One of the more underrated giants of 20th century cinema is Dino De Laurentiis, the producer credited for much of the post-WW2 boom of the Italian cinema industry. The film that brought him international renown and paved the way for many screen triumphs in the next four decades was *Bitter Rice*, the 1949 drama directed by Giuseppe De Santis, which is considered one of the grand classics of the Italian neorealist mo…






