Product Description

Beautiful, strong-willed Kira (Alida Valli) is torn between two men (Rossano Brazzi and Fosco Giachetti) while she courageously defies the authoritarian rule of post-revolutionary Russia. Her passionate struggle for the right to her own life burns at the core of WE THE LIVING.

BONUS FEATURES

This special 2-DVD set includes over 45 minutes of deleted scenes never before released. Each scene is preceded by a title that explaining why Ayn Rand wanted it removed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8520 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-09-11
• Format: NTSC
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 172 minutes

Review
An amazing piece of cinema. I loved every minute of it...Alida Valli has the same kind of quality on-screen as Garbo-just magical-what a performance! I think you will also fall under the spell of this film. --Michael Medved/Sneak Previews

Review
(An) ambitious and ingenious film. --Caryn James/New York Times

Review
Nothing stirs the soul quite so much as buried treasure. WE THE LIVING qualifies in every respect as film treasure...dazzling performances...Director Alessandrini brilliantly blends glamour, romance, politics, intrigue and danger..this is a film that avoids the predictable every step of the way...one of the best movies of the year. --Mike McGrady/New York Newsday

Customer Reviews

One of my all-time favorite films
For anyone who apprecitates a beautiful, but unusual love story, gorgeous cinematography in the classic style, a movie full of conflict, passion and intelligent thought integrated into and driven by the action, who is interested in seeing the perverse, soul-destroying and deadly effects of a totalitarian system, be it communist, fascist or other, and who can still be startled by intense, powerful performances of actors portraying caracters whom you really care about, this is the film for you!
Needless to say, I love this film and am so pleased that Duncan Scott, the distributor, finally brought it out on DVD with all the scenes that were cut from the original films. My only regret is that anticipated sales of the DVD were obviously such that Mr. Scott wasn't able to invest the money to have the film restored before the DVD release, although the print we see is decent. The only other issue is that if I were Ayn Rand, I would have kept in the film appox. 13 minutes of scenes that were cut, as illustrated below (Please reference the deleted scenes on the DVD):
I would have kept:
#3, Andrei and Kira debate;
#6, Aunt Marussia falls ill segment;
#8, Expulsion from Institute
#9, Nica's death; and
#12, Wedding speach.
Theses scenes offer a power condemnation of Communism/Fascism, a superb denunciation of the toxic Soviet ideology: "You build to destroy others. One day you will destroy yourselves!", whereby only party members have access to health care and education.
I would also have kept:
#5, Mama visits Kira and Leo, which shows how much everyone still relies on Kira who was, nevertheless, rejected by her own family;
#10, Kira and Andrei at a cafe, which ties in with a scene at the beginning of the film where, travelling in the train, Kira hears beautiful music coming from another compartment. There, as in this scene, the music represents the powerful, limitless abilities of man--his ability to rise above the material necessities of food and shelter to dream, to be moved by emotion, to innovate, to create that which is intangible, yet beautiful and inspiring--all that which the communists feel wasteful and unnecessary; and especially
#19, the original ending, which finally shows what happens to the wedding dress that the prior scene focused on. I really don't know how this scene could have been removed for reasons of "artistic integrity" for it exactly matches the ending in the novel.
In any case, those are my quibbles. But overall, I obviously recommend this film very highly and think it richly deserves the five stars.

FINALLY available on DVD
A few things...

1) This is a "lost" classic that must be seen. Filmed and originally released in fascist Italy during WWII, it was eventually ordered destroyed by Mussolini...but cooler minds (those of the producers) prevailed and secreted a copy. It took four decades for this movie to get "unveiled" again.

2) It stars Valli, who would 8-9 years later go on to star with Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles in the classic "The Third Man." She's beautiful and phenomenal!

3) Until now, this movie was only available on VHS and the old laser discs. I bought it on laser disc back in the early 1990s, and have been waiting for a DVD release for years. And it's been worth the wait!

The extras are cool...all new. A 35-minute documentary on the movie, its post-war discovery, and its re-release. Then about 45 minutes of deleted scenes, all of which were cut out during preparation for the film's revival in the 1980s and made under Ayn Rand's supervision. It's very nice to see these.

A "must own" for Ayn Rand fans, lovers of liberty, and lovers of great film!

Deeply moving story
I was deeply moved by this well constructed story. It is tragic, the character struggle and in spite of the misery they are in they try to keep on living their own lives and not simply existing. The heroine loves deeply and never deviates from her love, doing whatever it takes to get him what he needs even when he is giving up.

I got so involved I actually forgot I was reading subtitles and began to feel as if the dialog was in English! A top flight movie!