Umberto D

Recently, I have tried to stray from reviewing films from memory. The benefit to this process was that the films had settled in my mind, but the reviews were not as visceral or fresh as they would be otherwise. However, with Umberto D, which parried its way across my mind in the early morning wind brush to school, I remembered the film and its images more freshly than my realization of its greatness had been after seeing the film originally. The film is essentially an exercise within genre. The genre is neo-realism, which consistently utilized non-actors in order to create a realistic feel. Perhaps it is this feel that has returned, as we plight through events are not of any real importance but to the party concerned. Umberto D considers a man whose name the title is, and his descent into inevitability: which includes old age, companionship that is obligatory to such a condition, and poverty within amiability (which often seems inappropriate and causes discomfort). As Umberto loves his dog Flike, he moves through the life of poverty methodically, as we all do within our own lives: collecting and sustaining, and implanting self-improtance to make it all worthwhile. What is so endearing about the observatory nature of Umberto D is the realization of empathy within what could have been anonymity. As something trite and obvious, perhaps even forgettable, becomes slowly abstract through the observatory camera, we sense that perhaps the actor who evokes Umberto experiences these things too. That we all experience such things.
Umberto D: ★★★★