Umberto D. (1952)

Director
Vittorio De Sica

Main cast
Carlo Battisti; Maria-Pia Casilio; Lina Gennari; Ileana Simova; Elena Rea

Genres
Drama, Foreign

Description
Umberto Domenico Ferrari, an elderly and retired civil servant, is desperately trying to maintain a decent standard of living on a rapidly dwindling state pension. But he's up against his tyrannical landlady, who keeps demanding rent that he can't pay (while renting his room out to prostitutes during the day), and his only friends are the pregnant housemaid and his little dog Flike.


Similar movies

In this film from Iranian director Daryush Shokof, Anthony Quinn plays an elderly man who wants to exit earth in a state of unity with all creatures. To that end, he hires a quartet of manservants to plug his facial orifices with their fingers. Not your typical solution, but it seems to work for Archie (Quinn), who moves through the rest of the film thus connected. Audra McDonald appears in the final moments to sing a “death aria” into his mouth.
Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
Late 19th century. The young miss Julie lives in a mansion with her father. She has recently broken up her engagement but is attracted to one of the servants, Jean. They spend the midsummer night together, telling memories and their dreams to each other. Realizing that an affair between a man of the people and an aristocrat is impossible, they plan to escape to Switzerland. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
Andrew Crocker-Harris is an embittered and disliked teacher of Greek and Latin at a British prep school. After nearly 20 years of service, he is being forced to retire on the pretext of his health, and perhaps may not even be given a pension. The boys regard him as a Hitler, with some justification. His wife Laura is unfaithful, and lives to wound him any way she can. Andrew must come to terms with his failed life and regain at least his own self-respect.
A single woman runs a rent-a-cat service to provide companions for lonely people.
A police commissioner in a little town in the Italian Venetian province investigates a prostitution ring run by two pensioners; during his investigations he also learns that a former manicurist shacks up with ten students, the prefect's daughter prostitutes to keep her pimp, a famous doctor has sex with his young patients, a headmaster has his eyes on the pupils, a noblewoman organizes orgies in her villa, the local convent is run by a dyke and his actual girlfriend poses for a hardcore magazine. He wants everything to come out in the open but his superiors try to put obstacles in his way.
The commander of a failed 1928 Arctic airship expedition is remembering the events of the "Italia" airship flight...
The peaceful cohabitation of two 30-something bachelors is disrupted when they both fall in love with the charming young woman who moves in with them.
In 1599 Italy, Beatrice Cenci is the teenage daughter of the crazed landowner and nobleman Francesco Cenci whom he keeps his daughter locked up in the dungeon of his castle and sexually abuses her as well. Beatrice then plots with her stepmother, her besotted servant Olimpio, as well as a local bandit, named Catalano, to plan Francesco’s murder.
Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues.
Story of the life of Quentin Crisp, an Englishman who was brave enough to live his life according to his own style even in the hostile days of WW2.
A war widow determined to clear the name of her disgraced husband, who was court-martialed for desertion and executed. Official records have been destroyed, and the ministry that distributes benefits continues to deny her a pension. Twenty-six years after the war, she seeks out four survivors of her husband's garrison. Each tells a dramatically different story about her husband's conduct, but she is determined to learn the truth.
When Mong-lyong decides to take him under his wing, Bang-ja gets to share a room with the wise, MA. While sharing the room, MA teaches Bang-ja of all the arts of seduction. When strolling the park one day, Mong-lyong meets Chun-hyang, the daughter of the owner of the park, and he instantly falls in love and encourages Bang-ja to arrange a meeting with her. But Bang-ja’s feeling for her was also the same and he seeks advice from Ma. Ma tells him of Chun-hyang’s real intention to win over Mong-lyong for his social status. Without knowing, Mong-lyong urges for a second meeting with Chun-hyang. Bang-ja’s anger towards Mong-lyong for using his nobility to attract her heart triggers his plan to use Ma’s art of seduction. Successfully he wins her heart and body, but under the condition that he will help her to get married to Mong-lyong. Everything seems to go as planned but when Mong-lyong finds out their relationship, whole thing is about to go wrong.
Eustacia Vye, an exquisite beauty despairing at her boring life on an English moor, sets up a fateful lovers' triangle when she uses her wiles to entice two men, a dashing suitor and a successful man who made his name abroad and returned to his home on the heath.
Brenan arrives at Yegen on foot, interrupting the funeral held for the daughter of the local cacique. He collapses from dysentery and soon learns that the local cacique, Don Fernando, is leaving for Granada with his wife. Brenan rents Fernando’s house for a year and soon enlists the services of María as housekeeper and cook and becomes friends with a local man named Paco. Brenan spends most of his time reading, walking, and trying to write poetry.His friends Dora Carrington, Lytton Strachey (who is ill), and Ralph Partridge visit for a couple of days. Brenan, who has been maintaining a correspondence with Carrington, learns during the visit that Partridge and Carrington are engaged. He is crushed, as he had been in love with Carrington.
Pune-based widower Omkar Nath used to work as a Headmaster with a local school. When he was fired, his son, Deepak, hired a lawyer to sue the school. The school was represented by none other than Omkar's live-in son-in-law, Vinayak Agrawal. After some years the Court finally came to a decision and the verdict was in favor of Omkar. However, since the school had no funds, it was directed to surrender it's school bus in lieu of wages. Deepak takes charge of this bus, finds out it's dilapidated and makes it roadworthy. He also decides to ply in on the Sonawadi - Ratna Chowk route, not knowing that his problems are just about to start.
Three short tales from stories by Ichiyo Higuchi. In one, a young woman is degraded by her family after an arranged marriage. Another deals with the troubles heaped upon a young servant by her family and the wealthy people who employ her. The final story tells of a prostitute and her hopes of finding a new, respectable life.
The Beckmanns used to have more money than they could spend. Now it's all gone. The mother now supports her daughter off a small pension as they share a small apartment in wealthy Cascais, Portugal. The daughter, now in her mid-50s, never needed a job until now; she assures herself that she deserves more from life. Filmmaker Eva Mulvad observes their attempts at making ends meet, their hopes for the future, their malicious confrontations.
For no apparent reason, a mute young woman assaults a youth who delivers water on his bicycle, injuring him and ruining his bike. Surprisingly, she asks him to feed her fish while she is in custody. Her tiny apartment, he discovers, is a shrine to his favorite escape, the movies.
A young boy from a working-class family and a bored young girl from a rich family are falling in love. Soon, she's pregnant and the teenagers have to escape from their disapproving parents.
During the confusing and conspiratorial Joseon Dynasty King Gwang-hae orders his councilor, HEO Kyun, to find him a double in order to avoid the constant threat of assassination. HEO Kyun finds Ha-sun, a jester who looks remarkably like the king, and just as feared, Gwang-hae is poisoned. HEO Kyun proposes Ha-sun fill the role as the king until Gwang-hae recovers fully and grooms Ha-sun to look and act every bit the king. While assuming the role of the king at his first official appearance, Ha-sun begins to ponder the intricacies of the problems debated in his court. Being fundamentally more humanitarian than Gwang-hae, Ha-sun’s affection and appreciation of even the most minor servants slowly changes morale in the castle for the better. However, his chief opposition, PARK, notices the sudden shift in the king’s behavior and starts to ask questions.
The film treats the imprisoning hold of poverty; the disheartening odds of people rising from such social despair, and the ease in which those in the upper spheres of Society may descend.
Renata is a young high-class girl and Ulises is a poor guy. They both fall in love, but they must fight against everyone, specially Renata's rich parents, who want to stop their love by sending her to Canada. The story remarks the difference between social classes in mexico City, and their characters risk everything just to save their love.
"Umut" is the story of an illiterate man and his family, whose existence depends on his income as a horse cab driver. When one of his horses is killed by an automobile, and when it is clear that neither justice nor charity will prevail, the man, played by Güney, begins a slow slide into despair. On the advice of a local holy man, and fuelled by an indefatigable optimism, he sets out into the desert in quest of a mythical lost treasure, slipping further and further into that final, ineluctable moment where hope itself becomes the last terrible delusion.
Bonnie and cousin Sylvia, two very young children, are left at home in Willoughby Hall while their parents travel overseas. Only the servants and the prowling wolves are their companions. News arrives that Lord and Lady Willoughby are missing and an evil looking governess suddenly arrives at the hall...
"Pae" Arak Amornsupasiri stars as Kreng, a lovelorn veterinarian who thinks he still has a chance with his high-school crush, Fai (Yarinda Bunnag), when he learns she's just divorced. But she doesn't remember him from their school days. As the result of a drunken-driving arrest, Kreng is reunited with Fai, who comes to bail him and his best friend (her ex-husband) out of jail. Kreng is sentenced to perform community service, and so he becomes the volunteer teacher for a group of retirees who are learning how to use the Internet. This puts Kreng and Fai in touch with the older couple - Sompit (Sunsanee Wattananukul), a widow who has fallen in love with her classmate Jamrus (Krissana Setthatumrong). The silver-haired gent is a smooth talker, but he has a problem - he's losing his memory.
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.
The life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) as related by followers who gather after his death to tell stories so that Leone can record them: a privileged and virile youth, a prisoner of war, an heir who turns away from his father and gives all to the poor, a beggar for others, and an inspiration to friends who accept the Gospels' life of poverty. He seeks the Pope's blessing, and he endures persecution at the hands of the family of Chiara Offreduccio (1194-1253), who becomes St. Clare. Many join the order he has established and then rebel at his expectations. In near despair - and ill - he writes a Rule to take to the Pope; then, the Lord sends him a message. He dies smiling.
Two young brothers at opposite ends of Kyushu devise a magical plan to reunite their separated parents in Hirokazu Koreeda's benign and superbly acted picture of family life.
While the leader is in jail, his leftist group is controlled by his girlfriend, but her leadership lacks conviction and perspective. When the leader commits suicide in prison, despair and confusion rule the group and revenge and violence erupts in graphic way.
Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, meets the older Dutch woman Rika van der Lans and they fall in love. In pre-WWII Netherlands they could not be more different. The one black, the other white, 17 years between them and on top of that Rika already has four children with another man. They love each other, but then Rika appears to be pregnant...
Police Inspector Ram Yadav is a honest, handsome, and incorruptible young man. He lives with his sister-in-law, Shakuntala, and elder brother, Raj . A lovely yet petty thief, Pooja admires Ram so much that she moves in to his house in the guise of a maid-servant, and eventually claims that she is to bear his child. Ram, unable to handle this, agrees to marry her. His duties and investigation lead him to suspect the renowed and influential Appa Rao. Appa Rao is engraged at Ram, and watches and waits for an opportunity to strike back at him. Janardan (Mohnish Behl), Appa Rao's spoiled and way-ward son, initially attempts to pick up a college-girl, when she refuses and humiliates him publicly, he retaliates by setting her on fire in broad daylight, in front of several college students. No one is bold enough to stop Janardan, nor even attempt to save the girl. When Ram finds out, he immediately arrests Janardan and holds him in custody.
A wife charges her husband with sexual battery. He escapes from the police and goes into hiding. Three years pass, she divorces him and tries to put the pieces of her life back in order when suddenly he returns. Obsessed with rage and hatred, he kidnaps her and brings her to a house in remote wooded area. There he disciplines her vehemently, subjecting her to increasingly shocking forms of sexual torture, tetherings, suspensions and humiliations. Astonishingly, through the rage and lust, the pair develop a relationship that pushes the boundaries of lurid passions and perverse obsessions
The life of Camille Claudel, a french scupltor who becomes the apprentice of Auguste Rodin and later his lover. Her passion for her art and Rodin drive her further away from reason and rationality.
Based on a work of Josep Maria Benet i Jornet entitled "Testament", the film tells the story of an aging professor of medieval literature with the dilemma of deciding who will inherit his essay on "The Book of friend and loved" by Ramon Llull. Feeling near death as a result of illness, he discovers that the ideal person is a young and intelligent student he is in love with and who is dedicated to male prostitution.
It’s 1974 and Sam Bicke has lost everything. His wife leaves him with his three kids, his boss fires him, his brother turns away from him, and the bank won’t give him any money to start anew. He tries to find someone to blame for his misfortunes and comes up with the President of the United States who he plans to murder.
A decadent London aristocrat hires a man-servant to attend to his needs. However, the balance of power starts to shift...
Viennese doctor Josef Bruer meets with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to help him deal with his despair.
Canada 1931: The unsociable trapper Johnson lives for himself in the ice-cold mountains near the Yukon river. During a visit in the town he witnesses a dog-fight. He interrupts the game and buys one of the dogs - almost dead already - for $200 against the owner's will. When the owner Hasel complains to Mountie Sergeant Millen, he refuses to take action. But then the loathing breeder and his friends accuse Johnson of murder. So Millen, although sympathetic, has to try to take him under arrest - but Johnson defends his freedom in every way possible.
Hallie Parker and Annie James are identical twins separated at a young age because of their parents' divorce. unknowingly to their parents, the girls are sent to the same summer camp where they meet, discover the truth about themselves, and then plot with each other to switch places. Hallie meets her mother, and Annie meets her father for the first time in years.
Beautiful and wealthy young socialite Iris Carr is used to being at the heart of her social group, but when her friends' raucous and unsociable behaviour escalates whilst on holiday in the Balkans she resolves to seek out some tranquillity and travel home alone. But her expectations of peace are short-lived when, at the railway station, Iris wavers in the scorching heat and constant jostle of passengers, fainting suddenly on the platform. She wakes in time to be rushed onto the train, but with a pounding head and a feeling of being almost in a dream. Whilst in this malaise she is comforted by an older English lady called Miss Froy, but when Iris falls asleep she awakes to find Miss Froy has gone and her fellow passengers denying she ever existed.
Kentaro is an unsocial 35-year-old who lives with his parents and has never dated a woman. When Kentaro’s parents set up an arranged marriage interview with a girl named Nahoko and her parents, he falls in love for the first time in his life. However, the pair soon run into unexpected obstacles. Nahoko is vision impaired and can’t seem to break free of her doting parents. Meanwhile, Kentaro has no idea how to deal with the surge of new emotions he’s feeling.
New Jersey car mechanic Stacie Andree and her police detective girlfriend Laurel Hester both battle to secure Hester's pension benefits after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.
Multiple storylined drama set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England.
Germany in the early 1930s. Against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise, Hermann Hermann, a Russian émigré and chocolate magnate, goes slowly mad. It begins with his seating himself in a chair to observe himself making love to his wife, Lydia, a zaftig empty-headed siren who is also sleeping with her cousin. Hermann is soon given to intemperate outbursts at his workers, other businessmen, and strangers. Then, he meets Felix, an itinerant laborer, whom he delusionally believes looks exactly like himself. Armed with a new life insurance policy, he hatches an elaborate plot in the belief it will free him of all his worries.
Learn to forgive others, and get forgiveness to yourself. In the forgotten taiga village lives a gloomy and unsociable Trofim Rusanov, senior fishing inspector. He is used to the fact that each day is filled with routine. But one day, on his usual round through the wood, Trofim faces a shocking discovery. He finds a baby in an abandoned forest house. For several days he wanders around the severe uninhabited taiga, fighting both for his life and the life of the little child. Finally, Trofim finds the way home... He wants to find a woman who left a baby in the forest. It takes for him a superhuman effort to find the baby's mother. But this long quest leads him to another, completely different find
In this adaptation of Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, 14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence -- which is considerable.
Arthur Dichter thinks he is dying of insomnia, but the reality is much more frightening. In this surreal puzzle film, Dichter turns from his wife to a private journal to record his deepest fears. Anna knows her husband lives in a waking nightmare where delusions and reality blend, but is powerless to help him. As Arthur's disease gives way to despair, loneliness, and alienation, he and Anna hang onto their last shred of hope. This atmospheric film explores personal identity, marital discord, and contemporary life, turning narrative and chronology inside out to find the darkest corners of the human spirit.
Antoine is a musician. The forties, he suddenly decides to end his career. After a few days of wandering, he gets a job as a janitor. Mathilde lives in the old building in the east of Paris where he takes office. This is a young retiree, generous and involved, who divides his time between his associational activities and the life of the condominium. One night, she discovers a disturbing crack on the wall of his living room. Gradually, his anxiety grew to turn into panic and if the building collapsed ... Slowly, Antoine befriends the woman he feared to see slip into madness. Between slips and concerns, both form an awkward tandem, humorous and solidarity which will, perhaps, through this bad patch.
11 directors show their view on the terrorist attacks on the world trade center in New York.
Mussaddi Lal (Pankaj Kapoor), a retired school teacher goes on a pilgrimage for three months after his wife's death. When he returns, he finds his pension has been stopped and the pension office has declared him dead. What follows is his endless struggle against the petty corruption in the government office where the infamous gang of five -- Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Deven Bhojani, Hemant Pandey and Asawari Joshi -- are determined to fleece him till the very end.
Michael is a young boy living in a typical 1950's suburbanite home... except for his bizarre and horrific nightmares, and continued unease around his parents. Young Michael begins to suspect his parents are cooking more than just hamburgers on the grill outside, but has trouble explaining his fears to his new-found friend Sheila, or the school's social worker.
The film is about a 65-year old retiree Cory who gets reunited with her 1st love and finally, the supposed date happens 5 decades after they got separated.
With 8 ½ Frederico Fellini leaves a self-portrait where dreams and reality are a mix. With help from a most excellent cast and unique scenery this self reflecting film is one of his master works.
A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents.
Queen Victoria is deeply depressed after the death of her husband, disappearing from public. Her servant Brown, who adores her, through caress and admiration brings her back to life, but that relationship creates scandalous situation and is likely to lead to monarchy crisis.
As the devoutly single Don Johnston is dumped by his latest girlfriend, he receives an anonymous pink letter informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. The situation causes Don to examine his relationships with women instead of moving on to the next one, and he embarks on a cross-country search for his old flames who might possess clues to the mystery at hand.
A young samurai, Shojuro Sako, travels on the Tokaido to Edo with his two servants, Genta and Gonpachi. Gonpachi has been told by Shojuro's mother to prevent his Master from drinking... The road is not safe. On the way, they meet young orphan boy, Jiro, and many other travellers: A team of great directors, including Yasujrio Ozu, Hirochi Shimizu and Daisuko Ito, assisted Uchida with his remarkable post-war comeback film. It's an affable samurai road movie with a focus on unglamorus characters, as a dim-witted samurai and his servants traverse the Tokaido highway. Much of the film is played as comedy, making the brilliantly staged violent climax all the more shocking.
Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide -- and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

© Valossa 2015–2024