Umberto D. (1952)

Director: Vittorio de Sica
Country: Italy

The Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica did one the best jobs in the history of world cinema without any doubt, and he did it by only hiring a non-professional actor and a simple dog to build a sad, dramatic and tragic story about an elderly pensioner who's struggling with poverty, loneliness, hopelessness and desolation in the middle of the Post-World War era in Italy. 

 

The main character, Umberto Domenico Ferrari, is in a big dilemma, whether losing his dignity and pride in favour of earning some coins as a homeless old man in the streets of Italy in order to satisfy his basic needs or facing life with a pair of empty pockets and the consequences that brings, for example, like giving up his lovely and loyal little dog named "Flike" which is his companion and the only being in Umberto's world that loves him in an unconditional way. 

 

This is an excellent work in every single aspect: story, acting, cinematography, directing, and in my opinion it contains one of the most beautiful and simpliest covers ever made, If you don't cry while seeing this movie, you certainly are not a human being.