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 The Children are Watching Us More at IMDbPro »I bambini ci guardano (original title)

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20 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
The first Neo-Realist Masterpiece, 29 December 2000
10/10
Author: Aw-komon from Los Angeles, CA

An unbelievably great film made a year before Visconti's "Ossessione" which is often wrongly considered the first official neo-realist film. It's a bit melodramatic in parts but filled with scene after scene of immortal, poignant truths not only about the way a child sees adults but the way everyone sees everyone else in reality and in the 'real world' where purity of soul and honesty matters and is always heroic, where as Pascal wrote, man's greatness is so obvious it can even be deduced from his wretchedness. This extremely fleeting 'real world' is never fixed but nevertheless always there in some essence or another waiting to be discovered and 'captured' underneath a thousand and one veils. Neo-realism provided techniques for snaring those elusive essences better. And these techniques have endured to this day, where the sons of the sons of neo-realist films from all around the world are instantly recognized as valuable and given acclaim (most recently a slew of impressive films from Iranian directors). Even if De Sica hadn't gone on to make "Shoeshine," "Bicycle Thief," and "Umberto D" he already had enough in this one little film to earn respect as one of the supreme artists of the 20th century.

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18 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Very powerful, 12 August 2001
10/10
Author: zetes from Saint Paul, MN

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

We see true directorial talent budding in the form of Vittorio de Sica in this near-masterpiece. He would go on to direct at least two genuine masterpieces (and others might include other films that I either had a problem with or I haven't yet seen, e.g., Shoeshine), The Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D. The Children are Watching has a couple of flaws, but it ends up being so emotionally powerful that those might escape you.

Like The Bicycle Thieves (and like Shoeshine, from what I hear), The Children are Watching takes the point of view of a young child, Prico. His parents' marriage is falling apart - his mother is in love with (and eventually leaves with) her lover, Roberto. His father is a surprisingly sensitive and loving man who is destroyed by his wife's infidelity. Of course, Prico can hardly understand this. Eventually, after Prico gets deathly ill (a fever hallucination that the boy has seems suspiciously like Dorothy's tornado fantasy in The Wizard of Oz to me - even some of the music seemed similar; hmmm...), his mother returns because she can't stand being away from her son. Although her husband wants her to get out of his life, Prico is too insistent that she stays, so she moves back in. After a few months, Prico has recovered and his father and mother have begun to love each other again.

The main flaw of this film is the fact that, because the point of view so adamantly sticks to Prico, we're never able to learn much about his parents. His father is better developed than his mother. We never get to learn much of the mother's point of view, and in the end, she seems like a simple tramp without any other motive.

Like I said, though, the ending is so powerful that you won't notice this much. However, if the mother's character had been opened a bit more to the audience, that beautiful kick-in-the-teeth final shot would have been doubly as powerful, with the audience experiencing the emotions both from Prico's point of view and his mother's. Vittorio de Sica, at least in these neorealist films, has a marvelous knack for hitting the audience where it hurts with the ending. The Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D had two of the most powerful, poignant, and complex endings ever made. The Children are Watching is equal to those in this way. Just thinking about it now brings me to tears. Seek this film out if you can. It's well worth it. 9/10

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17 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
I cried and I'm a big fat guy, 25 January 2005
9/10
Author: Dire_Straits from United States

Luckily, this movie came on Turner Classic Movies a few years ago and I had the opportunity to see it.

Since then, I have searched for reviews and couldn't find one; it's nice to see that other people have seen this de Sica masterpiece. ;) I was beginning to wonder if I was the only American to see this.

If you have seen it, how can you not love this? As I said, I saw this a few years ago - and only saw it once - yet, there are so many images in my head as I think of the film. The story is heart-wrenching. I cried when I watched it. {blushing}

This film made me a fan of neo-realism. It also was the impetus for me to watch more of de Sica's films and then those of Rossellini and Fellini.

A terrific 'tear-jerker' which SHOULD NOT BE MISSED if you ever get the chance. You'll have missed something very special if you miss it!

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A forgotten classic worth discovering, 3 December 2006
8/10
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

The Children Are Watching Us is for my money a better film than Bicycle Thieves - the unforgiving ending is certainly much harder hitting. Set in the last great summer of Fascist Italy, much of it intriguingly takes place in a Rome and a coastal resort that don't even notice there's a war going on: no shortages, no bomb damage, not even a single army uniform in sight, which in a way gives it a more timeless quality - even the apartment blocks its middle class characters live in can still be found all over Italy. The story is a simple one, with a child caught in the middle of his parents dissolving marriage and finding his loyalties torn as his weak-willed mother constantly returns to her lover, but it's told with a surprising degree of naturalism. It also takes on an extra dimension with the knowledge that De Sica was himself having an affair when he was making it. Very impressive.

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12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
You ll need a big box of Kleenex to get through this!, 28 October 2006
8/10
Author: trpuk1968 from United Kingdom

The story relates the disintegrating marriage of a bourgeois couple, indicated through their modern, spacious apartment and the housekeeper they employ. This distinguishes the film from the better known Italian neo realist works which typically take place against a backdrop of poverty and deprivation. The story is seen through the eyes of their young son, Prico.

Far more obscure than de Sica's other work, this is still nonetheless a classic because it endures, the story could take place just as easily today, with a few minor adjustments of clothing and details.

I don t agree this film is sentimental, it manages to stay just the right side of mawkishness. However, it still tugs at your heart strings, the child is just superb. The sign of a genius director that De Sica was able to manage the logistics of the crew, the equipment and coax this sort of performance out of a four year old.

This film put me in mind of Brief Encounter and it would be interesting to watch the two alongside. Both deal with infidelity and both are fantastically moving films.

The Criterion DVD is an excellent transfer. There are a couple of interviews on the disc and the accompanying sleeve notes are really informative.

Highly recommended.

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8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Cinematography & Acting for Emotional Depth, 20 April 2006
10/10
Author: (tooter.ted@gmail.com) from United States

This film caught me by surprise, I should say, gripped me by surprise. First, is its power to move deeply about which others have written. What might easily have seemed hollow and sentimental becomes compelling and searching because of the detailed performances given to all four of the central characters. Most amazing of these is Luciano De Ambrosis portrayal of Prico through whose eyes the story is told. The DVD includes an excellent 1984 interview with De Ambrosis in which he talks about working with De Sica. At one point the father carelessly knocks Prico into the side of a door. We know at once that the hurt to Prico is more emotional than physical, and we sympathize, but at the same time we also are drawn into the father's anguish that has brought him to this abuse. The moment is brief but hits home because it is well prepared for.

Of course the story through the boy's eye is the film through De Sica's lens, and it is always a revealing lens, emotionally caught up, frequently looking around corners or looking up at adult gossip. The world shown occasionally enters dream realities. One actual dream sequence made me think of Dali's questionable sequence in Hitchcock's "Spellbound," just three years later. However, where that is self-conscious and anything but dreamlike, this carried me off and felt genuine. I almost didn't notice as was drawn in, and everything reverberated feverishly as I was brought back. As one of the commentaries makes clear, the film had special resonance with the summer of 1942, just before war broke out. That only adds to its heart-wrenching power. The Children Are Watching Us is a magnificent plea for love and compassion. If it does not touch you, you must be very hard-hearted, indeed.

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10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
The suffering of a child., 6 August 2001
Author: Gerald A. DeLuca (italiangerry@gmail.com) from United States

THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US might be our favorite De Sica film and one of our favorite Italian films of all time. It portrays with delicate sympathy the suffering of a child whose parents are separated because of the mother's love affair with another man. While the husband and wife are perfectly portrayed, by Emilio Cigoli and Isa Pola, the film belongs to little Luciano De Ambrosis as the five-year-old Prico'. His performance, which runs the gamut of joy, anguish, and sickly fear, staggers us. But of course it was director De Sica who was to work miracles later with the child actors of SHOE SHINE and THE BICYCLE THIEF. The conclusion to this heartbreaking film is no less unforgettable than those of De Sica's better-known masterpieces. It is one of the most indispensable of movies from Italy's fascist era. And it is shamefully unknown today.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US (Vittorio De Sica, 1944) ***, 18 September 2006
7/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

De Sica's first Neo-Realist film had been neglected over the years and, so, it was a surprise to see it being added to "The Criterion Collection". Ultimately, it's not up to his later more celebrated quartet - SHOESHINE (1946), THE BICYCLE THIEF (1948), MIRACLE IN MILAN (1951) and UMBERTO D (1952) - but, taken on its own modest merits, it's a reasonably effective work coming from an actor best-known for light fare!

As indicated by the title, the narrative is seen through the eyes of the sensitive young son of a working-class couple; the mother is having an affair and the boy is witness to - and the victim of - the inevitable disintegrating family ties, being bounced around from the household of one begrudging relative to another. The couple make a determined effort to stay together for the sake of the child (having to contend, besides, with the nosy and gossiping tenants of their condominium) - but the impetuous young man who has come between man and wife won't give her up so easily, and he finally manages to tear her from them for good. In desperation, the husband commits suicide…

The plot is pretty melodramatic and the film is infused with a good deal of sentimentality (there are plenty of close-ups of the boy weeping his heart out, for instance); clearly, De Sica's hand isn't confident as yet in juggling the various elements that comprise such slices-of-life - for one thing, he has used actors rather than the non-professionals who would come to serve him in good stead in his subsequent Neo-Realist classics. Even so, the three leading performances are undeniably excellent...while the film's real coup is to be found in its devastating - and truly uncompromising - conclusion.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
one of the finest Neorealist films ever made--in fact, one of the finest films ever made...period!!, 7 July 2006
10/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The Italian Neorealist movement in films began about the time this movie was made and extended to the mid 1950s. It produced some of the finest films made anywhere (such as UMBERTO D, OPEN CITY and MIRACLE IN MILAN). The films were called "Neorealist" because they did not feature big name actors but ordinary people in ordinary situations. And, because so many of these stories were told with such love and depth, I am a huge fan of the genre.

Of the Neorealist directors, my favorite has been Vittorio De Sica. The films he made during this time period are among his very best and when fame and recognition came his way and the budgets increased, the films generally suffered because they lost that human touch (though there are some notable exceptions such as TWO WOMEN--very Neorealistic in style except that it starred Sophia Loren). These movies all have incredible camera work and artistry and weave a wonderful, but often heart-breaking tale.

Up until I saw this film, I thought UMBERTO D was perhaps De Sica's best film, but now I am convinced that this much less famous film is the finest one he made. THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US is simply magnificent and I can't think of a single way the script could have been improved. Again and again, the director made some very brave choices and risked alienating his audience in order to make a realistic and gut-wrenching film--not another Hollywoodized film with a happy ending.

The film focuses on a short period in the life of a darling little boy ("Pricò"), played marvelously by Luciano De Ambrosis. His was perhaps one of the best performances I have seen by a young child actor, as he was able to cry and react so perfectly. I'm sure a lot of this performance can be attributed to the director.

Pricò's mother is a selfish woman who has been cheating on her husband. Eventually, she runs off and leaves the apparently decent husband to try to raise the boy. His family is not at all supportive nor is his wife's sister and they all behave like it's a huge burden to help raise this sweet kid and the neighbors offer no support--only gossip. There was no daycare back then and the man is beside himself trying to do the right thing. When he has run out of options, his wife surprisingly returns and the man tries very hard to patch things up--taking them on a holiday and spending a lot of money trying to make her happy. Eventually, the father had to return to Rome to work and left them to enjoy their vacation for a few more days. Unfortunately, shortly after he departs, the old boyfriend returns and the mother doesn't try very hard to dissuade him. In fact, after a little while, she completely ignores Pricò. The boy is only about four, but is pretty bright, so he realizes he isn't wanted by Mom so he plans on running away to rejoin Dad. When he wanders off to the train station, he's nearly killed by a speeding train and the cops end up bringing him back to Mom at the hotel.

Instead of learning from this or taking more responsibility, Mom sends the boy home to Dad and runs off with her boyfriend once again. She doesn't even let her husband know to his face--sending a telegram instead informing him she wasn't returning. The man is overwhelmed and reaches out to his son in one of the more touching scenes in the film (since, in general, men are usually very controlled with their kids). However, with no other options, he takes the boy to stay at a boarding school with the church. A short time later, the father kills himself and Mom comes to the school to see Pricò. However, in a gut-wrenching scene, the boy refuses to accept her and walks away as the film concludes.

Okay, I'll admit that my summary sounds pretty grim. Well, that's because this is a grim film. Child abandonment and adultery IS a grim topic and I truly appreciate how the writer, Cesare Zavattini, refuses to back away from the pain or give hope when none is due. It was said that the director himself wanted the film to end on the negative note with the boy rejecting the mother. Hollywood and even Italian convention of the day would have dictated a happier ending (and probably not even included the suicide) but in order to achieve real lasting impact and reality this would have ruined the film.

Apart from the perfect ending, the film is full of so many marvelous moments with great acting. The boy and his family were able to cry or get misty-eyed repeatedly during the film--not a small thing for an actor and especially for a little boy. Also, practically everyone in the audience must have had their hearts break during many of the most difficult moments, or, in the case of the train almost hitting the boy, there's no doubt that the audiences of the day must have cried out in horror at the seemingly imminent death of the boy. While very emotionally charged, though, the film never is schmaltzy or manipulative but seems real throughout. An impressive and perfect film.

PS--Although I often do NOT watch the extras on DVDs, the extras on this Criterion DVD are essential. First, the adult De Ambrosis (Pricò) talks about the filming and it gives great insight into the movie. Second, Callisto Costulich (a film scholar) has a segment that explains the context for the film. This was important because the movie shows no evidence that Italy was at war--even though it came out in 1943 (or 1944--both dates are given on the DVD). This is interesting stuff not to be missed.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Italian melo-drama., 1 October 2009
8/10
Author: bobsgrock from United States

Vittorio De Sica, at this time better known for being in front of the camera, started to come into his own as a director with this touching story of a family coming apart at the seams in 1940s Italy. The story centers around Luciano De Ambrosis as Prico, a young child who must suffer the consequences of his parents' actions, specifically his mother. Her decision to run away with her lover causes serious turmoil amongst the father and son as well as her sister and the grandmother.

De Sica tells most of the story from the child's point of view, which causes the audience to sympathize with Prico and the father. The one weakness would be that the mother is not as sympathetic as she should be and that takes away from the power of the emotional ending, despite it still being very moving. At times it is almost too hard to watch; to see these people tear themselves from each other is almost unbearable, but De Sica has style and grace in his visuals, which makes it more emotional than difficult.

This was the launching point for De Sica, who would go on to direct The Bicycle Thief and Umberto D. in addition to becoming a world-renown director of realism and family turmoil. While not his strongest, this is certainly a very good film that captures child memories and disturbances and makes us brace for them as much as Prico does.

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