De Sica’s
‘Shoeshine’: Life in Dust,
Living in Dust
(Spoiler Alert)
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What’s wrong with you?
Nothing. Why?
Have you seen yourself?
This is how I look. If you don’t like it, don’t stare at me.
……….Those wretched people who come poking their noses into others’ affairs without reason or provocation, showing up at doorsteps like street beggars even when uninvited, bothering everyone, or judging someone like common louts without knowing anything about them—that last line is a sharp slap across the face of all such people. Back in 1946, Vittorio De Sica delivered this blow to all the shameless, witless, brazen people of the world through young Pasquale in the film ‘Shoeshine.’ Among the most successful films of the neo-realist movement, ‘Shoeshine’ ranks in the top five. Bimal Roy, director of ‘Do Bigha Zamin,’ and Raj Kapoor, the heart of Hindi cinema, considered this film the ideal standard of filmmaking. Some teenagers polishing shoes on the streets of Rome, Italy—they live on these very streets, finding both shelter and livelihood there. This film is a sensitive narrative of the various psychologies of street children: friendship, betrayal, murder, remorse, and other human impulses. This is ‘Shoeshine,’ a masterpiece by De Sica, whom luminaries like Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Raj Kapoor, Luis Buñuel, Orson Welles, and Scorsese have placed reverently on the pedestal of greatness. Let’s briefly learn the story of the film.
In post-war Rome, Pasquale and Giuseppe make their living polishing American soldiers’ shoes. Pasquale is fifteen and has no home. Giuseppe is younger, has a family, and they live like refugees alongside many other families. The two are close friends—they stay together, roam together, eat together. They’re saving money to buy a horse. Giuseppe’s older brother Attilio engages in various crimes. He and some friends tell Pasquale and Giuseppe to sell some blankets to a fortune-teller woman, promising them a commission. The blankets are stolen American blankets. They didn’t know this was actually a scheme to rob the woman’s house. When they go to sell the blankets at her home, some people disguised as police arrive with robbery in mind. They thrust a lot of money into the two friends’ hands and tell them to leave without telling anyone. With that money, they buy a horse and ride it joyfully around town—their dream fulfilled. The next day, the woman recognizes them on the street and turns them in to the police. They’re arrested as juvenile delinquents. This is where the film really begins. The two friends are locked in separate cells. They had promised each other never to speak to the police under any circumstances, but the police cleverly extract information from Pasquale and learn that Giuseppe’s older brother is part of the criminal gang. From that incident onward, Giuseppe ends his friendship with Pasquale. Open conflict begins between the two, ultimately taking the form of tragedy.
Now let’s visit some remarkable scenes.
Some fake police come to search the woman’s house on charges that she buys stolen goods. When they say they have a search warrant, the woman says, “I don’t understand… The police chief is my acquaintance, and he knows me too. His wife is my customer.”……This scene from 1946 Italy remains equally relevant today.
When Pasquale is being taken to a cell in the juvenile correctional facility, there’s no room left in that cell for Giuseppe. Pasquale reaches out from inside the cell and Giuseppe from outside—they grasp each other’s hands, refusing to let go, shouting that they want to stay together, that they won’t be separated into different cells. The scene of Giuseppe being dragged away by his collar to another cell is also very realistic. This very friendship later turns to enmity.
When Pasquale asks if smoking is allowed here, one boy in the cell replies, “No. It’s forbidden here. And precisely because it’s forbidden, we all smoke.” Children do more of what they’re told not to do, out of defiance. In that scene, we see a boy who studies hard and is called ‘Professor’—everyone makes faces at him. Several aspects of adolescent psychology are subtly portrayed in this film.
Pasquale and Giuseppe are brought to the police chief’s office to extract information about the criminal gang. When Pasquale refuses to give information, Giuseppe is taken to the next room and severely beaten. Hearing his friend being beaten and crying, Pasquale gives up the information. In reality, they were hitting a sack with a belt in the next room while a boy stood nearby pretending to cry and scream. Giuseppe had been taken out through the back door of the next room, which Pasquale couldn’t see. Later, when Pasquale goes to Giuseppe’s cell, he learns that Giuseppe wasn’t actually beaten. Giuseppe then asks, “You didn’t say anything, did you?” The answer comes: “No.”
The bathroom scene is worth mentioning. Giuseppe publicly calls Pasquale a police informant in front of everyone, because the police arrested his older brother after extracting information from Pasquale. Meanwhile, a razor is found under Pasquale’s bed in his room. For this offense, the police beat Pasquale mercilessly with their belts. Pasquale suspects Giuseppe did it. In Giuseppe’s cell lives an older boy named Archangeli, quite shrewd. During the conflict between Pasquale and Giuseppe in the bathroom, the leader-like Archangeli steps forward and picks a fight with Pasquale. He falls and hits the back of his head. The scene of confrontation between the two sides and the police arriving to disperse them is memorable.
After the court hearing, Giuseppe is sentenced to one year, Pasquale to two and a half years in prison. Giuseppe’s family had hired a lawyer for him, but since Pasquale had no family, a government lawyer represented him in court. Since he wasn’t paid, he came to court unprepared and had little to say in Pasquale’s defense. Even today, public prosecutors, unless pressured by other reasons, don’t feel much urgency to fight for free clients and come to court without studying the case.
One night a movie was being shown at the juvenile correctional facility. That night, according to Archangeli’s plan, he escaped with Giuseppe and his companions. Chaos ensued. In the children’s stampede, a boy was seriously injured, trampled underfoot. Various rumors spread among the juveniles. It’s human nature to exaggerate what one hears. The imaginative mind takes hearsay and shapes it, then spreads it from ear to ear. Giving and receiving gossip is such fun! How many escaped? Some say 7, some say 20. The injured boy—some spread word that he died. Some say those who escaped have been caught. Some say a car was waiting for them, they escaped by car. Giuseppe escaped on horseback—this too was heard. Watching this scene shows how rumors spread.
Driven by anger and a desire for revenge against Giuseppe, Pasquale wants to tell the police where they’re hiding. Taking Pasquale with them, the police go searching. They see Giuseppe and Archangeli fleeing on horseback. The horse walks swiftly across a small bridge. With a metal rod in hand, Pasquale tells them to get off the horse. Archangeli jumps off and runs away immediately. Pasquale throws down the rod, unbuckles his belt, and begins beating Giuseppe randomly. He had been beaten the same way due to Giuseppe’s betrayal. Today he has a chance for revenge. Moving to escape the belt beating, Giuseppe eventually falls through the broken railing of the bridge. His head strikes the large stones below. The horse stands on the bridge. Pasquale calls Giuseppe’s name, shouting and crying as he goes down under the bridge to find Giuseppe is no more. “Oh, what have I done! Oh, what have I done!” Pasquale wails and weeps. The duty of old friendship awakens in death. The police arrive. They stand stunned, staring at them. The horse sways and walks away from there. Today it is free. Every sorrow opens a door of opportunity. Everything was for this horse—the entire story revolves around it. The horse brought sorrow into their lives; today Pasquale and Giuseppe are free from this trap of poverty. Pasquale’s screams can be heard. Music plays in the background. The horse walks away. Slowly. Today no one will stop it.
‘Shoeshine’ is essentially a mirror of the lives of the poor, hungry, hopeless. Watching the film feels like listening to a Mozart symphony—there’s a melody spread throughout. Orson Welles, known as the filmmaker’s filmmaker, said after watching it: “I see no one among my contemporaries who can match me with a camera in hand. But what De Sica has shown, I cannot do. I recently watched his Shoeshine again, and while watching, I felt the camera had vanished, there was no screen before me; what I was seeing was not a movie but life itself.” Just as the bicycle in ‘The Bicycle Thief,’ the dog in ‘Umberto D.,’ the horse in ‘Shoeshine’ is a symbol of freedom, beauty, dreams, and hope. When we look at these street children who constantly lie, fight among themselves, and cheat each other, if we think a little, we could understand that they’re actually paying the price for our negligence and irresponsibility. Pasquale and Giuseppe bonded in friendship out of necessity to survive in this society; that bond was broken also due to society’s failure, and through Giuseppe’s death, the bond seemed to be reborn!