by 1949 and italian neo realism be just 6 or 7 year old and but it have already take the world by storm and stunning audience and win award all over . when bitter rice be make and neo realist principle ( i. e. no star and mix of professional and non professional actor and location only shoot and rejection of beauty or classicism or romanticism and stress on ordinary people and real life theme ) be be stretch represent star be join in ( include international one and like ingrid bergman and or starlet like american doris dowling here ) and production get big and more expensive and crew more professional and equipment more sophisticated and ordinary people be be replace by olympic beauty ( or do ordinary people ever look like silvana mangano or vittorio gassman . ) and ordinary character be get very complex and and real life be be trade by elaborate and far from realistic drama . bitter rice be one of the big world wide box office hit of neo realism . the reason for it success wasn not exactly in the depiction of the life of poor peasant woman who work under harsh condition in rice plantation in rural italy this isn not the theme of bitter rice and it just it background . the main reason for it success probably lie in the fact that the audience could enjoy a noir story of doom love and betrayal and crime while be politically instruct and watch the miserly and semi literate female worker develop marxist consciousness while parade their butt and naked thigh in industrial quantity . thus and bitter rice be a sort of titillate noir with neo realist scenery and marxist subtext . the big scene in the rice paddy and the post war devastation . the poverty and the supporting character be neo realist all right . but the noir element ( also prominent in visconti 1943 masterpiece ossessione and base and after all and on cain the postman always ring twice ) be strong represent the indoor lighting ( check out those stylized shadow in the warehouse ) and the complex camera work ( that amaze open dolly shoot . ) and the doomed character ( silvana be a peasant femme fatale and gassman be a rotten crook and raf vallone be a jaded war veteran and dowling be the woman bear to be mistreat and abuse ) and the perverted violence ( gassman be a sadist and dowling be a masochist and silvana be a sado masochist while the death be stylize to the hilt ) and the uncontrollable sexuality and the inexorability of fate . but bitter rice have 7 ( . ) writer work on it and and the film suffers from an excess of back story and conflict focus represent jewel robbery and rice looting and union right and clandestine labor and post war trauma and political manifesto and rape and murder and betrayal and revenge and etc . and it have dino de laurentiis produce and who and at 30 and already show his penchant for grandeur represent check out those crowd scene of epic proportion and with hundred of woman in the paddy and on train and on truck . sometimes the screen be so over crowd you will be gasp for air . bitter rice be a convoluted film and but no one can say it lack great scene represent the woman chant in the paddy build up to such tension between the legal and illegal worker it lead to their physical confrontation ( it probably the big in number female brawl in film history ) while or the woman go to work even under heavy rain while or the final confrontation in the slaughterhouse while or the electrify whipping or rape scene between gassman and silvana while or silvana dancing and silvana reading in bed and silvana smiling and silvana cry and silvana bathing and silvana walking . silvana mangano give what probably one of the 10 most stunning star make female performance in cinema . with absolutely no training and this former beauty queen and film extra have the luck to resemble ingrid bergman when bergman be hollywood # 1 star . but that just the start represent she also have the kind of body that make men drool and babble and a fabulous act instinct and a stormy temper . the emotional range of her character ( also name silvana ) be huge represent strong and frail and simple and ambitious and healthy and neurotic and determined and insecure and jealous and indifferent and jaded and naive and compulsive and calculate . all of this while exude sex through every pore . it an amazing performance and especially when you consider she be 18 at the time . her character reunite rita hayworth sex drive and torment gilda ( include the howling induce dance number ) and lana turner tragic cora ( from the postman . ) and jennifer jones stubborn sado masochist pearl ( from duel in the sun ) all in one . she a mess and but we root for her anyway . in the heart stop finale and lucidity and insanity and shame cloud her face a she climb to her destiny . with bitter rice ( and later with anna ) and mangano pave the way to the new and uninhibited and earthy and irrepressible sex diva of the 50 like sophia and gina and ava and brigitte . she be the anti marilyn and the opposite of the fragile and sex toy doll . later she change radically into a refine and slender diva and become the favorite star of pasolini and visconti . but here you have the chance to see the early silvana and in all her teenage glory and talent and temper . next to her and the other main star fade aside represent gassman and then the bright young star of italian theater and be devilishly handsome and virile and but tend to overact ( but we get a glimpse of what his stanley kowalski must have be on stage ) . raf vallone be properly burt lancasterish and but there little he can do with his weak and inconsistent character . doris dowling and who have a wonderful cameo in billy wilder the lost weekend and have a strong and intelligent face and do her best to overcome her miscasting a an italian ragazza . see today and bitter rice be still quite an experience . the script be over packed and but the imagery be powerful . the main couple tragic destiny isn not accidental represent what happen to the two gum chewing and boogie woogie dancing and america struck star cross lover in devastated post war italy isn not there just for dramatic reason . it a political statement from anti capitalist artist who and contradictorily and use idiomatic tool of the very system ( hollywood u. s. a . ) they be attack and and come up with this esthetically schizophrenic but certainly fascinating hybridism of neo realism and the hollywood b movie . my vote represent positive .