“Short Vacation” is the penultimate film of the great director Vittorio de Sica, and the last successful (nominally the last film “The Trip” has already been completed by others and released after the death of the master). Once De Sica stood at the origins of Italian neorealism, a genre that brought him international fame. And it is quite understandable why he returned to him at the end of his life, creating “Short Vacation” – a small masterpiece based on the principles and canons of neorealism, which included primarily showing the unadorned lives of ordinary people.
In this film is an ordinary story of an ordinary Italian woman Clara, exhausted by the hopeless existence within her large family, the eternal lack of money and exhausting work at the factory, where she is forced to work due to the lack of earnings from the rest of the members of the selfish family clan of her husband. She has no time to think about the fact that she is a woman, because she was taught daily that she is, first of all, a mother, wife, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, a worker and a friend of a fellow travelers on the same tram, every morning delivering to the gates of the factory. And no one else. She has no time to think of herself as a woman in these equally recurring day-to-day mishaps, where even buying new tights is an exception to the rule that can only be afforded before going to the doctor. Suddenly, the disease seemed ready to deal the final blow even to such a joyless world as Clara’s, but the unexpected happened, and it was the impending misfortune that stopped this endless run around the same thing, giving the heroine a short vacation to feel happy.
Vittorio de Sica's incredibly sensitive melodrama touches endlessly. There is no way to describe when you watch the transformation of an angular and ever-wounded heroine from a working environment into a captivating and thirsty woman with a capital letter. This short vacation will give Clara great joy. But he will also give Clara quiet sadness, because life is not a fairy tale, and this short forward in fate may be the first and last in her difficult life.
The role of Clara was performed by the famous Florinda Bolcan, performed quietly, without disturbing and distracting twitchy details, almost modestly (to become the character of the heroine, not accustomed to universal attention). They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. It was through her eyes and eyes that the actress was able to convey the whole range of feelings that occupy the heroine and go from complete despair (I don’t want to live!) to the sudden joy of change (I want to live so!). Her eyes startle, deafen, make you worry. It is so powerful that it literally chains you to the screen, forcing you to react to every rustle of the actress’ eyelashes. No frills. Just eyes, emotions and you. As trivial as it may sound, it is. At least for me.
By far, this is the best role of Brazilian actress Florinda Bolcan, who made a dizzying career from a fashion model to a large and deep actress in Italy.
“Short Vacation” is an undeservedly neglected masterpiece about the eternal desire for change for a better and happy alignment of stars. And about love, of course!
These films should be watched, if only when you think that the world around you is grouping against you, and the unique story of your life has taken an unfairly bitter turn, the most unfair in the whole world. After watching it, many of the personal experiences may seem petty and unworthy, and at this moment the ray of hope that flashed over the heroine of the film will surely illuminate you.
10 out of 10