Vitttorio De Sica was born on July, 7th 1901 in Sora, Italy, in a low middle class family, and died on November, 13th 1974 in Paris. He spent his childhood in Naples. He went to school to be an accountant. Even before coming of age, he helped support his family by working as a clerk. In the 20’s he joined the traveling theatre group of Almiranta Manzini, a famous diva of Italian silent film. He achieved success in theatre after 1923 when he became a member of Tatjana Pavlova’s theatre. Towards the end of the 20’s his popularity grew and in 1933 he founded his own theater group in which he is the biggest star. From1931 regularly played in films (made his film debut at the age of 16), usually in salon comedies, well-mannered melodramas and so-called white telephone films playing Don Juan characters. He began his directing career during WW 2. In the beginning he directed comical and sentimental films, and one costumed film - Un Garibaldino al convento (1942). The crucial event in his directing career was a collaboration with the screenwriter Cesare Zavattini – in his fifth film I Bambini ci guardano (1943). Already in this first phase his thematic preoccupations are clear: sympathy for the little man, love for children, balancing between the tragic and the humorous as well as a
feeling for small life details. Apart from that, in his works he collaborated with nonprofessional actors and often shot in natural ambiences (in real locations). All that fits perfectly into the neorealist tendencies that dominated the Italian film after the WW 2. With his four masterpieces - Sciuscia (1946), Ladri di biciclette (1948), Miracolo a Milano (1951), Umberto D (1952) – he became the main representative of neorealism. Cesare Zavattini was in all the aforementioned films, the co-screenwriter. It is important to say
that Umberto D is often called the transitive film between the classical neorealism and the so called neorealism of the soul. Slowly neorealism started to fade away (beginning of 50’s) and De Sica’s directing
career is in crisis, so once again he returns to acting. He had a few impressive roles in films such as Madame de... (1953) and General Della Rovere(1959). Also, he wins back the audience by a series of films Pane, amore
e fantasia (1953) and Pane, amore e gelosia (1954). In 1954 he shot a
commercially successful film L'Oro di Napoli (1954) and a year later Il tetto, his last neorealist film. In his later phase the most significant titles include: La Ciociara (1960), Il giudizio univerzale (1961), Matrimonio all'italiana (1964), Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970), Una breve vacanza (1973). In 1974 he made his last film Il
viaggio. In his directing career De Sica won four Oscars.