppe De Santis' "Bitter Rice." Despite its melodrama, the film is completely in line with the themes typical with neo-realist cinema. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis and starring his wife Silvana Mangano, the film would go on to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, nominated for Best Story at the 1950 Academy Awards, and is included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."

"Bitter Rice" centers on Francesca and Walter, two small-time thieves who must hide from the law among the crowds of female rice workers working in the Po Valley. Francesca joins the workers and meets the overtly sexual and beautiful Silvana, who attempts to steal the already stolen necklace from the couple. In doing so, Francesca and Silvana begin to rival, both representing the 'legal' vs 'illegal' rice workers and both rivaling in terms of falling in love with each other's partners. Excited by Walter's criminal lifestyle, Silvana joins him in his attempt to steal the rice cultivated by the workers, with the benefit of attaining the necklace. Francesca, now feeling a sense of comradery with the workers, attempts to prevent Walter and Silvana from ruining the workers' hard work.

In 1949, there were plenty of films around the globe in which the themes dealt with American cultural colonization in the post-war landscape. For example, Yasujiro Ozu's "Late Spring" deals indirectly with this phenomenon and so too does Jacques Tati's "Jour de Fete." "Bitter Rice" is no different, specifically through the Silvana character. Silvana seems to model the allure and behavior of American movie stars. For example, her gum chewing and boodie-woogie dancing are just some examples of intended behaviors that are meant to represent the Americanization of the new global landscape. She is American capitalism infiltrating the Italian landscape. Even though she is a worker amongst the other workers, her brazen sexuality and greed disrupt the collectivism of the group. On top of this, her character as a concept disrupts the neo-realism of the film itself. With her character and behaviors come the infusion of melodrama, which diverges greatly from neo-realism and its intended purpose. Neo-realism is a mechanism to demonstrate the stark reality for the impoverished and oppressed. In this case, the rice field workers. However, with Silvana, the story shifts melodramatically to her greedy desires and pursuits and warps the fabric of the film into something resembling a Hollywood picture. 

What I take away most in the story is the frustrating new life for the laborer. Having to work under contract in the rice fields, the illegals and legals are pitted against each other for the purposes of making more money (another example of American capitalism's influence). The illegals are told if they work hard enough, they could be hired on. Seeing this, the legals work even harder to prevent the illegals from making them look bad. In the end, both parties work more for less money and the businessmen get more cheap labor. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed "Bitter Rice." The divergence to melodrama at the end seemed to lose me a little bit, despite the objective understanding of its introduction to the tone. Despite this, I felt it was a wonderful inclusion into the neo-realist cinema that had come out of Italy in the 1940s.