A typically reserved British couple, Alexander and Katherine Joyce have travelled from England to Naples to await the sale of a property they have inherited. Dissatisifed in their marriage and unfamiliar with the rites and habits of the Neapolitans, the strains of this unfamiliar environment tell wearingly on their relationship. In refuge, Katherine immerses herself in tourism, while Alex removes himself, searching for a way to fulfil his dissipating desires amongst the playthings of Capri. Starring Hollywood idols George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman, Roberto Rossellini's Journey to Italy was hailed as revolutionary by the French New Wave on its release, and is regarded today among the landmarks of 20th century cinema.








Journey to Italy
This deceptively simple tale of a bored English couple travelling to Italy is transformed by Roberto Rossellini into a passionate story of cruelty and cynicism as their marriage disintegrates around them. Now fifty years old, Journey to Italy is recognised not simply as one of Rossellini's greatest films, but as a key landmark in the development of modern cinema.

Deliberately rejecting many aspects of 'classic' Hollywood narrative, the film's meandering story line creates space for ideas and time for reflection and is built around symmetry, repetition and a pattern of themes. Rossellini fills the space with powerful cinematography and with images and ideas celebrating the ancient culture that had grown up around the volcano, Vesuvius, as well as the lives of the Neapolitan people he filmed.

The story unfolds during seven days spent by Alexander and Katherine Joyce (George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman) in and around Naples. As they wait to find a buyer for the house Alex has inherited from an uncle, their unusual surroundings bring out unexpected strains in their marriage. Alex rails against his forced inactivity while Katherine goes off alone on excursions around the sights.

For the purposes of the story, Rossellini wanted his stars to be as confused and troubled during the production as their characters should be on screen. He took absolute control over the film-making process; actors were not shown a script or allowed to prepare a performance. George Sanders, fresh from his Oscar for All About Eve, was delighted to be working with the director of Rome, Open City, but he was not a natural improviser and was as lost and disorientated as Rossellini wanted him to be. While Bergman had naturally already experienced Rossellini's working methods, she too was not a natural improviser, but from the apparent confusion there emerges a reality that affects the presence of the stars on the screen. BFI







Viaje a Italia
La historia es, a priori, sencilla: un veterano matrimonio inglés (Ingrid Bergman y George Sanders) viaja a Italia para gestionar la venta de una villa que han heredado en las cercanías de Nápoles. Un principio tan simple sirve, no obstante a Rossellini para explorar la complejidad de las relaciones de pareja y el papel que el entorno desempeña en nuestros condicionamientos mentales a la hora de relacionarnos con los demás. Ciertamente, durante el viaje del matrimonio, su diplomacia conyugal fruto de largos años de convivencia, de tolerancia y de entendimiento en el que se han borrado las huellas de los rencores cotidianos, los enfados espontáneos, las recriminaciones por el pasado, aflora toda una serie de sentimientos, prejuicios y reproches que permanecían ocultos en el subconsciente de ambos, y que salen a la luz como un torrente reprimido. Ése, precisamente, es el principal papel de las largas tomas paisajísticas (a pesar de que la película dura solamente 80 minutos) mediante las que metafóricamente pretende insinuarse la transformación interior de ambos, provenientes de un clima más bien frío que les invita a la mesura, al comedimiento y al mantenimiento de las formas tan típico de la sociedad anglosajona, en relación con los cambios de temperamento que acusan según van viajando hacia el sur, donde el calor, la luz y la cercanía y la manera de ser tan sencilla y abierta de los paisanos actúa sobre ellos, impregnándolos de una perspectiva de la vida que hasta entonces desconocen.







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