Released in September 1954, Journey to Italy was directed by Roberto Rossellini and is considered by many to be his finest film. Set in Naples, with dialogue in English, presumably to market the film in England and the U.S., the film stars Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders as a married couple at the tail end of their marriage. The inheritance of an uncle's house brings them to Italy so they can sell it. But being alone, away from their London social life, exposes their differences and the traits they despise most about each other.
Bergman is tormented by Sanders's sarcasm, criticism and belittling manner. From Sanders's perspective, Bergman is humorless, overly emotional and a silly romantic. Through their performances, you can feel them get on each other's nerves. And yet each becomes jealous when the other is animated and happy. We learn that the couple decided not to have children early on. And yet, there they are in Naples, where every other woman on the street in the film is either expecting or pushing a carriage.
Death is a running metaphoric theme as well, from the catacombs Bergman visits as a tourist and the hearse encounter on one of her drives to the death of a prostitute's friend and a visit to an excavation site in Pompeii that reveals casts of those who perished under Mount Vesuvius's volcanic ash some 2,000 years ago. Obviously, a metaphor for the couple's barren relationship.
What's most special about the film is the modernity of its script. Co-written by Rossellini, who was married to Bergman at the time, the storyline seems to float without purpose. In some respects, the narcoleptic narrative is like Sanders's criticism of Italy, that it "poison's you with laziness." But rather than grow frustrated with the direction of the story's seemingly aimless glide, take the ride and savor it.
Elements of the film may seem overbaked: OK, we get it, death equals their marriage and the white house equals life. And Sanders's soulful outreach for love through encounters with a prostitute and a woman with a leg injury in Capri who turns out to be married seem like cliche ways to warm up his heartless character. But the journalistic views of Naples just nine years after the end of World War II along with Bergman's emotional seams popping under stress make up for the expected.
Most fascinating of all is how the couple takes their relationship for granted, thinking that divorce is the solution. Not until Bergman is swept away by the crowd in the Saint Gennaro procession scene at the end does the couple mend their ways. Unfortunately, the turnaround can be considered the film's biggest flaw, that it surrenders to the audience's desire for a happy ending rather than retain its bite until the end. Ultimately, the couple are prisoners of their loveless history together, despite their encounters with Neapolitan humanity.
Interestingly, Sanders was 48 at the time and Bergman was 39. By today's standards, they seem so much older. Nice coat on Sanders, though. And I'm still not sure how Bergman managed to pack so many coats. I counted three or four.
Here is Journey to Italy. And for car buffs, that gorgeous vehicle is a 1950 Bentley MK VI (#B299FU) Drop Head Coupé. I worry each time they leave it unattended...
