The Children Are Watching Us

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. Regardless of whatever internal qualities this film has, good or bad, it is historically significant because of its place at the beginning of DeSica's career. This may be his least-known film, or at least one of the lesser known, but without it there would never have been "Bicycle Thieves", "Umberto D", or much of anything else. This really is the birth of the neo-realist movement that defined Italy for a generation.

Luckily, this movie came on Turner Classic Movies a few years ago and I had the opportunity to see it.

Since then, I have searched for reviews and couldn't find one; it's nice to see that other people have seen this de Sica masterpiece. ;) I was beginning to wonder if I was the only American to see this.

If you have seen it, how can you not love this? As I said, I saw this a few years ago - and only saw it once - yet, there are so many images in my head as I think of the film. The story is heart-wrenching. I cried when I watched it. {blushing}

This film made me a fan of neo-realism. 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. You'll have missed something very special if you miss it!

This film caught me by surprise, I should say, gripped me by surprise. First, is its power to move deeply about which others have written. What might easily have seemed hollow and sentimental becomes compelling and searching because of the detailed performances given to all four of the central characters. Most amazing of these is Luciano De Ambrosis portrayal of Prico through whose eyes the story is told. The DVD includes an excellent 1984 interview with De Ambrosis in which he talks about working with De Sica. At one point the father carelessly knocks Prico into the side of a door. 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. The world shown occasionally enters dream realities. One actual dream sequence made me think of Dali's questionable sequence in Hitchcock's "Spellbound," just three years later. However, where that is self-conscious and anything but dreamlike, this carried me off and felt genuine. I almost didn't notice as was drawn in, and everything reverberated feverishly as I was brought back. As one of the commentaries makes clear, the film had special resonance with the summer of 1942, just before war broke out. That only adds to its heart-wrenching power. The Children Are Watching Us is a magnificent plea for love and compassion. If it does not touch you, you must be very hard-hearted, indeed.

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'. His performance, which runs the gamut of joy, anguish, and sickly fear, staggers us. 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. The conclusion to this heartbreaking film is no less unforgettable than those of De Sica's better-known masterpieces. It is one of the most indispensable of movies from Italy's fascist era. And it is shamefully unknown today.

An unbelievably great film made a year before Visconti's "Ossessione" which is often wrongly considered the first official neo-realist film. 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. This extremely fleeting 'real world' is never fixed but nevertheless always there in some essence or another waiting to be discovered and 'captured' underneath a thousand and one veils. Neo-realism provided techniques for snaring those elusive essences better. And these techniques have endured to this day, where the sons of the sons of neo-realist films from all around the world are instantly recognized as valuable and given acclaim (most recently a slew of impressive films from Iranian directors). 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.