Vittoria De Sica

Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves, while Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Il giardino dei Finzi Contini won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Vittorio De Sica, (born July 7, 1902, Sora, Italy—died November 13, 1974, Paris, France), Italian film director and actor who was a major figure in the Italian Neorealist movement. During a prolific career that spanned 55 years, De Sica directed 35 films and acted in more than 150.

The best place to start – Bicycle Thieves

As a director, the film that De Sica is best remembered for is Bicycle Thieves, the wrenching tale of a father and his young son searching the streets of Rome for their stolen bicycle.

Although he was never a member of a political party, the political dimension in De Sica’s films is sharp and unmistakable. “They were both communists, both Cesare and De Sica,” his son says.

PARIS, Nov. 13—Vittorio De Sica, the director of such film classics as “Shoeshine” and “The Bicycle Thief,” died here today at the age of 73. He had undergone surgery in recent months for the reinoval of cysts from his lungs, but family members here Said they did not know the cause of death.

Films directed: Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, The Garden of the Finzi‐Continis

Film: The Bicycle Thief, The Voyage