Journey To Italy Details

Original but dull

A very original movie about a marriage in trouble but I can’t say it drew me in - it seemed quite self conscious.

The Sanderson character is an arrogant bore and there doesn’t seem to be much complexity to the conflict other than that they’re bored with each other.

The environment plays an important role but that doesn’t come across very w ell in black and white on a small screen.

[Highly rated reviewer]

A genuine original

Roberto Rossellini had long been dissatisfied with conventional methods of cinema story-telling and had, in his films with his then-wife, Ingrid Bergman, (and those around them) been trying to experiment with something new. 'Viaggio in Italia' is the fruit of those experiments, a film which tells its story almost entirely by indirections.

On the face of it, it's a simple tale about an eight year old marriage which has reached its natural breaking point as each party realises their fundamental incompatability. But rather than simply state that, Rossellini elects to show it to us, with the husband trying to find sensual diversions (and failing), and the wife retreating into the history and culture of Napoli region (and being smothered by it all).

Rossellini clearly loves the area, and his camera positively swims in the locations, but he isn't so swept away not to realise that the past is just as mummified as the central marriage. It needs something more, something living and (to its participants) real to rekindle the spark.

The ending, which some find controversial, is much more ambiguous than just a rediscovery of romantic love, though. How many viewers think that these two will survive once back in the chillier climes of England?