Europa '51 (1952)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Roberto Rossellini

Writers:

Roberto Rossellini (story)
Roberto Rossellini (written by) ...

Release Date:

3 November 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Social Conscience | Social Class | High Society | Hypocrisy

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ingrid Bergman	...	Irene Girard
Alexander Knox	...	George Girard
Ettore Giannini	...	Andrea Casatti
Teresa Pellati	...	Ines
Giulietta Masina	...	Passerotto
Marcella Rovena	...	Mrs. Puglisi
Tina Perna	...	Cesira
Sandro Franchina	...	Michele Girard
Giancarlo Vigorelli	...	Judge
Maria Zanoli	...	Mrs. Galli
Silvana Veronese
William Tubbs	...	Professor Alessandrini
Alberto Plebani	...	Mr. Puglisi
Eleonora Barracco
Alfred Brown	...	Hospital Priest

Also Known As:

No Greater Love (UK)
The Greatest Love (USA)

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hungary:14 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Company:

Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica

Movie Connections:

Featured in Il mio viaggio in Italia (1999)

Excellent

I attended a National Film Theatre screening as part of a Bergman season. The film was introduced as one that critical America found hard to bear, not least as the deserting Hollywood star Bergman had an affair with the director, Rossellini.

I mention this as the film, which charts the resolution of personal crisis in the life of a bourgeois socialite, is a extremely open and even-handed critique of European social politics. Rossellini presents Irene Girard as having an epiphany in which she appears to be ideologically seduced by an activist of the left. This would have been particularly irritating to the HUAC who were experiencing a rash of films as backlash to their Hollywood blacklist of 1947 and would explain critical hostility to the film and Bergman personally.

In fact, It becomes clear that Rossellini manages the extraordinary achievement of charting an ideological third way for Irene. She throws herself into her naive acts of charity somewhat haphazardly (though convincingly). She is subsequently appalled by the 'coal-face' realities of having to work in a factory. Her non-partisan political ineptitude is the reason she is eventually committed to an asylum.

For me, Europa 51 is not simply the sad but noble tale of a grieving mother finding a unique way in which to sublimate her grief and guilt. Rossellini has concocted a sophisticated analogy for the poised, unresolvable social position of European society; an analogy that translates into the more digestible position of a single, normal, rational individual. It has the same, marvellous objectivity that one feels when watching the morally neutral Badlands, for example.

There are a host of imperfections (not least in the tatty, French sub-titled print we were treated to!) in this film. Only so many can be put down to the rise of the (French) New Wave and the acting can be changeable. Bergman however is very fine, giving a multi-faceted performance that never veers off into incredibility even - especially - at the poignant, potentially confusing final scene/shot. Alexander Knox is also fine. A raw jewel of a movie. 8/10