This understated short juxtaposes Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s Terminal Station and American producer David O. Selznick’s cut of the same movie. Selnick’s edit, re-titled Indiscretion of an American Wife—after lopping off a whopping 24 minutes of screen time—is viewed simultaneously alongside De Sica’s film, emphasizing the extremely different approach that makes the cinema of Italian neorealism so… not American.

The film’s production pitted the director of the grave Bicycle Thieves against the notoriously pushy producer of Gone with the Wind and other slick Hollywood products. Even though De Sica spoke no English, Selznick would dictate 40 and 50 pages letters to the director daily. The American version of the film was, in the words of its leading man Montgomery Clift (echoing what most critics thought at well), “a big fat failure.” Selznick was married to the female lead Jennifer Jones until his death in 1965.

The clever experiment below leaves the viewer with a slight cringe at the “bastardized” Hollywood version’s pacing, and a distinct pull towards a more patient and present style of film-making where time and space are as important as the story.  Now you can impress your friends by acting like you already had a handle on the Italian neorealist genre!