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 alrea...

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