There are a few Italian films you can't do without checking if you're researching, studying or teaching anything related to Italian art, culture and history.
One of them is definitely Giuseppe De Santis’ Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949).
One of the first examples of "pink neorealism", Bitter Rice told a dramatic story that took place among the mondine - or rice workers - in post-War Italy.
Suspended between romanticism and neorealism, this hybrid story featuring Silvana Mangano was instantly successful and became the main inspiration for many fashion collections in the following decades.
For years you could spot for example hints at the mondine's looks and at Silvana Mangano's attire (petticoats, shorts and tights included) on Mariella Burani’s runways or in its advertising campaigns, while the mondine's famous straw hats became the inspiration for fashion exhibitions and events on millinery.
Behind this film there was Italian producer Agostino “Dino” De Laurentiis, who died today in Los Angeles.
Born in Italy in 1919, as a young man De Laurentiis enrolled at Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre) hoping to become an actor.
He first starred in a film by Emanuele Caracciolo but soon after left his acting career to turn into a producer in the early '40s, playing a vital role in developing Italian cinema after the Second World War.
Bitter Rice was the first successful film De Laurentiis produced. On its set he also met Silvana Mangano who became his wife.
Further successes followed after he co-produced films with Carlo Ponti, among them also Federico Fellini's La Strada (The Road, 1954) and Le notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria, 1957).
Failure arrived when the massive studios he had built, Dinocittà (also King Vidor's War and Peace was shot here), closed down and De Laurentiis relocated to the States.
Here De Laurentiis had some critical and commercial successes like Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973), though his career was marked by quite a few costly failures and flops including the remake of King Kong (1976).
De Laurentiis had four children from Silvana Mangano (his second wife) and two from his third wife Martha Schumacher. Though some of his children and grandchildren followed in his steps, sadly he doesn't leave any proper heir in Italy where he will be remembered as the very last intrepid producer of the local film industry.
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