Bitter rice = Riso amaro
(DVD) 

Originally released as motion picture in 1949.

Special features: Giuseppe de Santis (2008 documentary by Carlo Lizzani covers the career of the director, especially his groundbreaking work in the early days of Italian neorealism, 53 min.); Carlo Lizzani (2002 interview with the screenwriter, discusses the process of writing the script and working with the director); Trailer. Insert includes an essay by critic Pasquale Iannone.

Director of photography, Otello Martelli ; editor, Gabriele Varriale ; costume designer, Anna Gobbi ; music by Goffredo Petrassi.

Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling, Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone, Checco Rissone, Nico Pepe, Adriana Sivieri, Lia Corelli, Maria Grazia Francia, Dedi Ristori, Anna Maestri, Mariemma Bardi, Maria Capuzzo, Isabella Zennaro, Carlo Mazzarella, Ermanno Randi, Antonio Nediani, Mariano Englen.

During planting season in Northern Italy's Po Valley, an earthy rice-field worker falls in with a small-time criminal who is planning adaring heist of the crop, as well as his femme-fatale-ish girlfriend. Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violence, this early smash is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.

DVD format; NTSC, region 1; 1.33:1 aspect ratio; Dolby digital monaural.

In Italian with English subtitles.