Recognized as a master of Italian and world cinema, Vittorio De Sica is considered one of the major proponents of neorealism, an Italian movement that forever altered the content and style of the cinema worldwide. This work covers De Sica's entire career as a stage and screen actor, director, and screenwriter.

Contents: Il grido -- L'avventure -- La notte -- L'eclisse

Ten treatments and scripts for unproduced films.

The screenplay is currently the focus of extensive critical re-evaluation, however, as yet there has been no comprehensive study of its historical development. International in scope and placing emphasis on the development and variety of screenplay texts themselves, this book will be an important and innovative addition to the current literature.

Taking examples from hundreds of films spanning years and genres, from the silents to the present, the author probes the ways that words on screen are used and their implications for film analysis and theory. In the process, he opens up and unearths the specific poetry of visual text in film. Exhaustively researched and illustrated with hundreds of examples, Words on Screen is a stunning demonstration of a creative scholar's ability to achieve a radically new understanding of cinema.