Goodbye to Rinaldo Smordoni, the little and unforgettable Giuseppe di Sciuscià

In Rome he died suddenly on 15 June Rinaldo Smordoni91 years old, whose name will forever be linked to Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece Sciuscià, chosen like the other boys by the director. In the film, with incredible and touching naturalness, he played the role of little Giuseppe, best friend of Pasquale in Franco Interlenghi, also making his debut. Even though he had not continued his career in cinema, Smordoniwho had abandoned the uncertain for the certain after a couple of films (Manhunt/Les Miserables and 11 men and a ball), working as a marble worker and then as an Atac driver, he had maintained a vivid and lively memory of that 1946 film and had spoken about it to the director Mimmo Verdesca (with him in the photo) for his documentaries Protagonists forever and especially Sciuscià 70made in 2016 for the 70th anniversary of the film and awarded with a special Silver Ribbon, which reproduced the one won by De Sica for this work, which also received a specially created honorary Oscar (the first). We had met Rinaldo Smordoni on the occasion of the presentation in Rome of Sciuscià in the version restored by the Cineteca di Bologna last year (we talk about it in the article below) and in addition to finding it in excellent shape for its age, we appreciated its friendliness and the simple and sincere way of remembering a great master and an experience that for him had been a beautiful game. Our deepest condolences go to his beautiful family, with the knowledge that the tribute offered by Rinaldo Smordoni to world cinema, although limited in quantity, is of a very high level of quality and will remain forever in the hearts of all fans of the seventh art.

Read also
Sciuscià 70, the documentary Nastro d’argento which celebrates the seventieth anniversary of Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar-winning masterpiece