Teresa Venerdi

Description

Teresa Venerdi
Vittorio De Sica (Italy, 1941)

(a.k.a. Doctor Beware). While best known for his neorealist classics like The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio De Sica began and ended his career as the maker of breezy, commercial entertainments spanning all genres: comedies, spy thrillers, romances, and more. “A romantic screwball comedy of the first rank,” (New York Times), the rare Teresa Venerdi offers us a chance to see De Sica “let his hair down,” so to speak, as both director and actor (he was a Cary Grant–like leading man for much of the ’30s). Here he stars as a lecherous doctor on the make with various patients, specifically the showgirl played by Anna Magnani. His skirt chasing is soon hobbled by the appearance of a doe-eyed young orphan (of course), who falls for him, too. “More RKO programmer than Paramount roadshow,” (Stephen Harvey), Teresa Venerdi (released as “Doctor Beware” in the United States) offers a wonderful glimpse of pre-war Italian romantic comedy, and also of De Sica’s talents in all realms.—Jason Sanders


DAYS OF GLORY: REVISITING ITALIAN NEOREALISM (Film Series)

“It isn't as though we were all sitting around some cafe table on the Via Veneto one day—Rossellini, Visconti, myself, and the rest, and suddenly we decided, let's go invent neorealism,” the filmmaker Vittorio De Sica once joked of what became one of the world’s greatest, most well-known postwar cinematic movements. The Bicycle Thief, Paisan, La Terra Trema, Shoeshine—such titles dominated the decades to follow, and inspire filmmakers to this day. Many of the films, though, have been unseen for years, due to a lack of quality prints, unavailabilty of DVD copies, and so on, but fortunately this series addresses such issues, and brings many of these classics back to the Bay Area with rare, imported prints.

Born out of the ruins of World War II, the neorealist movement’s first rallying cry came from screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, who called for a new kind of Italian film, one with no need for plots (which attempted to impose “order” on an already lived-in reality) or professional actors. Instead, it would take to the streets and hills to document the true lives, sorrows, and pleasures of the Italian people. Filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, and others would soon act on his words, that “the cinema . . . should accept, unconditionally, what is contemporary. Today, today, today.”—Jason Sanders

The series continues through December with an additional eleven films. For complete notes and advance tickets, visit bampfa.berkeley.edu.

Series curated by Susan Oxtoby. PFA wishes to thank the following individuals and institutions for their assistance with this retrospective: Camilla Cormanni and Rosaria Focarelli, Cinecittà Luce S.p.A.; Amelia Carpenito Antonucci, Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco; Laura Argento, Cineteca Nazionale; Richard Peña and Isa Cucinotta, the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

More Info

Link

http://bampfa.berekley.edu