Customer Reviews

Journey to Italy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Take it like it wasn't a movie. See no stars here. Imagine this was your grandma and grandpa in those old times traveling thru Italy to sell their enchanting house in Napoli. What a collection of wonderful, captivating views! You can see the valley of the Vesubio, houses that must have been built on top of other ruined houses, again and again. It's like you traveling those places.

Now what really astonished me is not the sense of reality I got watching those locations, it was the real characters of the husband and wife. They weren't playing any roles. Their critical situation just developed normally, the way it develops in real life. It's not acting. The married couple has been drifting apart since a long time ago, and now come to a breaking point. There are no histrionics. It's just a regular couple like any other. If you don't get it, you just ain't grown up yet. I think this is one of the best films I've ever seen, but I'm still wondering why, because there's nothing grand or spectacular about it, not even mysterious, or weird. It's just plain old time good visual story telling.

Watch also Rossellini's "Stromboli". I loved both.

This excellent film is mis-labeled on the back cover of the DVD case: It is not in Italian~The whole original dialog is in English, with an additional track of really good commentary that provides a wealth of information, also in English. The Korean subtitles are removable, from the interactive DVD Menu. Sound is excellent, and so is the Black and White picture quality.

Though considered one of Roberto Rossellini's greatest works, this film is actually a lesser-known film of both Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, which is a pity because it is an intriguing film, and like most art films, possessed of more real quality than most commercial releases, past or present.

Aside from its story, the film itself is a gift to posterity in exhibiting authentic street scenes, countryside, and Mediterranean landscapes and renowned destinations of Naples, Pompeii, and Capri. These real-life scenes are cinematic treasures that no vintage travelogue would ever show, living tableaus of a postwar Southern Italy that is gone forever but here captured through the eyes and lens of one of Italy's native artists who is also gone forever.

What makes the film so enchanting is that the rare and uniquely filmed scenery is metaphorical with the story, for the "journey" (voyage) of the film's title is not just a physical journey but an emotional and philosophical journey as well.

The story, superficially, is about a British husband and wife who are in Naples for the purpose of selling family land. The essence of the story derives from the couple's constant bickering, which blinds them to all that is around them - all the natural and manmade beauty of Italy that is passing before them in symbols of life and death. Each of them is too self-absorbed to realize or appreciate that everything - time, culture, way of life - is passing, just like the landscape as they drive along in their Rolls Royce, and in their blindness, they repeatedly forfeit the happiness of just being alive, together, and voyaging in Italy.

Worth seeing in the film are the dated scenes of the sculpture galleries of the Naples National Archaeological Museum, also the Solfatara Crater where a guide demonstrates the vapor phenomenon to Ingrid Bergman.

But the most significant visual art of the film - absolutely most worth the film - is a moving and pivotal scene near the film's end in which the couple (and the viewer) has the opportunity to witness an actual archaeological excavation process of on-site mould casting of skeletal remains at the ruins of Pompeii. This was a real event, not staged, which makes the cinematic and metaphorical impact all the stronger. The skeletal remains are those of a man and a woman caught at the moment of instant death from the Vesuvian eruption of 79 CE.

Just as the couple wonders, the viewer also wonders what were the man and woman doing at that last moment when death took them by surprise. Bickering? Making love?

Scenes of a beautiful religious procession conclude the film, which is only 84 minutes long. The couple is forced by the procession to stop their car. As they stand, still bickering, amid the onlookers, a miracle takes place with a blind old man who suddenly (just as suddenly as Vesuvius erupted long ago) regains his sight. In all the commotion, the couple becomes separated, which for them is the miracle that reunites them.

At filming in 1953, Ingrid Bergman was 38, and George Sanders and Roberto Rossellini were 47. She still has her youthful beauty, compared with the coarsening of face and body that was to come with age. George Sanders has one of his best roles, where he can be more himself without the imprint of some novel characterization. Roberto Rossellini writes and directs straightforwardly, making a simple picture that was panned in its day but now surprises with its qualities.

As was Italian practice at that time, the film was shot without sound. Bergman and Sanders are a moneyed English couple, married 8 years. In the subsequent dubbing, Sanders' accent comes naturally, and Bergman sticks with her normal Americanized diction.

They are driving their car to the environs of Naples to sell a villa willed to one of them. Their verbal exchanges and behavior indicate their relationsip is rather dried out, and Sanders finally says, with minimal drama, well we should divorce.

None of the dialogue is hypercharged, no great emotional swells, these two actors don't need it. I will add, the dubbing process does shear off some of the nuance Bergman and Sanders would have imparted to live recording with an overhead mike. But hell, this once-removed quirk suits the picture.

As the film concludes, the pair in their fine automobile are brought to a halt by a religious procession in the streets. As the milling onlookers shout "Miracle!" we see a man behind the elevated statue of the Virgin Mary holding his crutches aloft and trailing after. And suddenly Ingrid and George resolve their problems. It's that modest upbeat that ends a classical symphony cleanly.

FOOTNOTE. A memorable sequence from Rossellini: Ingrid visits the Naples museum alone. The guide takes her through a high hall of epic proportions, and she and the camera view a succession of ancient sculptures, one perhaps reminding her of her lost romantic poet.

Ingrid Bergman looks and moves differently in this film from any other film I have seen her in. She seems more spontaneous and mercurial. Rossellini puts her into a dynamic space of busy Italian exteriors (the film is shot in black and white) and, still, Bergman looms large and holds our gaze. This is a simple story of a marriage on the verge of breakdown down - that has broken down - and a miraculous recovery. Too miraculous for my taste in plausibility. The DVD has a pretty good transfer - not brilliant. The dialogue is in English, though the release is Korean. George Sanders is more obviously involved in his work than he can sometimes appear to be, and he and Bergman play off each other well. The settings are terrific - Rossellini's fine documentary eye is obvious in this respect. The reason it does not rate more highly, in my estimation, is that the story seems too much a Bergman vehicle and the ending is not satisfying. Yet any admirer of this actress would well have this in their collection for qualities brought to this performance, not seen in the more structured melodramas and suspenses of, say, her Hitchcock work.

Just a quick note; this film was, and always has been, in English. It was shot in English, with George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman as the stars. This is an excellent transfer, with English commentary as well. Yes, the DVD packaging is incorrect, listing it as being in Italian, but this is simply an error. A superb film, an excellent transfer, NTSC, all region. In short, well worthwhile.

Simply perfect.
A must seen Italian classic.
Probably one of the best film of the history of cinema.
A blend of love and "real life", a masterpiece.

Educational

PS: All Rossellini's movies and TV works should be shown in schools as textbooks.

Bach: Goldberg-Variationen; Italienisches Konzert [Germany]

An innovative narrative structure focusing on the clashes in self, marriage and culture, along with the abyss of Westernization. Italy itself is a predominant character in this subtle film. Had this script not been shot, it is unlikely that the subjects of geographical expression and alienation would have become camera worthy. In my opinion, Antonioni's alienation trilogy of L'Avventura - Criterion Collection, La Notte and L'Eclisse - Criterion Collection are indebted to this film.

Hi,

Throughout this entire movie the two main characters seem to be on valium, and about half way through it you'll begin to wish they'd just over-dose and The End it all.

As for buying this movie to look at the scenery; don't. About the most interesting thing they show you is a pool of steaming mud. Yes, a pool of steaming mud is the best part of this whole blindingly boring movie.

If after reading this you still want to buy this crappy movie, all I can tell you is good luck paisano.

Tony

I am sure there's nothing wrong with this reproduction, which is authorized, but the prospective buyer should be aware that it's in Italian, with Korean and no English subtitles.