Shoeshine

In post-war Rome two shoeshine boys, Giuseppe and Pasquale, are saving for a horse. They are caught selling stolen blankets for a gang posing as police and jailed for a theft they did not commit. Inside they are put in separate wings and their friendship comes apart under pressure. At the end Pasquale injures Giuseppe fatally. Vittorio De Sica directed. It opened on 27 April 1946. It is one of the founding works of Italian neorealism: non-professional actors, real locations in Rome and the struggle of ordinary people to survive. That approach shaped generations of filmmakers and put the movement at the centre of film history. The critic James Agee called it about as beautiful, moving and heartening a film as you are ever likely to see. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 100 percent from seven reviews. At the 20th Academy Awards the Academy gave the film a special award, the first of its kind for a film not in English, and the beginning of the road that led to the Best International Feature category. Who it is for: viewers who like neorealism and films about the children of post-war Europe. Who it is not for: anyone looking for hope. The film destroys the one good thing the boys had and leaves no consolation.