''Volcano'' (Italian title ''Vulcano'') is a 1950 Italian drama
film directed by
William Dieterle
William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood primarily a ...
and starring
Anna Magnani
Anna Maria Magnani (; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian actress.Obituary ''Variety'', 3 October 1973, pg. 47 She was known for her explosive acting and earthy, realistic portrayals of characters.
Born in Rome, she worked her ...
,
Rossano Brazzi
Rossano Brazzi (18 September 1916 – 24 December 1994) was an Italian actor.
Biography
Brazzi was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of Maria Ghedini and Adelmo Brazzi, an employee of the Rizzoli shoe factory. He was named after Rossano Ve ...
, and
Geraldine Brooks. It was filmed on location on
Salina Island
Salina () is one of the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily, southern Italy. It is the second largest island in the archipelago.
Salina is divided between three ''comuni'': Santa Marina on the eastern coast, Malfa to the north, and Leni to the so ...
, in the
Aeolian Islands, and in the city of
Messina on
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
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, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
.
''Vulcano'' has been seen by some as a vehicle of revenge by Anna Magnani against her estranged lover at the time, Italian
film director 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 ...
, who had chosen
Ingrid Bergman to star in his film series about marriage, instead of her. Rossellini made his film ''
Stromboli''
on the nearby volcanic island of
Stromboli at the same time as ''Volcano'' was being made on Salina.
Both films were shot simultaneously in similar locales in the Aeolian Islands, only 40 km apart; both actresses played independent-minded roles in a neorealist fashion. ''Life'' magazine wrote, "... in an atmosphere crackling with rivalry... Reporters were accredited, like war correspondents, to one or the other of the embattled camps.... Partisanship infected the
Via Veneto
Via Vittorio Veneto (), colloquially called Via Veneto, is one of the most famous, elegant, and expensive streets of Rome, Italy. The street is named after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (1918), a decisive Italian victory of World War I. Federico F ...
(boulevard in Rome), where Magnaniacs and Bergmaniacs clashed frequently." However, Magnani still considered Rossellini the "greatest director she ever acted for".
Plot
The film plot involves a former prostitute, Maddalena Natoli (played by Magnani), who was exiled to the island of her birth by the police. There, she suffers ostracism by the islanders, and she tries to defend the virtue of her younger sister from the advances of a
deep-sea diver. ''Vulcano ''runs for about 106 minutes.
Volcano
The National Museum of Singapore, ShoutOut!: Film Restoration School Asia. Accessed Oct 2014
Cast
*Anna Magnani
Anna Maria Magnani (; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian actress.Obituary ''Variety'', 3 October 1973, pg. 47 She was known for her explosive acting and earthy, realistic portrayals of characters.
Born in Rome, she worked her ...
as Maddalena Natoli
*Rossano Brazzi
Rossano Brazzi (18 September 1916 – 24 December 1994) was an Italian actor.
Biography
Brazzi was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of Maria Ghedini and Adelmo Brazzi, an employee of the Rizzoli shoe factory. He was named after Rossano Ve ...
as Donato
* Geraldine Brooks as Maria
*Eduardo Ciannelli
Eduardo Ciannelli (30 August 1888 – 8 October 1969), was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals. He was sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli.
Early life
Ciannelli ...
as Giulio
*Adriano Ambrogi
Adriano or Adrião is the form of the Latin given name ''Hadrianus'' commonly used in the Italian language; the form Adrian is used in the English language. Notable people with the name include:
* Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer, music theori ...
as Don Antonio
*Lucia Belfadel Lucia may refer to:
Arts and culture
* ''Lucía'', a 1968 Cuban film by Humberto Solás
* ''Lucia'' (film), a 2013 Kannada-language film
* '' Lucia & The Best Boys'', a Scottish indie rock band formerly known as ''LUCIA''
* "Lucia", a Swedish c ...
as Carmela
*Cesare Giuffre Cesare, the Italian version of the given name Caesar, may refer to:
Given name
* Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (1738–1794), an Italian philosopher and politician
* Cesare Airaghi (1840–1896), Italian colonel
* Cesare Arzelà (1847–1912), It ...
as Alvaro
*Enzo Staiola
Enzo Staiola (born 15 November 1939) is an Italian actor best known for playing, at the age of nine, the role of Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's neorealist 1948 film ''Bicycle Thieves''. He appeared in several other films including, in 1954, ...
as Nino
*Marcello Gatti
Marcello Gatti (9 February 1924 – 26 November 2013) was an Italian cinematographer.
Born in Rome, Gatti started as film operator in early 1940s, then debuted as cinematographer in 1953.Stefano Masi, ''Dizionario mondiale dei direttori della foto ...
See also
* ''The War of the Volcanoes
''The War of the Volcanoes'' (Italian original title ''La guerra dei vulcani'') is a 2012 documentary film directed by detailing the filming of Roberto Rossellini's 1950 film ''Stromboli'' starring Ingrid Bergman and the 1950 film ''Volcano'' sta ...
'' — A 2012 Italian documentary film about the filming of ''Stromboli'' and ''Volcano''
References
External links
IMDB
The Guardian, Arts
Italian drama films
1950 films
1950 drama films
Films directed by William Dieterle
Films shot in Italy
Films set in Sicily
Films set on islands
Films set in the Mediterranean Sea
Films scored by Enzo Masetti
Italian black-and-white films
1950s Italian-language films
English-language Italian films
1950s Italian films
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