Yogi's Movie Consumption Blog

A pensioned public employee is struggling to survive on a meager pension and tries to keep his dignity and moral values intact while his situation gets more dire by the day. Although the story takes place in a big city the film is very good at conveying the feeling that Umberto is isolated by his age and his realization that society has no use for him anymore. His landlady is quite the monster - she rules the hallway of her apartment like a bitter queen. It's quite amazing how long Umberto holds on to the apartment, his only confidante is the naive and beautiful maid, who has her share of troubles to keep her position in the household. (MANY SPOILERS) Sometimes Umberto could come off like a rather stubborn old man it's his agile little dog that keeps the viewer firmly rooted for him. At the end of the film, Umberto tries to give the dog (and his will to live) away, but even than he cannot find a suitable taker. So he decides to take the dog with him when he dies. But sudde...

Two young shoe-shiner boys make their dream come true and buy a horse. But then they get arrested. I can safely say that this is the only horse movie that has ever appealed to me. The story starts out very slow, but builds up pretty intensely as the two boys are in prison. The obvious symbolism of the last scene - the horse being present - didn't disturb me in the least. I was even relieved by the slight surreal turn the movie took, after that long stretch in the prison. I wonder if the boys were treated differently from the director with the older boy being displayed as more gentle. In that sense the story could also be interpreted as the struggle of the two boys with their awakening personality. Here, I also like the setting very much as it beautifully described the post-war misery everybody was in. The only thing going was the American soldier, bringing money to the poor kids in the streets (and they seemed to have made good money of them)