Sounds like the perfect prospect for a dramatic musical to me, based one of the all time classic foreign films of all time, the perfect example of Italian neo-realism. On one hand, it's a simple story of survival mixed with criminal activity. On the other hand, it's about a woman coming to terms with the fact that her man isn't good for her and after some independence, realizes that she's better without him, to which he vehemently objects. It's a story of female friendship too, coming after the one woman learns to listen rather than assume.
The bitter rice is a metaphor for working simply to survive at whatever they have to do to make a living. Doris Dowling (an American actress cast and dubbed into Italian) has hidden among the, female rice workers boarding a train to start their work season, facing objections from Silvia Mangano who has discovered that along with her husband Vittorio Gassman, Dowling is wanted by the police for robbery. But after the help of soldier Raf Vallone, the workers come to join Dowling's side. Eventually she too comes to accept Dowling, even becoming her best friend.
The most famous sequence in this is the dance thar Mangano does, joined by Vallone and the others towards the end, surprised by Gassman showing up out of nowhere and starting Dowling onto the path of seeing her husband as bad for her. The film is dark, brutal and yet sensual. Gassmam is like a bad drug his wife can't pick, and he plays the role with both charm and malevolence in a way that shows why Dowling can't escape him. Mangano is absolutely star bursting with the direction of Giuseppe De Santis strikingly original. Along with "Open City" and "The Bicycle Thief" a work of art that aided in changing European cinema forever. The advice of the rice worker to Dowling to communicate through singing while they work is a running theme throughout the movie.
The bitter rice is a metaphor for working simply to survive at whatever they have to do to make a living. Doris Dowling (an American actress cast and dubbed into Italian) has hidden among the, female rice workers boarding a train to start their work season, facing objections from Silvia Mangano who has discovered that along with her husband Vittorio Gassman, Dowling is wanted by the police for robbery. But after the help of soldier Raf Vallone, the workers come to join Dowling's side. Eventually she too comes to accept Dowling, even becoming her best friend.
The most famous sequence in this is the dance thar Mangano does, joined by Vallone and the others towards the end, surprised by Gassman showing up out of nowhere and starting Dowling onto the path of seeing her husband as bad for her. The film is dark, brutal and yet sensual. Gassmam is like a bad drug his wife can't pick, and he plays the role with both charm and malevolence in a way that shows why Dowling can't escape him. Mangano is absolutely star bursting with the direction of Giuseppe De Santis strikingly original. Along with "Open City" and "The Bicycle Thief" a work of art that aided in changing European cinema forever. The advice of the rice worker to Dowling to communicate through singing while they work is a running theme throughout the movie.