Umberto D.

Umberto D. is a 1952 critically acclaimed award-winning Italian film. It is the story of a man in post-WW2 Italy struggling to survive on his insufficient pension after having worked in civil service for thirty years. It's depressing to think we're re-living late 1940s-era Italy, but the evidence is before our own eyes. It's a touching film, not sad in the make-you-cry way, but your heart will go out to him. I watched it on HBO Max.

via Daily Motion:

Deep Focus Review opens a thoughtful article with this:

Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D. envelops us in a seemingly futile search for dignity, within a hopeless, unsympathetic world almost incapable of recompense and riddled by indifference toward the individual. Presenting a sentimental version of Italian neorealism, the cinematic movement in which De Sica made his name, the director embraces the common man through everyday struggles, but also through the heart’s journey to find some reason to endure. Even while structuring his narrative around the emotional validation of one man by way of his best friend, a dog, the drama never feels artificial or maudlin, as common as such a story may be. Opening on a demonstration held by a crowd of aged pensioners, the film begins with citizens shouting for “justice” and higher annuities. Police break up the rabble in jeeps, honking at the men and chasing them from the square in Rome like a flock of pesky geese. De Sica sets his stage with various shots of protesters, among them the anonymous face of Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti), shown briefly here and there. Without a permit to rally, the pensioners are waved away, though most can survive on their allowance anyway. Umberto cannot, probably for the first time in his life.

Roger Ebert has it on his list of Great Movies and says, "It may be the best of the Italian neorealist films -the one that is most simply itself, and does not reach for its effects or strain to make its message clear." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus rating of 97%. It's listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.