265. Viaggio In Italia (Voyage In Italy) (1953)

Directed By Roberto Rossellini

Synopsis

A couple goes to Italy to sell a house they were left by an eccentric uncle who died. The close contact lead them to realise that they want a divorce, and then that they don't.

Review

I am not a great fan of Ingrid Bergman, she always seems not to have much charisma, however she does play a good part in this film, a strange mix of love story and documentary directed by her husband.

If there is a major problem with the film, it is its ending, it is actually pretty hard to believe that that couple could ever reconcile their differences, they don't seem to belong together, and the whole film seems to be telling you how much they don't belong together, and still they end up together, in one of the most artificial endings in the history of cinema.

That said the film is worth watching for the couple's relationship, surprisingly frank for a film of this age, the dialogue is pretty good, the characters gain their depth not by what they overtly do or say but by what they mean under the apparent, by their gestures etc. Still, the ending is so bad it becomes underwhelming.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although it performed badly at the box office, French critics at the Cahiers du Cinéma, including François Truffaut, liked it and proclaimed it to be the first modern film.

Martin Scorsese talks about the film and his impressions of it in his film My Voyage to Italy.

A good scene: