Cinema
Bitter Rice
Riso amaro
Giuseppe de Santis · 1949
Synopsis
After stealing a necklace, Walter and his accomplice Francesca mingle with the convoy of seasonal women workers heading for the rice fields of the North. Walter, spotted by the police, has to hide, while Francesca passes herself off as a rice transplanter. She befriends Silvana, a worker intrigued by their story, then the two women become rivals; Marco, a soldier, enters their lives.
Context
The film was shot in the rice fields of the province of Vercelli and shows the work of the mondine, the seasonal rice transplanters. The screenplay is by Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini and Corrado Alvaro, among others; the photography is by Otello Martelli, the music by Goffredo Petrassi, and Dino De Laurentiis produced it. Silvana Mangano plays Silvana, with Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling and Raf Vallone.
Who it is for
A little under two hours, in Italian. A crime drama shot in the midst of the rice fields and their women workers.
Prizes and reception
Nominated for the Oscar for Best Story and entered in competition at Cannes in 1949, it was a commercial success in Europe and the United States.