Bitter Rice (1949)

Original title

Riso amaro

Directed by

Giuseppe De Santis

Genre

drama film

Country

Italy

Runtime

1h 48m

Rated

16

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 228 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A pair of fugitives hides among the rice fields of northern Italy. Their presence causes tension with the women who farm the fields.

tensemelancholicgrittysombergroundedatmosphericsuspenseful

What happens

Bitter Rice (Italian: Riso amaro [ˈriːso aˈmaːro, ˈriːzo -]) is a 1949 Italian neorealist crime drama film directed and co-written by Giuseppe De Santis, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, and starring Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling, Silvana Mangano, and Raf Vallone. The story follows a pair of fugitives, who hide among the rice fields of northern Italy. The Italian title of the film is based on a pun; since the Italian word riso can mean either "rice" or "laughter", riso amaro can be taken to mean either "bitter laughter" or "bitter rice". Released by Lux Film, Bitter Rice was a commercial success in Europe and the United States. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the 1950 Academy Award for Best Story. In 2008, the film was 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." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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