I bambini ci guardano
Tags: bleak

Plot synopsis:
After spending the day at the park with her son, Prico (Luciano de Ambrosis), Nina (Isa Pola) leaves the family to be with her lover, Roberto (Adriano Rimoldi). Embarrassed at being the subject of gossip in their condominium building, Prico's father Andrea (Emilio Cigoli) sends his son to stay with Nina's sister (Dina Perbellini) and then with his severe mother (Ione Fregiro) who thinks Andrea married beneath his station. When the sensitive Prico takes ill, Nina returns to the family, much to Roberto's dispeasure. Andrea is at first cold to her but under the influence of Prico, who clearly blossoms in his mother's presence, he agrees to reconcile with her. When Roberto comes to the apartment to beg Nina to return him, he strikes Prico. Nina kicks him out. She makes Prico promise not to tell Andrea that Roberto had been at the apartment.The family goes to Alassio, a resort town on the Italian Riviera. There they meet people of the upper class, including the shallow Dada (Claudia Marti) and her friend Mimi (uncredited) who is attracted to Nina. Andrea must return to Rome ahead of Nina and Prico. Dada invites Nina to dinner so Mimi can woo her back to his villa. Instead she learns that Roberto has tracked her to Alassio. She agrees to spend the next three days with him, and ignores Prico. When Prico sees her cuddling on the beach with Roberto, he runs away. The police find him on the beach and reunite him with Nina. When she and Prico return to Rome, she drops him off at the condominium and drives away to be with Roberto.Although the maid, Agnese (Giovanna Cigoli) offers to take care of Prico, Andrea elects to send him to a Catholic boarding school. Shortly thereafter, Andrea is killed. Nina goes to the boarding school to comfort Prico. Crying but no longer able to trust his mother, Prico walks away from her.

Review: This distinguishes the film from the better known Italian neo realist works which typically take place against a backdrop of poverty and deprivation.
The story is seen through the eyes of their young son, Prico.Far more obscure than de Sica's other work, this is still nonetheless a classic because it endures, the story could take place just as easily today, with a few minor adjustments of clothing and details.I don t agree this film is sentimental, it manages to stay just the right side of mawkishness.
The sign of a genius director that De Sica was able to manage the logistics of the crew, the equipment and coax this sort of performance out of a four year old.This film put me in mind of Brief Encounter and it would be interesting to watch the two alongside.
We know at once that the hurt to Prico is more emotional than physical, and we sympathize, but at the same time we also are drawn into the father's anguish that has brought him to this abuse.
The moment is brief but hits home because it is well prepared for.Of course the story through the boy's eye is the film through De Sica's lens, and it is always a revealing lens, emotionally caught up, frequently looking around corners or looking up at adult gossip.
It's a bit melodramatic in parts but filled with scene after scene of immortal, poignant truths not only about the way a child sees adults but the way everyone sees everyone else in reality and in the 'real world' where purity of soul and honesty matters and is always heroic, where as Pascal wrote, man's greatness is so obvious it can even be deduced from his wretchedness.
Even if De Sica hadn't gone on to make "Shoeshine," "Bicycle Thief," and "Umberto D" he already had enough in this one little film to earn respect as one of the supreme artists of the 20th century..
THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US might be our favorite De Sica film and one of our favorite Italian films of all time.
It portrays with delicate sympathy the suffering of a child whose parents are separated because of the mother's love affair with another man.
While the husband and wife are perfectly portrayed, by Emilio Cigoli and Isa Pola, the film belongs to little Luciano De Ambrosis as the five-year-old Prico'.
But of course it was director De Sica who was to work miracles later with the child actors of SHOE SHINE and THE BICYCLE THIEF.
It also was the impetus for me to watch more of de Sica's films and then those of Rossellini and Fellini.A terrific 'tear-jerker' which SHOULD NOT BE MISSED if you ever get the chance.
De Sica's first Neo-Realist film had been neglected over the years and, so, it was a surprise to see it being added to "The Criterion Collection".
Ultimately, it's not up to his later more celebrated quartet - SHOESHINE (1946), THE BICYCLE THIEF (1948), MIRACLE IN MILAN (1951) and UMBERTO D (1952) - but, taken on its own modest merits, it's a reasonably effective work coming from an actor best-known for light fare!
As indicated by the title, the narrative is seen through the eyes of the sensitive young son of a working-class couple; the mother is having an affair and the boy is witness to - and the victim of - the inevitable disintegrating family ties, being bounced around from the household of one begrudging relative to another.
The couple make a determined effort to stay together for the sake of the child (having to contend, besides, with the nosy and gossiping tenants of their condominium) - but the impetuous young man who has come between man and wife won't give her up so easily, and he finally manages to tear her from them for good.
In desperation, the husband commits suicide&#8230;The plot is pretty melodramatic and the film is infused with a good deal of sentimentality (there are plenty of close-ups of the boy weeping his heart out, for instance); clearly, De Sica's hand isn't confident as yet in juggling the various elements that comprise such slices-of-life - for one thing, he has used actors rather than the non-professionals who would come to serve him in good stead in his subsequent Neo-Realist classics.
Vittorio De Sica, at this time better known for being in front of the camera, started to come into his own as a director with this touching story of a family coming apart at the seams in 1940s Italy.
The story centers around Luciano De Ambrosis as Prico, a young child who must suffer the consequences of his parents' actions, specifically his mother.
Her decision to run away with her lover causes serious turmoil amongst the father and son as well as her sister and the grandmother.De Sica tells most of the story from the child's point of view, which causes the audience to sympathize with Prico and the father.
At times it is almost too hard to watch; to see these people tear themselves from each other is almost unbearable, but De Sica has style and grace in his visuals, which makes it more emotional than difficult.This was the launching point for De Sica, who would go on to direct The Bicycle Thief and Umberto D.
While not his strongest, this is certainly a very good film that captures child memories and disturbances and makes us brace for them as much as Prico does..
Adults Behave Badly in The Children are Watching Us. Before his historical foray into neorealism Vittorio De Sica made this melodramatic tear jerker about a child witnessing the break-up of his parent's marriage in 1942 Italy.
As in Shoeshine and Bicycle Thief he employs a child as the major protagonist and shoots most of the film from the boy's point of view.
His mother, Nina, is also nurturing but caught up in a passionate affair with Roberto an impetuous lover whose selfish actions are all the more grotesque from Prico's vantage point.
Eventually Nina returns and the family begins to heal together but Roberto re-enters the picture where once again Nina's role as mother and wife are challenged.Considering the era and place (Fascist Italy) The Children are Watching Us is an audacious film for its time.
What separates it from similar formulaic tepid melodramas of the period is De Sica's decision to arrange it around the child's subjective viewpoint and to have the infidelity occur with the mother.
But even with all the benefits of the privileged child, Prico's painful experience is conveyed in the same stylistic subjectivity of jump cuts and revealing tracking shots that give the neorealist works their form and much of their power.
The director focuses on his eyes to remind us that children see (and sense) more than adults think they do.It has been written that the action of this movie is filmed from the child's point of view, but this is not technically correct.
What makes this film different is that the camera continually returns to the child and focuses on his actions, which are obviously in response to the actions of the adults.
Other films have centered on children, but The Children Are Watching Us juxtaposes and intertwines the actions of the adults and the actions of the child, creating a clear cause and effect relationship between the two.The son, Prico, has little control over the events of his life.
Sometimes the camera focuses on the magnitude of buildings or spaces, emphasizing the smallness of a child.This is a film that drags emotions out of the viewer by emphasizing the helplessness of children and the universality of its theme..
"The Children Are Watching Us" (1944) was the first film De Sica made in collaboration with the screenwriter Cesare Zavattini with whom he later made most of his films.
In this film, he immerses into the realm of the child's gaze.Although all the ingredients for a banal melodrama are present, De Sica eludes them with elegance.
Some may consider the adult characters of this divorce drama thin or black and white, and while this may be true, it is perfectly justified just as well because De Sica defines them by the child's point of view.
A certain climax of this theme of watching can be seen in the scene where the boy and his father remain quiet, but experience a moment of understanding which De Sica depicts only by using extreme close-ups of their honest faces.
This is equivalent with the philosophy of De Sica's masterpiece "Bicycle Thieves" (1948) where a child character is used as a moral observer or, should I say, the protagonist's moral conscience.
In fact, a film historian Peter Bondanella has well noted that Roberto Rossellini's manifesto film of Italian neo-realism, "Rome, Open City" (1945) established children as the symbol for the future of Italy as a nation.
This is evident in many films from the era and especially in De Sica's "Shoeshine" (1946) where boys must kneel down before American soldiers to shine their shoes.
Once in a great while, a child actor and a director are perfectly matched so that the child delivers an indelible performance that etches itself firmly into film history, as Jean-Pierre Leaud did for Truffault in The 400 Blows, or Haley Joel Osment accomplished for Shamalyan in The Sixth Sense; The child Luciano De Ambrosis performs with an incredible sensitivity to the insensitive adults around him, a mother and father who search for their own bliss while forgetting their child's well-being.
Because it was released during WWII in Italy, DeSica's early effort did not receive the kudos it deserved, but deserves to rank in the pantheon with Bicycle Thief and Umberto D; it's a simple story of learning bitter lessons, with a memorable, well-defined sense of time and atmosphere..
However, life deals Prico an emotional blow and he is forced to make a choice....It's a film about a kid so .....guess what......it's not very interesting.
The film builds towards a poignant moment and the story leans towards the more tragic interpretation......in reality, things will be fine, especially once the kid starts taking drugs to forget that his mum has given him the name Prick..
This movie displays an adult world caught up in its own silly preoccupations, where children are merely nuisances.
The boy's mother goes so far as to leave her son and husband to run off with a boyfriend.
The Beginning of It All. A four-year old boy, Pricò, becomes the subject of emotional folly by his fluctuant parents and inattentive relatives.Peter Brunette notes, "The Children Are Watching Us marks the first full blossoming of one of the most fruitful collaborations in world cinema history.
The brilliant pairing of legendary Italian actor and hitherto commercial director Vittorio DeSica with Cesare Zavattini, the talented screenwriter who was to become the chief theorist of the neorealist movement that flourished in Italy right after World War II, created a synergy of magnificent proportions, which allowed each man to transcend his own individual limitations." So, Brunette might be a little flowery with his prose, but he is spot on.
Competes with "Bicycle Thief" for best De Sica film.
The child acting performance of Luciano De Ambrosis is legendary, and I fail to think of a better child performance in film history ('Shoeshine' had some good performances, as well).
He would go on to direct at least two genuine masterpieces (and others might include other films that I either had a problem with or I haven't yet seen, e.g., Shoeshine), The Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D.
The Children are Watching has a couple of flaws, but it ends up being so emotionally powerful that those might escape you.Like The Bicycle Thieves (and like Shoeshine, from what I hear), The Children are Watching takes the point of view of a young child, Prico.
His parents' marriage is falling apart - his mother is in love with (and eventually leaves with) her lover, Roberto.
Eventually, after Prico gets deathly ill (a fever hallucination that the boy has seems suspiciously like Dorothy's tornado fantasy in The Wizard of Oz to me - even some of the music seemed similar; hmmm...), his mother returns because she can't stand being away from her son.
After a few months, Prico has recovered and his father and mother have begun to love each other again.The main flaw of this film is the fact that, because the point of view so adamantly sticks to Prico, we're never able to learn much about his parents.
Vittorio de Sica, at least in these neorealist films, has a marvelous knack for hitting the audience where it hurts with the ending.
The Italian Neorealist movement in films began about the time this movie was made and extended to the mid 1950s.
And, because so many of these stories were told with such love and depth, I am a huge fan of the genre.Of the Neorealist directors, my favorite has been Vittorio De Sica.
Again and again, the director made some very brave choices and risked alienating his audience in order to make a realistic and gut-wrenching film--not another Hollywoodized film with a happy ending.The film focuses on a short period in the life of a darling little boy ("Pricò"), played marvelously by Luciano De Ambrosis.
His was perhaps one of the best performances I have seen by a young child actor, as he was able to cry and react so perfectly.
When he has run out of options, his wife surprisingly returns and the man tries very hard to patch things up--taking them on a holiday and spending a lot of money trying to make her happy.
It was said that the director himself wanted the film to end on the negative note with the boy rejecting the mother.
First, the adult De Ambrosis (Pricò) talks about the filming and it gives great insight into the movie.
Some people call this the first Neo-realist film...some give that wonderful prize to Open City.
At any rate, this film is definitely early Neo-realist, and in fact is more like a prototype of the genre.
It contains a social message and doesn't attempt to show Italian society as an upper class wonder of the world, but it still is focused on the upper class and it lacks a lot of the grittiness that makes Neo-realism so impactive.The English title given to it is the very message of the movie: our children are watching us as we dissolve the family.
Neo-realism was filled with digressions and attempts at real movement through space, but this movie seemed to try to put importance on the train (danger, perhaps, martyrdom maybe) that I don't really feel was there.It's definitely an important movie that is of the very sort that people who like to be well-versed in film will probably want to see.
This is a heart-rending film, seen from a child's point of view.
In this one a four-year-old boy, named Pricò, is caught up in the separation of his parents.
He is really caught up in the middle of something WAY beyond his control.Near the beginning of the film, Pricò (Luciano De Ambrosis) and his mother, Nina (Isa Pola), take a walk in the park and see a puppet show.
Pricò later leaves his mother to play in the park but sees her talking to a strange man, her mother's lover, Roberto (Adriano Rimoldi).
Both Andrea and the housekeeper, Agnese (Giovanna Cigoli), know what this means: she has run off with Roberto and it is up to them to care for Pricò.
Once again, things go well but when he leaves Nina and Pricò alone to return to Rome early, Roberto shows up there and Nina can't resist him.
When Pricò sees him and his mother lying on the beach, he runs away, trying to return to his father in Rome.
Now it is up to Andrea to figure out what is best for his motherless child.Some of the final heart-rending scenes of this film remind me a bit of the father-son relationship in Bicycle Thieves (1948) in that the father has to take care of his son in an awkward situation.
In "Umberto D" later on,De Sica would describe a poor old man's end of life whose dog is the only companion.(remade in France as "Un Homme Et Son Chien" in the naughties) In "I Bambini Ci Guardano" ,he depicts the beginning of life ,a harsh one: a little boy,whose eyes are longing for love and affection,sees her mother taken away from him by a buck.The mother is selfish ,the father is weak ,and both do not even notice the tragedy in their boy's eyes.A clever boy,who knows that something is wrong in his small world: he refuses the shake the "gentleman's" hand;he asks her mother to kiss him good night,and he wonders why she keeps her hat on.Except perhaps during the holidays at the seaside,where the mother meets futile callow people -and meets again her lover,her evil genius -,the brat never enjoys moments of true happiness:for instance ,he almost never plays with friends his age,which seems to indicate that he's already in the hard adults world: he even thinks of suicide -in the extraordinary scene on the railroad track - ,which is rare for a child so young (Rosellini showed such a scene in his "Europa 51",but his unfortunate hero was older).There will be a suicide, anyway ,and a complete destruction of the family,no Hollywoodian happy end .De Sica's psychic son,as far as children's tragedy is concerned ,is arguably Luigi Comencini;both found the words,the looks that depicts a child's distress:for that matter ,see "Incompreso" (1967) and " Eugenio" (1979).At a time when divorce has become common,when many irresponsible movies treat it like a comedy,do not forget that the children are watching us..
As the forerunner of the Bicycle Thief it has all the same realist filming and it's a delight to watch in slow paced and close up the Italy of the 1940's.