The Roof (1956)

 Vittorio De Sica's "The Roof"

Vittorio De Sica's "The Roof" has everything you need for a De Sica film. It is neo-realist, centers on people under economically destitute circumstances, and critiques the environment that conforms its characters to these conditions. On paper, it is a knockout. However, I felt this has been the weakest De Sica film I've encountered thus far. That's not to say that "The Roof" is a poor film. On the contrary, I enjoyed it. I am simply saying that it doesn't not live up to the magic of De Sica's greatest. 

The film centers on a newlywed couple who don't have a permanent place to live. Due to a loophole in the law, as long as they can construct a house in an entire night by morning (and it has a roof), they cannot be evicted. They attempt to construct a shack on the outskirts of Rome with a little help from their friends. 

"The Roof" is definitely a noteworthy film in De Sica's filmography. Because everything about the film works on paper, and is utterly steeped in the Italian neo-realist style, one would think this would be a slam dunk. However, by 1956, the Italian neo-realist style was now over a decade old. Neo-realism would never go away and still isn't dead today. However, the staleness with which neo-realist cinema has acquired by 1956 perhaps needed a revamp. The dying of this movement ushered in a new movement in cinema, the new wave movement by the French. Perhaps "The Roof" is proof that no style goes unscathed by staleness, even despite checking all the boxes.