De Sica allows the story to play out in a manner that is emotionally crushing, even while refusing to forgive the mistakes of the film’s characters. — Keith Phipps

The thing is, you can’t count on anything. And nothing permanent can be permitted to take place during this period of waiting. De Sica’s film creates a feeling of nostalgia for a lost time and place, but it isn’t the nostalgia of looking back. It’s the nostalgia of the time itself, when people still inhabiting their world could sense it slipping away, and already missed what they had not yet lost. — Roger Ebert