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      Bitter Rice

      Released Sep 18, 1950 1h 47m Drama List
      100% Tomatometer 8 Reviews 81% Audience Score 250+ Ratings Francesca (Doris Dowling) and Walter (Vittorio Gassman) are a criminally inclined couple who accidentally part ways while on the run from the law. Luckily, Francesca falls in with a group of peasant women and opts to hide out among them as they toil in the rice fields of the Po Valley. To her surprise, in her cover she discovers a simple but satisfying life filled with hard work and friendship. So when Walter resurfaces, their reunion doesn't go quite as he had expected. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Dec 15 Buy Now

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      Critics Reviews

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      Richard Brody New Yorker Fuses the class-based politics—and the on-location authenticity—of neorealism with a smoldering romantic melodrama. Dec 5, 2022 Full Review Dennis Harvey 48 Hills Bitter Rice made neorealism popular by adding bombshell Silvana Mangano to the minestrone... Jan 22, 2024 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com De Santis creates something a bit stranger with this hybrid, a darker examination of sex and violence from the perspective of two central female characters... Its social commentary seems incredibly progressive. Rated: 4/5 Oct 14, 2020 Full Review Eric Melin Scene-Stealers.com There is so much to be learned from Bitter Rice, even today. It is a perfect surprise, proving how important and how much fun it is to discover older movies with fresh eyes. Rated: 3/4 May 31, 2016 Full Review Josef Braun Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta) Shameless eye candy with a social message. Feb 1, 2016 Full Review Austin Trunick Under the Radar [A] femininely-charged setting sets Bitter Rice apart from the masculine, urban underworlds typically inhabited within the noir genre. Rated: 7.5/10 Jan 16, 2016 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Must see Italian realism, with unique scenes of the seasonal rice harvesting workforce. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member From the show stopping extended opening sequence, in which our criminals, stolen necklace in hand, attempt to evade the police at their heels by blending into the throng of departing female workers at the train station, it's obvious we're in the hands of an energized visual storyteller, one with empathy to spare. Bitter Rice is both a beautiful and respectable black and white neorealist portrait, and a fully functional crackling, sexy crime drama. As it takes its plot to the watery fields themselves for the duration of the story, it becomes apparent that Bitter Rice is at once "a film" and "a movie". Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review kevin w A powerhouse of a film from late 1940s Italy with a subtext of class unhappiness stitched into it, a couple of big city lowlifes hide out amongst mostly poor women rice field harvesters after a big heist, the police on their tail. What happens next is the film's message, but the scenario is so unique as to justify multiple viewings. And Silvana Mangero is a volcanic eruption! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Starts out great with a cool set-up and premise, interesting characters, and fantastic camera work. Unfortunately it descends into schlock by the end and we've got a cheesy shoot out between the two main characters. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Interessante l'ambientazione nelle campagne con le mondine, il resto della trama pero' non e' cosi' forte e inoltre sembra tutto un po' prevedibile. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member A quintessential film of Italian neorealism of postWWII, though it became an international sensation due to the overt sex appeal and shot of breasts of Silvana Mangano, then only 19. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Bitter Rice

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Francesca (Doris Dowling) and Walter (Vittorio Gassman) are a criminally inclined couple who accidentally part ways while on the run from the law. Luckily, Francesca falls in with a group of peasant women and opts to hide out among them as they toil in the rice fields of the Po Valley. To her surprise, in her cover she discovers a simple but satisfying life filled with hard work and friendship. So when Walter resurfaces, their reunion doesn't go quite as he had expected.
      Director
      Giuseppe De Santis
      Screenwriter
      Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Mario Monicelli, Gianni Puccini
      Distributor
      Lux Film Distributing Corporation
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      Italian
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Sep 18, 1950, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Dec 15, 2015
      Runtime
      1h 47m
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