By Jason Haskins
Why do you do this to us, Vittorio De Sica?! My first viewing of one of his films was the superb Bicycle Thieves (1948), which blew me away in all regards of the term--displaying a neo-realist perception of post-war Italy. Well, look what he does again. I finally got the courage to watch Umberto D. (1952), which is arguably his second most famous film, which has made the biggest impact on cinema, and I think I've struck gold twice. This is another great piece of work that this man did--and available, of course, on the Criterion Collection.
