“BITTER RICE”     1948 directed by Vittorio De Sica – Italian cinema.  (review by Katherine “Kate” Pulzone

I saw this movie years ago back in New Jersey, before cable hit the population and was glued to the story.  I am pleased to see you can purchase this rare gem of a film.

This is a fascinating Italian cinema right after World War II. Sylvana Mangano is gorgeous as a bad girl who joins the small army of "rice girls" who suffer through back-breaking work to earn extra money during the rice season. Vittoria Gassman is sexy as an evil con-man. Typical great camera work and earthy as Italian post-war cinema was after WWII.  The performances were terrific and so real, you forgot it was a movie but felt like a home movie from a local. 

This movie was also one of Italy's most commercially successful films and packed theaters around the world despite being banned by the Legion of Decency in the United States. (The word “bra” was actually spoken which was considered a no-no back then.)  Foreign movies that reach the U.S. stay on the “top” showing list longer because of the time it’s in theaters world-wide, however, it enhanced the popularity because it was in movie theaters for so long.  Although this movie was intended to show the harsh conditions endured by women laboring in Italy's rice fields, the film's enormous popularity was largely because of the erotic young Silvana Mangano. (She was a former Miss Rome) and became a star overnight for her debut as an impoverished yet voluptuous laborer who turns down the chance to emigrate to a better life in South America in favor of a steamy affair with her best friend's lover.

If you can get your hands on this movie, please rent it, buy it – try Netflix, Barnes & Noble, Critics Choice or the many movie houses.  Make sure it’s adaptable to the U.S. VCR’s or DVD players.  Also, don’t get the English dubbed version but rather get it in Italian with English subtitles.  (I recommend this for all Italian films – dubbed in English gets lost in translation.)