''The Monastery of Santa Chiara'' (Italian: ''Monastero di Santa Chiara'') is a 1949 Italian war

melodrama film A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...

directed by

Mario Sequi Mario Sequi (1913-1992) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.Bayman p.59 A Sardinian by birth, he was married to the actress Lia Franca. He began his career in the 1930s as a production manager in the 1930s before becoming a director af ...

and starring

Edda Albertini "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poem ...

Massimo Serato Massimo Serato, born Giuseppe Segato, (31 May 1916 – 22 December 1989) was an Italian film actor with a career spanning over 40 years. Serato was born in Oderzo, Veneto, Italy and started appearing in films in 1938. He played leading roles in ...

and

Nyta Dover Nyta Dover (17 May 1927 – 13 April 1998) was a Swiss actress. She appeared in more than thirty films from 1948 to 1959. Selected filmography References External links * 1927 births 1998 deaths Swiss film actresses {{Switze ...

. Klein p.227 The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Angelo Zagame.

Synopsis

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Ester a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

nightclub singer in

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 adminis ...

has to flee the city to escape persecution and deportation from the occupying German forces. She is helped by her SS officer lover who takes her to safety in a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

. He then commits suicide. While she survives a bombing raid, she is persecuted by Greta the dead man's discarded German lover.

Cast

as Ester di Veroli *

as Rudolf, ufficiale delle SS *

as Greta *

Lamberto Picasso Lamberto Picasso (21 October 1880 – 17 September 1962) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1914 and 1953. Selected filmography * ''The Naked Truth'' (1914) * ''The Doctor's Secret'' (1931) * ''Paradise'' (1932) * ' ...

as Il tedesco condannato *

Nino Manfredi Saturnino "Nino" Manfredi (22 March 1921 – 4 June 2004) was an Italian actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, comedian, singer, author, radio personality and television presenter. He was one of the most prominent Italian a ...

as Enrico *

John Kitzmiller John Kitzmiller (December 4, 1913 – February 23, 1965) was an American actor who worked in his native land, as well as Italy and the United Kingdom. Kitzmiller achieved his greatest fame as a popular and versatile actor in Europe, making an est ...

as Il negro *

Paolo Reale Paolo is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Paul. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Paolo Art *Paolo Alboni (1671–1734), Italian painter *Paolo Abbate (1884–1973), Italian-American s ...

as Ciccillo * Mario Corte as Il prete * Fausto Guerzoni as Un pensionante * Italia Marchesini as Donna Filomena, madre di Enrico *

Eduardo Passarelli Eduardo Passarelli (20 July 1903 – 9 December 1968) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 43 films between 1937 and 1962. Filmography References External links * 1903 births 1968 deaths Italian male film actors 20th-centur ...

as Il prestigitatore *

Bianca Doria Bianca Doria (22 September 1915 – 2 February 1985) was an Italian actress. She appeared in more than forty films during her career. She appeared in the 1963 peplum ''Hercules Against the Mongols''.Hughes, Howard. ''Cinema Italiano: The Com ...

as La sorella del prete * Bruno von Barens as L'ufficiale tedesco * Alberto Moravia as Himself

References

Bibliography

* Baron, Lawrence. ''Projecting the Holocaust Into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. * Bayman, Louis. ''The Operatic and the Everyday in Postwar Italian Film Melodrama''. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. * Klein, Shira. ''Italy's Jews from Emancipation to Fascism''. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

External links

* 1949 films Italian war drama films 1949 drama films 1940s Italian-language films Films directed by Mario Sequi 1940s Italian films Films set in Naples Italian World War II films {{1940s-Italy-film-stub