IL FERROVIERE

A Rome under construction that steals space from children’s play, low wages, strikes and scabs: the only salvation is in the sense of belonging to an ancient, popular world whose roots give strength to face life’s dramas. A choral work on the passing of time, the film was initially titled A Day and Every Day because it tells of “the slow flow, the bitter and sweet sense of life.” Probably the most musical film in Italian cinema, Rustichelli’s soundtrack supports the emotional wave of events. Drawing from Neorealism, Germi recounts a changing Italy while making it a universal tale: the joy attained by the couple is reminiscent of the end of Journey to Tokyo, when the two elderly parents observe the harshness of their past with a warm, disenchanted gaze, charged with dignified happiness.