HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Journey to Italy'', also known as ''Voyage to Italy'', is a 1954
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...
directed by
Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
.
Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
and
George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...
play Katherine and Alex Joyce, a childless English married couple on a trip to Italy whose marriage is on the point of collapse until they are miraculously reconciled. The film was written by Rossellini and
Vitaliano Brancati Vitaliano Brancati (; 24 July 1907 – 25 September 1954) was an Italian novelist, dramatist, poet and screenwriter. Biography Born in Pachino, Syracuse, Brancati studied in Catania, where he graduated in letters and where he spent the most ...
, but is loosely based on the 1934 novel ''
Duo Duo may refer to: Places * Duo, West Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia * Duo, Tampere, a shopping centre in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland * DUO, a twin-tower development in Singapore Arts, enter ...
'' by
Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...
. Although the film was an Italian production, its dialogue was in English. The first theatrical release was in Italy under the title ''Viaggio in Italia''; the dialogue had been dubbed into Italian. ''Journey to Italy'' is considered by many to be Rossellini's masterpiece, as well as a seminal work of
modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
cinema due to its loose storytelling. In 2012, it was listed by ''Sight & Sound'' magazine as one of the fifty greatest films ever made.


Plot

Alex and Katherine Joyce (Sanders and Bergman) are a couple from England who have traveled by car to Italy to sell a villa near
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's admini ...
that they have recently inherited from "Uncle Homer". The trip is intended as a vacation for Alex, who is a workaholic businessman given to brusqueness and sarcasm. Katherine is more sensitive, and the journey has evoked poignant memories of a poet friend, Charles Lewington, now deceased. Much of the running time of ''Voyage to Italy'' is uneventful. The opening scene shows Katherine and Alex Joyce simply conversing as they drive through the Italian countryside; the only incident is momentary, when they stop for a herd of cattle crossing the road. Shortly after they arrive in Naples, the film follows them as they are given a lengthy, room-by-room tour of Uncle Homer's villa by its caretakers, Tony and Natalia Burton. He is a former British soldier, she is the Italian wife he married after the war. The film subsequently follows Katherine on several days as she tours Naples without Alex. On the third day of her visit, she tours the large, ancient statues at the
Naples Museum The National Archaeological Museum of Naples ( it, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, italic=no, sometimes abbreviated to MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes wor ...
. On the sixth day she visits the
Phlegraean Fields The Phlegraean Fields ( it, Campi Flegrei ; nap, Campe Flegree, from Ancient Greek 'to burn') is a large region of supervolcanic calderas situated to the west of Naples, Italy. It was declared a regional park in 2003. The area of the calde ...
with their volcanic curiosities. On another day she accompanies Natalie Burton to the
Fontanelle cemetery The Fontanelle cemetery in Naples is a charnel house, an ossuary, located in a cave in the tuff hillside in the Materdei section of the city. It is associated with a chapter in the folklore of the city. By the time the Spanish moved into the cit ...
, with its stacks of unidentified, disinterred human skulls that are adopted and honored by local people. Mulvey identifies several of the locales near Naples used in filming. Within days of their arrival, the couple's relationship becomes strained amid mutual misunderstandings and a degree of jealousy on both sides. Alex dismisses Lewington as "a fool". The two begin to spend their days separately, and Alex takes a side trip to the island of Capri. On the last day of the film, they impetuously agree to divorce. Tony Burton suddenly appears, insisting that they go with him to
Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the '' comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
for an extraordinary opportunity. There the three of them witness the discovery of another couple who had been buried in ashes during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly two thousand years earlier. Katherine is profoundly disturbed, and she and Alex leave Pompeii only to be caught up in the procession for Saint Gennaro in Naples. The afternoon's experiences — seemingly miraculously — rekindle their love for each other. Katherine asks Alex, "Tell me that you love me!," and he responds "Well, if I do, will you promise not to take advantage of me?" The film concludes with a crane shot showing the continuing religious procession.


Cast

*
Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
as Katherine Joyce. Bergman, a famed actress of the era, was then married to Rossellini. ''Journey to Italy'' was her third film with him. Some critics have suggested that their films together have autobiographical elements drawn from Bergman's and Rossellini's lives and their relationship. *
George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...
as Alexander 'Alex' Joyce (credited as Georges Sanders). Sanders was a well-known actor of the era who had won an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
in 1951. *
Maria Mauban Maria Mauban (10 May 1924 – 26 August 2014) was a French actress. She appeared in around fifty films and television series during her career. in 1950 she starred in the British Egyptian-set crime film '' Cairo Road''. The same year she appeared ...
as Marie (credited as Marie Mauban). *
Anna Proclemer Anna Proclemer, sometimes credited Anna Vivaldi (30 May 1923 – 25 April 2013), was an Italian stage, film and television actress and voice actress. Born in Trento, Proclemer was the daughter of an engineer and a housewife. She debuted on stag ...
as a prostitute. Proclemer, a noted actress, was married at the time to the film's screenwriter,
Vitaliano Brancati Vitaliano Brancati (; 24 July 1907 – 25 September 1954) was an Italian novelist, dramatist, poet and screenwriter. Biography Born in Pachino, Syracuse, Brancati studied in Catania, where he graduated in letters and where he spent the most ...
. * Paul Muller as Paul Dupont. * Leslie Daniels as Tony Burton (billed as Anthony La Penna). Burton is an Englishman living in Italy and married to Natalie. The Burtons are acting as caretakers for Uncle Homer's villa. * Natalia Ray as Natalie Burton (credited as Natalia Rai). Natalie is an Italian woman married to Tony. * Jackie Frost as Betty.


Production

The film originally was intended as an adaptation of the French writer
Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...
's novel ''
Duo Duo may refer to: Places * Duo, West Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia * Duo, Tampere, a shopping centre in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland * DUO, a twin-tower development in Singapore Arts, enter ...
''; Rossellini was, however, unable to get the rights to the novel, and was forced to draft a screenplay that differed sufficiently from the novel. Brunette's chapter incorporates a lengthy, close reading of the film. Rossellini and his co-author, Vitaliano Brancati, also apparently drew on a script entitled ''New Vine'', by
Antonio Pietrangeli Antonio Pietrangeli (19 January 191912 July 1968) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was a major practitioner of the Commedia all'italiana genre. Biography Pietrangeli was born in Rome. He started in the film industry by writing m ...
, which described the argumentative relationship of an English couple touring Naples in a Jaguar automobile. See also a synopsis of Gallagher's chapter: The film's storyline about Charles Lewington, the deceased poet who'd been in love with Katherine Joyce, is considered to be an allusion to the short story " The Dead" by
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
. Rossellini's directorial style was very unusual. The actors did not receive their lines until shortly before filming of a particular scene, leaving them little if any chance to prepare or rehearse. George Sanders' autobiography ''Memoirs of a Professional Cad'' (1960) tellingly describes Rossellini's methods of direction and their effects on the actors and production team.


Theatrical releases

The film was completed in 1953, but it took 18 months to arrange for distribution of the film in Italy. It was released in 1954 with the title ''Viaggio in Italia'', with a running time of 105 minutes. The receipts and critical reception were poor. The film had been dubbed into Italian, and now is used as an example of "monstrous" difficulties with dubbing. In April 1955, an 88-minute version of the film, in English, was released in France as ''L'Amour est le plus fort''. There was little interest in the film in the U.S. and Britain despite the fact that the film had been made in English with noted actors in the leads. An American version, with an 80-minute running time, had a limited release in 1955 with the title ''Strangers''. In Britain, a cut version (70 minutes) was released in 1958 under the title ''The Lonely Woman''. A 97-minute Italian language version with English subtitles was released at some point; it isn't clear why this version was created, given that the film's dialogue was in English, and the Italian language version had been dubbed from that.


Reception and significance

''Journey to Italy'' performed badly at the box office and was largely a critical failure. It had a profound influence, however, on New Wave filmmakers working in the 1950s and 1960s. As described six decades later by film critic John Patterson: "French critics at the ''
Cahiers du Cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, ...
'' – the likes of
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...
,
Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine ''Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour fou ...
,
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
and
Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
– all saw it as the moment when poetic cinema grew up and became indisputably modern. ''Journey to Italy'' is thus one wellspring of the French New Wave. A film convulsed by themes of sterility, petrification, pregnancy and eternity, it finds its echo in such death-haunted ''Nouvelle Vague'' masterpieces as Chabrol's '' Le Boucher'' and Truffaut's '' La Chambre Verte''." Filmmaker
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...
talks about the film and his impressions of it in his own film '' My Voyage to Italy'' (1999). Today, ''Journey to Italy'' generally is regarded as a landmark film. Critic Geoff Andrew referred to it as "a key stepping stone on the path to modern cinema" in its shift away from neorealism, and A.O. Scott notes Rossellini's "way of dissolving narrative into atmosphere, of locating drama in the unspoken inner lives of his characters"; because Alex and Katherine are not developed through a conventional plot but instead spend lengthy amounts of time in boredom and dejection, the film frequently is cited as a major influence on the dramas of
Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...
and later works about modern malaise. The film is ranked 41st in the 2012 survey of film critics conducted by ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' magazine, under the auspices of the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
. It is ranked 71st in an overall aggregation of several "greatest films" surveys.


Home media and restoration

There have been several releases of ''Journey to Italy'' for home video. In 2013, the Criterion Collection released a newly restored version as a region 1 DVD. This version is based on restoration work at
Cineteca di Bologna The Cineteca di Bologna is a film archive in Bologna, Italy. It was founded on 18 May 1962. Since 1989, it has been a member of the Fédération internationale des archives du film (FIAF). It has been a member of the Association des cinémath ...
and , which was reviewed very favorably by
Glenn Erickson Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...
. An earlier DVD version was released in 2003 as a region 2 DVD by the British Film Institute. It was reviewed then by Gary Tooze. A VHS tape version was released in 1992. The feature film runs 80 minutes.


References


Further reading

* * * A contemporary, highly favorable review.


External links

* *
''Journey to Italy: Fun Couples''
an essay by Paul Thomas at the
Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Journey To Italy 1950s Italian-language films English-language Italian films English-language French films Films directed by Roberto Rossellini 1954 drama films 1954 films French drama films Italian drama films French black-and-white films Italian black-and-white films Films set in Naples Films based on works by Colette Films based on French novels Italian neorealist films Films scored by Renzo Rossellini 1950s Italian films 1950s French films