Roberto Rossellini directs fellow neorealist Vittorio De Sica in "General della Rovere".
De Sica – we forget how much of a suave, handsome actor the director was - plays Emanuele Bardone, a lowly con man struggling to make ends meet in 1940s, war-torn Genoa. His modus operandi? Promise his fellow Italians that he can find their missing loved ones in exchange for money. He prostitutes World War 2, and profits on the suffering of his countrymen.
It's not long, though, before Bardone is reprimanded by the German Army and forced to impersonate a dead partisan general. His mission? Enter a prison and extract information from fellow inmates regarding the identity and location of an Italian Resistance fighter. Bardone does as told – he's a schemer who does whatever it takes to survive – but eventually undergoes a crisis of conscience. He then betrays the Germans and accepts his fate.
The majority of Rossellini's more well known films are sentimental, and "General della Rovere", which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is no different. Though he holds his cast at an distance, content to let their actions do the talking, Rossellini's unusually austere aesthetic (classical camera work, gorgeous, inky blacks and whites) is nevertheless perfectly in line with most neorealist works, which, far from being a "gritty" movement, always sanctified the downtrodden and venerated the lowly. "General della Rovere" does the same, exalting Bardone as a fallen angel who eventually finds redemption.
Most interesting about the film is the Nazi Colonel who recruits Bardone. He's played with nuance by Hannes Messemer, a real life German Colonel. In contrast, De Sica's character takes on the attributes of your typical movie Nazi; suave, debonair, amoral and coolly calculating.
8/10 - "General della Rovere" was a critical and box office success upon release, but it's lesser Rosselini, formulaic and easy. Worth one viewing.
De Sica – we forget how much of a suave, handsome actor the director was - plays Emanuele Bardone, a lowly con man struggling to make ends meet in 1940s, war-torn Genoa. His modus operandi? Promise his fellow Italians that he can find their missing loved ones in exchange for money. He prostitutes World War 2, and profits on the suffering of his countrymen.
It's not long, though, before Bardone is reprimanded by the German Army and forced to impersonate a dead partisan general. His mission? Enter a prison and extract information from fellow inmates regarding the identity and location of an Italian Resistance fighter. Bardone does as told – he's a schemer who does whatever it takes to survive – but eventually undergoes a crisis of conscience. He then betrays the Germans and accepts his fate.
The majority of Rossellini's more well known films are sentimental, and "General della Rovere", which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is no different. Though he holds his cast at an distance, content to let their actions do the talking, Rossellini's unusually austere aesthetic (classical camera work, gorgeous, inky blacks and whites) is nevertheless perfectly in line with most neorealist works, which, far from being a "gritty" movement, always sanctified the downtrodden and venerated the lowly. "General della Rovere" does the same, exalting Bardone as a fallen angel who eventually finds redemption.
Most interesting about the film is the Nazi Colonel who recruits Bardone. He's played with nuance by Hannes Messemer, a real life German Colonel. In contrast, De Sica's character takes on the attributes of your typical movie Nazi; suave, debonair, amoral and coolly calculating.
8/10 - "General della Rovere" was a critical and box office success upon release, but it's lesser Rosselini, formulaic and easy. Worth one viewing.