Viaggio in Italia
Directed by:
Roberto RosselliniCinematography:
Enzo SerafinCast:
Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Maria Mauban, Anna Proclemer, Paul Muller, Anthony La Penna, Natalia Ray, Jackie Frost, Bianca Maria Cerasoli (more)Plots(1)
Catherine and Alexander, wealthy and sophisticated, drive to Naples to dispose of a deceased uncle's villa. There's a coolness in their relationship and aspects of Naples add to the strain. She remembers a poet who loved her and died in the war; although she didn't love him, the memory underscores romance's absence from her life now. She tours the museums of Naples and Pompeii, immersing herself in the Neapolitan fascination with the dead and noticing how many women are pregnant; he idles on Capri, flirting with women but drawing back from adultery. With her, he's sarcastic; with him, she's critical. They talk of divorce. Will this foreign couple find insight and direction in Italy? (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (2)
Sensitive and yet actually quite cruel. Two people who once loved each other and got married are now seeking a way to each other - or perhaps away from each other - during a trip through Italy. The excellent cast worked well, and Sanders and Bergman formed a captivating duo whose seemingly ordinary journey you believe in at first glance. But even more so, you believe in their emotions, which are truly genuine.
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The ebb and flow in the marital relationship of two characters - supplemented by the overlooked third character, the Italian people - expressed in a rather non-plot concept through precisely sensed interactions between the two English spouses and Italian culture, people, and of course, between each other. The joint arrival in Italy, the early internal and external separation where each then follows a different but essentially similar path (the husband gets rid of his cynicism and "English" seriousness = coldness, while the wife gets rid of her numbing romanticism), until they finally reunite in an embrace amidst the lazy, etc., but lively Italian procession. This ending (which was supposed to be more ambiguous according to Rossellini, although I also perceive it more as a "happy ending") is preceded by a series of scenes in which this ending is naturally prepared for us. Unfortunately, due to the brevity of the film, these "explanatory" scenes quickly follow one after another, and therefore I didn't always have a subtle existential feeling from the film, as I felt that they "only" fit into the scheme. In this regard, Antonioni is a few years ahead.
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