Exclusive: Pulpy Italian neorealist Bitter Rice gets 4K restoration
A neorealist noir about Italian rice workers and small-time crooks, Bitter Rice, has more pixels than ever, thanks to Janus Films.
Courtesy of Janus Film
The black-and-white world of Bitter Rice, the Italian neorealist noir from director Giuseppe De Santis, an overlooked auteur for the period, and producer Dino De Laurentiis, is back in the field for a new 4K restoration courtesy of Janus Films. One of De Larentiis’ earliest projects, Bitter Rice follows a pair of fugitives hiding out in the rice fields of Northern Italy. American actress Doris Dowling and Vittoria Gassman play Francesca and Walter, who outrun the law to the Po Valley, and plan a daring heist among the paddies. Along the way, they meet a boogie-woogieing Silvana (Silvana Mangano), who teaches Francesca how to mingle among the field workers and opens the film to a more socially conscious thriller about the lives of the Italian lower class. The Oscar-nominated film would be the start of a long career as one of Italy’s great leading ladies for Mangano, who would also marry De Laurentiis. In 2008, the film was added to the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s list of “100 Italian films to be saved.”
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