TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“Umberto D.” Embassy. $29.95. Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 masterpiece--about an elderly Roman pensioner forced into desperate circumstances when his landlady drives him from his home--is one of the great neo-realist films. It seems to show us life with no filters, with complete purity: the pensioner’s humiliating daily routine, the impersonal dog pound where his pet Flike is imprisoned, the gravely pretty peasant maid doing her morning tasks with mechanical resignation. Yet screenwriter Cesare Zavattini designs the story so artfully that we are led inexorably down into the darkness of poverty and cruelty and up to the radiance of humanity and love. This film has real nobility: De Sica dedicated it to his father and called it his favorite work. Information: (213) 553-3600.