Tonight on TV: If you want to discover Italian neorealism, you can start with a masterpiece

After spending several years in Hollywood, where she notably filmed under the direction of Sidney Lumet and Henry Hathaway, Sophia Loren returned to Italy. Her husband, producer Carlo Ponti, then plans to offer her a role befitting her talent to celebrate her return.

It will be Cesira, a young widow raising her daughter in Italy in 1943 and who, after a violent bombing, decides to leave Rome to return to her native village.

After L’Or de Naples, La Paysanne aux pieds nus marks the actor’s reunion with one of the great directors of Italian neorealism: Vittorio de Sica.

The latter signs a poignant and intense social melodrama adapted from the novel of the same name by Alberto Moravia, which particularly depicts the war crimes committed by the French expeditionary forces in the Italian region of Chiosarie during the Second World War.

As Anna Magnan’s worthy successor, Sophia Loren shines as a woman of strong character, both stubborn and generous, whose striking beauty hides troubling weaknesses. Her stirring performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Best Actress Award at the 14th Cannes Film Festival.

Barefoot Peasant Vittorio De Sica with Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Renato Salvatore…

Tonight at Arte at 20:55.