Journey to Italy (Rossellini, 1953):
BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.20 & NFT3 8.30pm
This brilliant film is on an extended run at the BFI until June 6th. Details
here.
Chicago Reader review:
'Roberto Rossellini's finest fiction film and
unmistakably one of the great achievements of the art. Ingrid Bergman
and George Sanders play a long-married British couple grown restless and
uncommunicative. On a trip to Italy to dispose of a piece of property,
they find their boredom thrown into relief by the Mediterranean
landscape—its vitality (Naples) and its desolation (Pompeii). But
suddenly, in one of the moments that only Rossellini can film, something
lights inside them, and their love is renewed as a bond of the spirit. A
crucial work, truthful and mysterious.'
Dave Kehr
Time Out review:
'Some films have to be seen to be believed: the
secret of this most beautiful and magical of films is 'nothing
happens'. From the slight tale of a bored English couple holidaying in
Italy, Rossellini builds a magnificently passionate story of cruelty and
cynicism swirling into a renewal of love: life is so short, we must
make the most of it... Rarely has screen chemistry worked so indefinably
well; Sanders' suave, caddish businessman superbly complements
Bergman's Garbo-like presence and the sensuous locations in which they
feel so ill at ease. And though critics may have always praised it as
'one of the most beautiful films ever made', its genuinely romantic
tenderness (it ends in 'I love you') mark it as never so unfashionable,
never so moving.'
Don McPherson
Here is an extract.
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