Carlo Battisti lets an elderly man be proud, awkward and hard to approach. His only acting role, in Umberto D., is remarkable for how little he does to make us like him.
Fi1m perspective
Carlo Battisti keeps his bearing formal even when Umberto Domenico Ferrari needs help. In Umberto D. (1952), the struggle to keep his home does not make this old man easier company, and Battisti makes no special appeal for our affection. We found his effort to remain composed painful to watch, because he lets us see how much strength it consumes. He allows Umberto to be difficult and trusts us to stay with him.
Vittorio De Sica cast Battisti, a non-professional of around seventy, in what remained his only acting role. There are no earlier screen performances to compare it with, or later ones in which he tried something different. His reputation rests on this one lead, and it would be easy to credit the casting while overlooking the performance. The casting belongs to Italian neorealism's use of non-professionals and attention to everyday life, but the label should not do all the explaining.
What Battisti gives De Sica is an elderly pensioner whose dignity can make him hard to approach. The daily hardships of post-war Italy are there, but the performance never feels like an illustration of how the elderly ought to be treated. Umberto has his own manner, and it does not conveniently change to reward our concern. We are asked to take his need seriously without being offered the reassurance of a sweet old man who will make everyone feel better.
The music is less sure of when to leave us alone, sometimes asking for feelings Battisti has already earned. That extra prompting is a nuisance because his performance has given us enough to respond to without it. De Sica gets more from Battisti's reserve than the score gets from its insistence. See Umberto D. for him, but do not expect comforting company.
Biography
Carlo Battisti (10 October 1882 – 6 March 1977) was an Italian linguist and actor. He was born in Trento, then part of Austria-Hungary. He studied linguistics at the University of Vienna and later became professor of glottology at the University of Florence.
Battisti published extensively on Italian dialectology, phonetics, toponomastics and Vulgar Latin. He was elected to the Accademia della Crusca in 1925. In 1952 he made his only screen appearance, starring as Umberto Domenico Ferrari in Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D.. He later directed the 1955 documentary Nozze fassane.
