A few days in the life of retired bureaucrat Umberto (played by Carlo Battisti, a University of Florence professor in real life): the cops break up his pensioners' strike; a canteen hostess catches him feeding his lunch to his dog, Flike; his boarding-house landlady threatens him with eviction and lends his room to two strangers for an afternoon tryst; the sympathetic young chambermaid reveals she's pregnant; and pride quashes his feeble attempts to beg in front of the Pantheon. The longtime dream of scenarist Cesare Zavattini (De Sica's collaborator on The Bicycle Thief, Shoeshine, Miracle in Milan, and many others) was simply to present 90 minutes of a man's life. But while it's also about loneliness, poverty, and old age ­ seemingly a recipe for bleakness ­ Umberto D. is bursting with life.

Dedicated to his father (also Umberto), De Sica considered this his favorite film. But despite international acclaim ­ an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay and the New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Film ­ Umberto was attacked by the Italian Minister of Culture for airing the country's "dirty laundry" in public. Today, it's universally considered one of the high points of both Italian neo-realism and world cinema; this dazzling new restoration has been overseen by technical maestro Vincenzo Verzini, known as the "Little Giotto" of Italian movies. In Il Mio Viaggio in Italia (My Voyage to Italy), his passionate new documentary on Italian cinema, Martin Scorsese says, „As powerful as The Bicycle Thief was, for me, De Sica and Zavattini's greatest achievement was UMBERTO D....a great movie about a hero of everyday life. That was De Sica's precious gift to his father. And to us."

A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE OF A JANUS FILM

CAST

Umberto Domenico Ferrari................................................................................................................... Carlo Battisti Maria, the maid................................................................................................................................ Maria Pia Casilio The Landlady........................................................................................................................................... Lina Gennari Landlady's FiancÈ.................................................................................................................. Alberto Albani Barbieri Patient in the hospital................................................................................................................. Memmo Carotenuto Woman trysting in Umberto's room................................................................................................... Ileana Simova Nun in the hospital...................................................................................................................................... Elena Rea Flike, Umberto's dog.................................................................................................................................. Napoleone

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Directed by........................................................................................................................................... Vittorio De Sica Screenplay..................................................................................................... Cesare Zavattini and Vittorio De Sica .................................................................................................................................from an original story by Zavattini Produced by................................................................................... Giuseppe Amato, Vittorio De Sica and Angelo Rizzoli Assistant directors......................................................................... Luisa Alessandri, Franco Montemurro Director of photography................................................................................................................................ G. R. Aldo Camera operator.......................................................................................................................... Giuseppe Rotunno
Art director............................................................................................................................................................ Virgilio Marchi Sound............................................................................................................................................. Ernio Sensi Editor.................................................................................................................................................. Eraldo Da Roma Music......................................................................................................................................... Alessandro Cicognini Production Manager.............................................................................................................................. Nino Misiano
Restoration Supervision................................................................................................................. Vincenzo Verzini

A Rizzoli-De Sica-Amato Production

Filmed on location in Rome and at Cinecittý Studios in mid-1951. Italian release: Jan. 20, 1952; U.S. release: Nov. 7, 1955 (Guild Theater, New York). Black & White; Aspect ratio: 1.33:1; Running time: 91 minutes.

The restoration of UMBERTO D., part of the „Cinema Forever¾ project undertaken by the Italian communications company Mediaset and overseen by technical maestro Vincenzo Verzini, was done in collaboration with Giuseppe Rotunno, who was the camera operator on the film and went on to shoot Visconti's The Leopard and Fellini's Amarcord, among many other films. Missing and damaged frames in the original negative were replaced, the lighting levels of the print were balanced using state-of-the-art technology, and the splicing joins were re-done using a hot solder. The soundtrack was also carefully restored by transferring it to DAT magnetic tape and filtering it with sophisticated equipment to eliminate unnecessary hisses, scratches and other noise.

A MEDIASET RESTORATION A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE OF A JANUS FILM

SYNOPSIS

In the middle of Rome, dozens of retired bureaucrats are demonstrating for a raise in their pensions. They assemble in a piazza, where an official confronts them, commanding that they disband because they do not have a permit to demonstrate. Jeeps filled with policemen rout the protestors, who flee into the side streets.

One of the men carries a dog; he is Umberto Domenico Ferrari. He tells another demonstrator that he needs a 20 percent increase in his pension to clear up his debts, explaining that he has no family and is "old and good for nothing." Almost all of his monthly pension allowance must go to his landlady, who has raised the rent again. Umberto tries to sell one of the men his watch, but to no avail.

Umberto sneaks his dog, Flike , into a soup kitchen and feeds him under the table, while again attempting to sell his watch. Outside, he finally sells it to a beggar for far less than his asking price. Umberto and Flike walk homeward.

On returning to his apartment, Umberto hears the landlady in her drawing room singing an operatic aria. When he opens the door to his room, however, he finds a couple on his bed engaged in a tryst. He closes the door and asks the young housemaid, Maria, who they are. The landlady rushes out and claims that it is not his room; she owns it. She threatens to evict him at the end of the month because he hasn't paid his rent.

Umberto tells Maria that he's not feeling well. While Maria helps him take his temperature, she reveals that she is pregnant. Umberto is shocked by her casualness about her situation. A bugle is heard outside the window from below. Maria looks from the window; a soldier waves to her from the street. She signals for Umberto to take a look. She points down to two soldiers; they are both her lovers, and she isn't sure which one is the father of her child.

That evening, Umberto gives Maria part of the money he owes the landlady, asking Maria to tell her that he'll pay the rest at the end of the month. The girl returns and tells him that the woman wants all the rent money or nothing.

The next day, Umberto tries to sell some of his books at a used-book stall. Desperate for money, he is relinquishing the remnants of his possessions. When he returns to his apartment, he gives the money to Maria, explaining that the remainder will be added when he gets his monthly pension allotment. He reminds Maria to keep up her lessons, so that she will not be ignorant nor taken advantage of. Maria delivers Umberto's payment, but she returns with the landlady's refusal to accept partial payment.

Very early the next morning, the old man, wrapped in a blanket, makes a telephone call for an ambulance. Two ambulance attendants arrive with a stretcher for Umberto, who is waiting in suit and tie. He invites them to his room, tells Maria that he is very ill, and gets his suitcase. Umberto bids goodbye to Flike. He tells one of the attendants to play with the dog, so that Flike doesn't see him leaving. Umberto sneaks away, and Maria promises to take care of Flike. Umberto says that he won't forget her and that he'll be back soon. He is placed on the stretcher and carried down the stairs. After a few days at the hospital, Umberto is about to be released, when a patient in the bed next to his tells him that he must insist that he's still sickãhe can save money by staying at the hospital, it's better than a hotel. He tells Umberto that he has to play up to the sisters, and that he should ask the nun for a rosary. Umberto plays the game, and the nun beams with delight as she dangles a rosary in front of him.

Maria comes to visit Umberto in the hospital, bringing him a small gift of a banana. She has brought Flike to see him too, but the dog wasn't allowed to come into the ward. The nun asks if Maria is his daughter; he implies that she is; but Maria says no. Umberto looks disappointed. Maria tells him that the landlady is going to marry her fiancÈ, the owner of a moviehouse, and that Umberto is going to be evicted.

In the morning, Umberto leaves the hospital. At the apartment, decorators are busy at work, as Umberto's room is undergoing extensive renovation. Taking Flike's leash from the wall, he asks one of the painters where the dog is. He whistles for Flike; the dog is not to be found. Down on the street, he finds Maria talking with one of the soldiers. She is crying, having told the young man about her pregnancy. The soldier walks away. Umberto asks her about Flike. Maria continues to cry, telling him that she doesn't know; the landlady, she says, left the apartment door open, and the dog ran out.

Desperate, Umberto rushes to the dog pound in a taxi. Amidst the barking and squealing of the dogs, Umberto searches for his dog. All seems hopeless, until Umberto spots Flike in a cart of new arrivals. Almost in tears, he retrieves his pet and holds him close.

In front of his apartment house, returning with Flike, Umberto confronts his landlady, accusing her of trying to get the dog caught and killed. She tells him that he is being thrown out in the morning. Elegant passersby watch indifferently.

On the street Umberto and Flike pass a beggar holding out a hat, when the old man sees a former colleague from his days at the Ministry of Public Affairs. Umberto attempts to engage the colleague in conversation. The man doesn't want to be uncaring, but he is also of no help. The man's bus arrives, and in bidding Umberto goodbye, he says to give his regards to Signor Carloni. Umberto calls after him, "He's dead."

Continuing his walk, Umberto arrives at the Pantheon. He stops by one of the huge pillars, and, in pantomime practice for begging, he holds out his hand, pulls it back, and holds it out again. A passerby is about to give him a coin, when Umberto suddenly turns his palm down and then up again as if to see if it's going to rainãhe cannot beg. Trying again, he puts his hat into Flike's mouth, so that the dog will beg for him while Umberto hides nearby. The dog stands on the sidewalk on his hind legs with the hat in his mouth, when Umberto spots another former colleague, who is watching Flike. The old man runs over and explains to the man that his dog is just playing; it's just a cute trick that he learned. Their conversation is awkward; they no longer have anything in common, and they part.

At home, Maria enters Umberto's room, saying that the landlady wants to turn it into a reception room. There's already a big hole in the wall; the workers are preparing to break through to the next room. Umberto looks desperate. He says that he is tired of everything.

Later, alone with Flike, Umberto looks out his window. It is the dark of night, and a lone trolley passes along the empty cobblestone street. Umberto looks down; the camera zooms to the cobblestones, as if Umberto were contemplating a jump. Immediately, he closes the shutters. His room is a shambles. He reaches for his suitcase and begins to pack.

Later, Maria sees Umberto and the dog leaving. He pretends that he has found a room nearby and tells her to find herself a better job. She exclaims that the landlady will throw her out once she discovers that Maria is pregnant. She asks if they will see each other again; Umberto does not reply, except to tell her that she can have the things he left behind.

Outside, the streets are empty. It is early morning. Umberto looks back at his old apartment house as he passes it on a tram. High in the window of his old room, we see Maria looking out. The camera pans the neighborhood buildings as the tram moves away.

In a back alley, Umberto bargains with a couple that keeps dogs. Leashed dogs bark at him in this makeshift kennel. He asks about the care for the dogs, explaining that he is going on a trip. At the last minute, however, he decides that he cannot leave Flike with such people.

Umberto and Flike wander into a park, and the old man spots a little girl that he knows. He tries to give her the dog, but her governess says that her parents would be angry and pulls the crying girl away. Flike begins to wander on his own down the park pathway. Umberto starts to back away from him, crossing out of the park and hiding among the bushes. But Flike follows his master's scent and finds him, and the old man clutches his pet.

Umberto, with his dog in his arms, moves toward the railroad tracks. A train whistle blows, but the old man does not move as the train hurls towards him. He clutches Flike so desperately that the dog squeals, jumps from his arms, and runs off. The train rushes by.

In the park again, Umberto runs after Flike. He sees the dog and calls to him, but the dog refuses to respond. He calls for Flike to come to him, but the dog moves away and sits immobile by a tree. Finally, Flike reluctantly moves toward Umberto. The dog sits up on his hind legs. The man and the dog are reunited again

.The film closes with a long shot of Umberto running down the park path, playfully tossing a pine cone for Flike to fetch. A group of children runs toward the camera.

VITTORIO DE SICA (Director/Co-Producer/Co-Screenwriter) (1902-1974)
2002 marks the centennial of Vittorio De Sica, who grew up in Naples in a middle-class, low income environment. While in his teens he contributed to the family resources by working as an office clerk but soon found acting a more satisfying escape from the drudgery of his youth. He made his screen debut in 1918 in The Clemenceau Affair but his acting career did not begin in earnest until 1923 when he joined Tatiana Pavlova's stage company. A handsome man, he was a successful matinee idol by the late 20s and before long formed his own company to produce stage plays, in many of which he co-starred with his first wife Giuditta Rissone. He made a name as a suave leading man in Italian films, mostly light comedies, and became immensely popular with female audiences.

During WW II he became attracted to directing. His first four films as director were routine light productions in the tradition of the Italian cinema of the day. But his fifth, The Children Are Watching Us, marked the beginning of De Sica's collaboration with author and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, a creative relationship that was to give the world two of the most significant films of postwar Italian neorealism, Shoeshine (1946) and The Bicycle Thief (1948). In both films De Sica and Zavattini examined the chaotic urban conditions in the aftermath of the war with incisive simplicity and disarming sincerity. In both films social and economic conditions on the streets of Rome were drawn in stark detail as background to a personal emotional drama revolving around a tender human relationship, of two shoeshine boys in Shoeshine, of father and son in The Bicycle Thief. In both films De Sica achieved marvelous results with nonprofessional actors, infusing his characters with his deep humanity and tenderness. The winner of a best foreign film Oscar and other international awards, The Bicycle Thief not only remains a supreme example of neorealism but is also widely accepted as one of the great films of all time.

De Sica's next film in collaboration with Zavattini was the satirical fantasy Miracle in Milan (1950), which wavered between optimism and despair in its allegorical treatment of the plight of the poor in an industrial society. Umberto D (1952), a film-poem about old age and loneliness, which he dedicated to the memory of his father, was De Sica's last neorealist film and temporarily his last masterpiece. With the notable exceptions of the popular Gold of Naples (1954), a series of mostly comic sketches set in his native city featuring Sophia Loren, TotÚ and De Sica himself, and Two Women (1960), a solid work enhanced by the excellent performance of Sophia Loren, his subsequent output as director was for a long while markedly less inspired and significant.

Throughout his career as director, De Sica continued to act in films so that he could finance the kinds of film he wanted to make. He turned almost exclusively to acting in the late 50s and enjoyed great popularity in the role of the affable maresciallo (rural police officer) in Comencini's Bread Love and Dreams (1954) and several sequels in a comedy series co-starring Gina Lollobrigida. He was at his best playing light roles requiring deft irony and flashy charm but proved himself capable of a solid dramatic performance in such films as Rossellini's General della Rovere (1959), Max Ophuls' The Earrings of Madame Deä (1953) and Charles Vidor's A Farewell to Arms (1957), for which De Sica was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In the 60s he was back in the director's chair, turning out such successful box-office ventures as Yesterday Today and Tomorrow and Marriage Italian Style (both 1964), and also quite a few commercial and critical failures, all the while continuing to appear as an actor in films of other directors. And then, when he seemed to have settled on ending his career in mediocrity, De Sica made a dramatic comeback as a director to be reckoned with in 1971 with The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, an exquisite, hauntingly beautiful, and deeply disturbing film about the gradual disintegration of Jewish freedom and dignity in Fascist Italy, a work permeated with humanity and tenderness.

In all, De Sica directed some 30 filmsãfour of which won Oscars as best foreign films: Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, and The Garden of the Finzi-Continisãand appeared as an actor in more than 150 films. He died at 72 following surgery for the removal of a cyst from his lungs. He was survived by his second wife, former Spanish actress Maria Mercader, with whom he had lived since 1942 but whom he could legally marry only in 1968 after adopting French citizenship, which allowed him to divorce his first wife. The eldest son of De Sica and Mercader, Manuel, composed the music for The Garden of the Finzi-Continis; the younger, Christian, is a singer and actor.

Selected Filmography as director

Rose Scarlatte (also act.) 1940

Teresa Venerdi/Doctor Beware (also co-sc., act.) 1941

I Bambini ci Guardano/The Children Are Watching Us (also co-sc.) 1943

Sciuscia/Shoeshine 1946

Ladri di Biciclette The Bicycle Thief/Bicycle Thieves (also prod.) 1948

Miracolo a Milano/Miracle in Milan (also prod., co-sc.) 1950

Umberto D. (also co-prod., co-sc.) 1952

Stazione Termini/lndiscretion of an American Wife (also prod.) 1953

L'Oro di Napoli/Gold of Naples (also co-sc., act.) 1954

Il Tetto/The Roof (also prod.) 1956

La Ciociara/Two Women (It./Fr.; also sp-sc.) 1960

Il Giudizio Universale (also act.) 1961

Boccaccio '70 ("The Raffle¾ episode; It./Fr.) 1962

I Sequestrati di Altona/The Condemned of Altona (It/Fr.) 1962

Ieri Oggi Domani/Yesterday Today and Tomorrow (It./Fr.) 1963

Matrimonio all 'Italiana/Marriage Italian Style (It./Fr.) 1964

Le Streghe/The Witches („A Night Like Any Other¾ episode; It./Fr.) Sept fois Femme/Woman Times Seven (Fr./US) 1967

I Girasoli/Sunflower (It./Fr.) 1969

Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (It./Ger.) 1971

Una Breve Vacanza/A Brief Vacation 1973

Il Viaggio/The Voyage 1974

óAdapted from Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia (Harper Perennial, 1998)

CESARE ZAVATTINI (Screenwriter) (1902-1989)
After starting out as a journalist, Cesare Zavattini began publishing short stories and novels in the early 1930s and wrote his first screenplay in 1935. In the 1940s he emerged as a key figure of Italian neorealism with his theoretical writings and screenplays for some of the most important productions of the movement, most notably his collaborations with Vittorio De Sica on The Children Are Watching Us, The Bicycle Thief, Shoeshine and Umberto D. A highly prolific writer, he collaborated on scores of scripts for major Italian films, and his influence is still felt in the Italian cinema.

ABOUT THE CAST
The cast of UMBERTO D. is largely made up of nonprofessionals. For the title character, De Sica searched old-age homes and organizations for retirees; he found 70 year-old Carlo Battisti (1882-1977), a Professor of Glottology from the University of Florence, on the streets of Rome walking to a lecture. UMBERTO D. is his only film performance, although the Internet Movie Database credits him with directing one documentary, Nazze Fassane (1955).

De Sica is credited with discovering Pier Angeli, but he decided that she was not right for the role of Maria in UMBERTO D. Instead he chose Maria Pia Casilio, who was at the time an apprentice seamstress in a small town in Italy. She went on to play roles in three other films by De Sica: Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), The Last Judgement (1961) and We'll Call Him Andrew (1972), and also acted with De Sica in Luigi Comencini's Bread, Love and Dreams (1953) and Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954), Gianni Franciolini's Roman Tales (1955) and Wolfgang Staudte's Always Victorious (aka Cannon Serenade, 1958). Among her other film credits are Marcel Carné's Thérèse Raquin (1953) and L'Air de Paris (1954) and Ettore Giannini's Neapolitan Carousel (1954).

Lina Gennari (Landlady) appeared in a handful of Italian films in the 1930s and 1940s. Following her role in UMBERTO D., she acted opposite Vittorio De Sica in Dino Risi's The Sign of Venus (1953)

Memmo Carotenuto (Patient in the hospital) was a prolific Italian actor with over 100 films to his credit, and the son of silent-screen actor Nello Carotenuto and brother of actor Mario Carotenuto. Carotenuto first worked with De Sica in The Bicycle Thief (1948) and later appeared in De Sica's Indiscretion of an American Wife. Among his many screen appearances are Mario Monicelli's Like Father, Like Son (1957) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), Alessandro Blasetti's Too Bad She's Bad (1955) and Charles Vidor's A Farewell to Arms (1957), also with De Sica.

MARTIN SCORSESE ON ³UMBERTO D.
As powerful as The Bicycle Thief was, for me, De Sica and Zavattini's greatest achievement together was their 1952 film, UMBERTO D. Some people think of UMBERTO D. as the extreme limit of neorealism: the film that makes the most out of the least. It may be true ­ and in a way, the narrative elements of UMBERTO D. are even sparer than in the Po Valley episode of Paisan. But beyond that, UMBERTO D. is a great film about what it is to stand by and watch, helplessly, as you slip into poverty and even your dignity becomes excess baggage.

UMBERTO D. opens with a dedication to De Sica's father‹he was also named Umberto. Umberto D. is a retired bureaucrat living on a pension‹a measly one. He's played by Carlo Battisti, a professor from the University of Florence who De Sica found walking down the street one day. I don't think any professional actor could have brought such reality to the role.

Umberto D. is forced to eat in soup kitchens. And when he eats, his beloved dog Flike has to eat, too. As this man watches his dignity being eaten away, loneliness becomes his way of life. His dog is all he has left in the world, but when Umberto D. is taken away to the hospital, his landlady lets Flike run away.

When he's released, he unfairly vents his anger on the maid in the boarding house. Then he goes on a frantic search at the local pound. It's easy to get sympathy from an audience when you're dealing with people's attachment to their pets. But there's nothing easy about UMBERTO D. The emotions are never forced, and the pathos is always genuine.

After he saw UMBERTO D., the Italian Minister of Culture, Giulio Andreotti, published an open letter in which he declared his opposition to Neorealism for ³washing dirty linen in public.² He wanted De Sica and his fellow filmmakers to be more optimistic. The film is so eloquent and direct about a very basic level of human experience that this kind of criticism seems absurd now.

Like The Bicycle Thief, UMBERTO D. is a great movie about a hero of everyday life. That was De Sica's precious gift to his father. And to us.

‹Excerpted from narration by Martin Scorsese, from his documentary on Italian cinema Il Mio Viaggio in Italia/My Voyage to Italy, which will air on Turner Classic Movies in May and will soon be out on Miramax DVD

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
Vittorio de Sica's genius as director of realistic films has already been evidenced in this country by his Shoeshine and The Bicycle Thief. But nothing of his that has yet been seen here had quite the pure simplicity and almost unbearable candor and compassion of his current Umberto D. This truly extraordinary pictureþ is nothing more than a searching study of a lonely old man fighting a losing battle for existence on the piteous pension of a civil servant in Romeþ This eloquent scan of a man's emotions under the most trying circumstances is a great and memorable achievement on the screen. It is an honest, noble study of human character with which few films exercises can compare. But more than this simple continuity, the beautiful picture contains a comprehension of human feelings and fatalism that pierce the heart and mind.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times, Nov. 8, 1955

There are graceful, beautiful episodes‹such as a sequence of a young servant girl rising‹that would be unthinkable in a conventional movie, or even in a documentary of the time, since the sequence doesn't illustrate any social thesis but is there for itself, for what Cesare Zavattini, who wrote the script with De Sica, called "the love of reality". Zavattini wrote that "No other medium of expression has the cinema's original and innate capacity for showing things... in what we might call their Œdailiness.'² Perhaps what makes this film singular is that its ³dailiness² is infused with so much awareness that the screen seems luminous. There isn't a minute of banality in this simple, direct film.
Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
Best Foreign Film, New York Film Critics Circle (1955)
Nominated for Academy Award for Best Screenplay (1956)

FILM RESTORATION EXPERT VINCENZO VERZINI
"I was an orphan from an early age. My parents died within a few years of each other. When I was ten years old I found a job in a large factory where films were still developed with frames, which is when films are manually immersed in the developing bath and the length of time is judged by eye. They came out well." Vincenzo Verzini is one of the most important international experts on developing black and white cinema, and he has spent most of his life near films. Today, at the age of eighty-six, Verzini often locks himself in his workshop at night and works away alone, guarding the secrets of his craft.

The favorite technician of Gianni Di Venanzo (one of the most important post-war Italian cameramen), and many of the most important Italian film directors of the same period (including Visconti, Fellini, Germi and Rosi), Verzini began his career with Rosselini's Rome Open City and made a name for himself as an expert in developing and printing the sophisticated lighting contrasts in films such as Luchino Visconti's White Nights.

Before shooting the last scene of La Notte, Antonioni and the director of photography, di Venanzo, called Verzini and said: "Can you come here [on location]. We have to shoot a bright dawn scene and we need you to give us a hand." "I'm not coming," he answered, "shoot the scene, then I'll take care of it." When Verzini got the negative, he put it in a developing bath with a very low temperature (10 degrees) so that the blacks wouldn't come out because the temperature wasn't high enough. ³But how did you do it?² Antonioni asked him after watching the print.

For La Dolce Vita, Verzini got Gevaert to produce a special negative with cold, pale blue tones that added silvery reflections to the black and white film; the original brightness of the negative has been restored in the recent restoration work carried out by Mediaset.

For The Battle of Algiers, Pontecorvo asked Verzini to develop the black and white film in such as way as to give it the high-contrast look of cinema newsreels, thereby producing the documentary effect that helped make it famous all over the world. "I developed the film so that all the black and white was "eaten", as if it was archive film that had begun to show signs of wear and tear because it had been shown too often."

In the cinema world Verzini began to be known as "the little Giotto", Robert Krasker, the famous director of photography who worked on such films as Brief Encounter, Henry V and The Third Man, asked him to work with him in America, but Verzini declined.

Having taught courses and specialist workshops in Vienna, London and Paris, Verzini now dedicates his time to restoring black and white films, often working on the same films that he developed when they were originally made. In addition to Umberto D., he has restored such classics as Pasolini's Mamma Roma, Rossellini's The Flowers of St. Francis, Fellini's The White Shiek and I Vitelloni, and Germi's Un Maledetto Imbroglio for Mediaset.

RIALTO PICTURES
Rialto Pictures, a company specializing in the re-release of classic films, was founded in 1997 by Bruce Goldstein. The company's first two releases, co-distributed by Strand Releasing, were Mike Nichols' The Graduate and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt. In 1998, Goldstein was joined by Adrienne Halpern (co-marketing and acquisitions director) and Mike Thomas (national sales director). Rialto has distinguished itself with a large slate of film classics in excellent prints, including acclaimed restorations of Renoir's Grand Illusion, Carol Reed's The Third Man and Fellini's Nights of Cabiria.

In 2000, Rialto had an enormous success with the re-release of Jules Dassin's classic of French film noir, Rififi, celebrated the centennial of Luis Buñuel with re-releases of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Diary of a Chambermaid and also re-released John Schlesinger's Billy Liar.

Rialto's 2001 releases included Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob Le Flambeur, Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire and Jean-Luc Godard's long-unseen Band of Outsiders, starring Anna Karina.

In addition to Umberto D., this year Rialto will also release Julien Duvivier's French gangster classic Pépé Le Moko (opening at Film Forum March 1), as well as its first first-run film, Jean-Pierre Denis' Murderous Maids (opening in April), the true story of the notorious Papin Sisters, two chambermaids who, in 1933, brutally murdered their bourgeois mistress and her daughter in the French town of Le Mans.

In 1999, Rialto received a special ³Heritage Award² from the National Society of Film Critics. In 2000, Rialto received a special award from the New York Film Critics for its re-release of Rififi.

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