Europa ’51 **** (1952, Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, Giulietta Masina) – Classic Movie Review 12,302

Europa ’51 (1952, Ingrid Bergman).

Writer/ director Roberto Rossellini’s 1952 Italian neorealist film Europa ’51 [The Greatest Love] stars Ingrid Bergman, who (though she is dubbed into Italian by Lydia Simoneschi) does well as an American socialite in Rome who takes on people’s problems after she has caused the suicide death of her son, and is eventually declared insane. Rossellini sets out to show what would happen if someone of Francis of Assisi’s character was in post-war Italy.

Bergman dignifies her real-life husband Rossellini’s largely successful allegory of the troubles of the time, largely dismissed and little seen in 1952 on its limited release but ripe for reappraisal.

It is their second film together after Stromboli (1949) and before their third, Viaggio in Italia [Journey to Italy] (1954).

Also with Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, Giulietta Masina, and Teresa Pellati.

At the 1952 Venice Film Festival, Bergman won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and Rossellini won the International Award.

The sets are designed by veteran Futurist architect Virgilio Marchi.

Bergman, Knox and other English-speaking actors dub their own voices in English for the English version.

Wealthy couple Irene Girard (Bergman) and her industrialist husband George (Knox) are living in post-war Rome with their son Michele (Sandro Franchina). But they host so many parties that their son feels neglected and attempts suicide by falling down a stairwell, fracturing his hip, and dies soon after from a blood clot.

Irene enlists the help of her Communist publisher cousin Andrea Casatti (Ettore Giannini) to help her overcome her grief. He takes her to the poorer parts of the city to see ‘the other Rome’. Irene helps a poor family whose son needs expensive medicine, meets a penniless woman named Passerotto (Giulietta Masina) and helps her care for a number of ragged kids, and cares for a prostitute dying of tuberculosis.

So George and the authorities decide to lock her up in a mental institution after it is decided that her philosophy of helping people is dangerous for the fragile Italian post-war society.

The film was censored by the Italian government, and the subsequent releases have been either censored or heavily re-edited. But in 2013 the Criterion Collection released it in their Blu-ray set Three Films By Roberto Rossellini starring Ingrid Bergman. Criterion’s version was restored from surviving elements and is intact with a new English subtitle translation. So finally it is possible for reappraisal.

The cast are Ingrid Bergman as Irene Girard (dubbed in Italian by Lydia Simoneschi), Alexander Knox as George Girard, Ettore Giannini as Andrea Casatti, Giulietta Masina as Passerotto, Marcella Rovena as Mrs Puglisi, Tina Perna as Cesira, Sandro Franchina as Michele Girard, Maria Zanoli as Mrs Galli, Teresa Pellati as Ines, Silvana Veronese, William Tubbs as Professor Alessandrini, Alberto Plebani as Mr Puglisi, Eleonora Barracco, Alfonso Di Stefano, and Alfred Browne as Hospital Priest.

Writers: Roberto Rossellini (story and written by), Sandro De Feo (written by), Mario Pannunzio (written by), Ivo Perilli (written by) and Brunello Rondi (written by).

Rossellini’s and Bergman’s marriage lasted from 1950 to 1957 (divorced).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,302

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