Customer Reviews

Bread, Love and Dreams

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I rented this DVD because I had seen this movie listed in a book that included it in their top 1000 movies of all-time. I really don't think it belongs in that category but I wasn't able to give it a real proper evaluation because I only had the option of listening to it in English or Italian. The Italian version didn't offer subtitles so I was stuck with dudded English dialogue. That meant listening to "actors" whose talents were more along the lines of timing their monotone English dialogue to fit the movement of the actual actor's lips. That's too bad because I had a sense that there was a lot of emotional Italian being spoken. In all fairness, there was SOME animation to the dubbing voices but it couldn't have been the same as the real deal.

The story line was simple and got simpler as it went on. The characters were rather predictable yet likeable. Nothing too grandiose takes places here. It's more of a glimpse of life in a remote Italian village. However, in order to appreciate the local color, you'd do better to find a version that had Italian language with English subtitles (assuming, of course, that you don't speak Italian). It might just elevate this film from a 3 star to a 4 star rating.

"Pane, Amore e Fantasia" (1953) ("Bread, Love and Dreams" ) ascribes to the Italian "Neorealist" film school, but instead of focusing in WWII episodes or dark immediate post war issues as "Paisan" (1946) (directed by Roberto Rossellini), "The Bicycle Thief" (1948) (directed by Vittorio De Sica) or "Bitter Rice" (1950) (directed by Giuseppe De Santis), director Luigi Comencini chooses a sparkling comedy of customs to show Italian life in the late `40s and early `50s.

The story plot is very simple: a new Police Chief (The Marshal) arrives to a tiny Italian village to command a six men crew.
Automatically he is situated at the top of community's social pyramid at the same level with the Priest, the Landowner and the Midwife.
In this village as in any small village all over the world the main sport is gossip. To make things hard to the Marshall, there is a beautiful disinhibited young peasant: Frisky (La Bersagliera). Seeing her and becoming infatuated take just a heartbeat. From here on comedy evolves full of picturesque details and endearing comic scenes.

Vittorio De Sica as the middle-aged Marshal is superb; he shows all the emotions that torment an aging bachelor spurred by a rural beauty. Gina Lollobrigida is just indescribable, lovely, fresh and enticing as Frisky. This movie launched her as a first rate star.
Music score is correct, composed by prolific Alessandro Cicognini, he wrote more than 70 movie scores.

This is a very commendable film for any one who wishes to see fine and lovely comedy.

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

The lack of English subtitles in the Mya/Ryko release of this major 1953 Italian film is shameful -- especially at a list price of $24.95. Mya is an Italian-based company producing DVDs of European films -- mostly but not entirely horror/action/sexploitation films -- for the US market. If they think American viewers are content to put up with cheesy dubbing by nonactors who sound nothing like the original performers, they are sadly mistaken, and deserve to be boycotted.

BREAD, LOVE AND DREAMS is a gem, a film to be treasured and seen - as its sequel, BREAD, LOVE AND JEALOUSY - when one feels nostalgic.

It evokes a bygone era, village-life in the poverty-stricken mountains of central Italy in the immediate post-war period. Its simple storyline, its colorful cast of characters and the naive quality of the situations in which they are involved tend to bring about laughter and tears, sometimes alternately, sometimes simultaneously.

The actors are all first-rate, beginning with the great Vittorio DeSica, followed by Mario Carotenuto, Tina Pica and Roberto Risso. This is the film, along with FAN FAN LA TULIPE, that made Gina Lollobrigida a major star. She is perfect as the young bersagliera. A truly unforgettable performance.