In a school in Turin, a boy from a well-off family shares a classroom with classmates from working-class backgrounds. Over a school year, the perspective of a sensitive child on his teachers, his family and the rivalries among the pupils builds a portrait of childhood and city life at the end of the nineteenth century. The film centres on the bond between the boy and his teacher, a figure who guides the group through everyday life.

How it was made

The film adapts Heart, Edmondo De Amicis' novel, whose episodic and moralising tone provides the basis for a humanist story. Vittorio De Sica co-directed with Duilio Coletti, and also produced and played one of the leading roles, Professor Perboni. The screenplay is credited to De Sica and Oreste Biancoli. The cast includes María Mercader, Ave Ninchi and Luigi Pavese, alongside a large group of young actors. Carlo Montuori shot the film, Enzo Masetti composed the score and Mario Serandrei edited it.

Reception and legacy

The film was released in 1948, and De Sica's performance earned him the Silver Ribbon for Best Actor from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. Within De Sica's career it is usually placed among his more traditional projects, distant from the harder neorealism that brought him international fame. Today its interest lies mainly in its ties to Italian literary tradition and in its portrait of the classroom as a space where children of different social classes meet.

Stills

More films by Vittorio De Sica

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis1970

Bicycle Thieves1948

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow1963

Two Women1960

Shoeshine1946

Marriage Italian Style1964

Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.