Umberto D.

One of the masterpieces of world cinema — and a supreme example of Italian neorealism at its very best — Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 classic is now available in pristine Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. This is one of those films that, once seen, can never be forgotten, that get into your psyche and influence your vision of life. It’s the story of an old pensioner struggling to stay afloat in postwar Italy and slowly being dragged down — a dignified man who worked all his life and expected better, and is now experiencing all the degradations of poverty. To see this is to think, “This should not be allowed to happen.” The lead actor, Carlo Battisti, was no actor at all. He was a linguistics professor in Florence, discovered on the street by De Sica’s casting people, and given the role. Thus Battisti (who died in 1977 at age 94) achieved screen immortality on the basis of a single film. Included on the disc is a 55-minute documentary about De Sica’s career. To see De Sica after seeing his movies is always a surprise. You expect a sober, dour, introverted intellectual, and instead find a tall, handsome former matinee idol, with the looks of a Cary Grant and a big, ebullient personality. The thing to remember is that De Sica’s neorealist masterpieces were collaborations that brought out the respective strengths of the director and his screenwriter, Cesare Zavattini. Their concerns and talents overlapped and complemented each other, and to see them together in the documentary — two guys who, in look and temperament, seem to have nothing in common — is to marvel at and appreciate what opposites can do when they make a true soul connection. — Mick LaSalle UMBERTO D. 1952 NOT RATED THE CRITERION COLLECTION BLU-RAY: $39.95