At the beginning of the film, the shoeshine boys traded on the black market in exchange for a horse. When a child rides a horse, the director gives the meaning of freedom and innocence, the happy freedom of riding a horse and the later being disciplined for participating in fraud, those children who shovel shoes on the street and accidentally sell stolen goods are the inevitable creation of war, and it is bitter. . They can't see the future direction at all, until they are used as bait, innocent children cannot control their own destiny in a defeated country. On the prison cart, the children looked through the iron fence full of appeal and love. The iron fence represented the beginning of their loss of freedom and the joy of riding each other. The music also aptly contrasted such emotions, and the backlit shots of them entering the cell made the audience think about their destiny. In the dialogue between the dean of the correctional home and his staff during the rounds, the director deliberately added words about the fate of these children and pointed the finger at social injustice and real turmoil.
Almost every Italian neorealist film has children (especially boys) as the protagonist or supporting role. It is even more painful to see the riddled world through the innocent eyes of children. The shock brought out through the child's eyes can be said to be the strongest. The former includes Rossellini's "Germany Year Zero" and Desica's "Shoe Shine Boy"; the latter includes Rossellini's "Rome Unfortified City", Desica "The Bicycle Thief" and "The Child Is Watching" We"; in Antonioni's "Scream" it is a little girl.
"My intention, as I have said before, is to find the dramatic elements in daily life, and to unearth magical factors from materials that have long become platitudes from the perspective of most other people." The person who said this sentence , Is Vittorio de Sica, the standard bearer of Italian "new realism" movies. As one of the most important film thoughts in the history of world cinema, the main initiator and representative of the “New Realism” movement in Italy, De Sica exposes social reality through a profound and rich realistic picture, and has a great influence on the world cinema. Development and direction have had a profound impact.
In 1946, Desica completed his important film "Shoe Shine Boy". When it was released, this talented neo-realist film failed miserably at the domestic box office. A few months later, it won the 20th Oscar Special Honor (Best Foreign Language Film) Award, it is the first non-English film to win an Oscar after Renoir's "The Great Phantom" was nominated for Best Picture. It is another film on children's issues following "The Children Are Watching Us" in 1943. In 1948, "Shoe Shine Boy" won a special Oscar award. The Oscar Organizing Committee commented: "This excellent movie has brought us into a miserable life in a war-torn country. It proves that the spirit of creativity can win over all disasters." In fact, it was this film that promoted the establishment of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Two years later, De Sica won the Special Oscar again for his "Bicycle Thief", which was considered by posterity to be one of the greatest movies in film history.
Desica is a famous Italian director. He is good at shooting people's lives under the society. "Shoe Shine Boy" is a movie that uses children as the theme to reflect the real life after World War II. This has some similarities with Pesirini's "Germany Year Zero", but the difference is that "Shoe Shine Boy" is a process from social cruelty to the destruction of pure friendship. And "Germany Year Zero" uses the dark reality and the sinisterness of the human heart to corrupt children's hearts. Basically, the problems raised by the two films are the same, but the friendship between the children in "Shoe Shine Boy" is the most painful for me.
Because of poverty, two young boys of the same age, Mark and Jupesai, are the same as other children persecuted by the war. In order to live, they have become shoe-shining boys. Because of the money, the two of them were designed and involved in a case. In the crime case, both of them were detained in a juvenile house. In the juvenile house, many young children show expressions or behaviors that are more mature than the actual age. Obviously, everyone is to survive, and everyone is to consolidate their small status and reputation in this anarchic state. King dominates. For the two simple teenagers, Mark and Jupeise, separation has become the cruelest fact. Mark loves Giupese like his brother. In this chaotic society, Giupese can be said to be happy. He has the love of his parents and Mark's love. However, he is still a child after all. It is easy to be influenced by the outside world. Because of misbelieving the rumors, he misunderstood the Mark who had always loved him. The two people who went against each other finally met on the verge of death, and Mark's accidental killing of Jupese might really be the best ending. The word "death" at the time can be said to be a form of relief or another way of living, which is only the soul. Many people say that they are stubborn and incomplete, which is obvious.
There are two most important scenes in the film. One is that the two kids are riding horses on the horse farm, then they shine shoes for others, and after they buy horses, they ride horses on the street. For location shooting, the camera moves freely, representing the simple and beautiful wishes of the child. I believe this scene will infect many people. Later, they were caught, and the camera shot the scene outside the prison vehicle through the iron windows. They have been separated from the free and beautiful outside world. The second important scene is also the most pen-and-ink scene in the film. Shooting in the studio, the tall juveniles are dirty and dark, and their small prisons are even more crowded. The kind-hearted and righteous children become better here. Fighting suspicion and full of resentment. In addition, the film also shows the working scene of the shoe-shining boy. Many American soldiers and prostitutes walk around in front of the hotel. This is a ravaged country; the court shot by Desika is tall and tidy, and a group of children appear so in front of it. Short, their fate can be determined and killed at will.
As for the juvenile house where the children live, it is, to be precise, a youthful prison. Ninety percent of these innocent children were imprisoned in this harsh environment for no reason when they were still young. In the film, the little boy with lung disease inadvertently expressed a kind of hope, but in the end he died, and the hope in Mark's heart also died. The director makes a lot of ugliness, goodness, beauty, and evil in the world be attached to different children, and uses them to express all the emotions and status quo in this world. If you slowly chew this piece, you will easily find that every child has a different mission. They use their own experiences to tell all the audience what reality is.
The story of a supporting role in the movie "Shoe Shine Boy" left a deep impression on me. The little boy was detained in the juvenile prison and looked forward to his mother to visit him every day. When he waited expectantly for the moment he came to visit, he found that the person was not his mother. His mother's friend brought him a big package and a card. The little boy looked at the "luxuries" in the juvenile office but was not happy at all. He walked into the cell door holding the big package, thinking of his mother as he walked, and couldn't help but wipe the tears. The little boy's aggrieved appearance made people feel pity. After he sat down among his cellmates and shared what his mother had brought him, he looked at the card his mother gave him. He thought about many reasons why his mother didn't come to see him...
The little girl who used to ask Giuseppe for money to his mother once walked behind the police car and acted as the truth-telling child in the "Emperor's New Clothes" in the court. She scolded Jupesai as a bastard and villain. It is the director's condemnation of the loss of innocence. Street children rushed to the courtroom, looking up at the statue above their heads. The huge spatial contrast and contrast is the foreshadowing of an unfair trial.
Spiritual animals often appear in movies as a metaphor. In the film, the "sniper" of Mark and Jupeise's beloved horse turned around and ran. This scene reminded me of the horse that fell to the ground in Tarkovsky's "Andrei Lufsky". Doesn’t the horse’s departure and the horse’s injuries all echo the owner’s situation? Didn’t it all enhance the appeal of the film?
"Shoe Shine Boy" is a milestone in the "new realism" film movement, and many of its innovations have aroused unanimous cheers from critics at the time. On-site location shooting, the use of extras, the use of documentary photography style... these innovative methods derived from economic considerations are also an artistic choice. The effect of realism is powerful, especially after the two young boys were arrested in the juvenile prison, the audience really and intuitively witnessed the bullying and submission between prisoners and the real life of prison guards. De Sica himself, as an excellent actor, has a special ability to guide the extras to make perfect near-professional performances. The tenderness and sensitivity that the two little boys showed when they were cold and ruthless came from their own familiarity and understanding of the roles they played, and they deeply moved the audience.
As one of the works that triggered the trend of "new realism" movies, "Shoe Shine Boy" has caused a worldwide sensation. It is the first non-English film to win an Oscar, conquering all sympathetic audiences in the world who have not been wiped out by the war.
View more about Shoeshine reviews
