[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Three
celebrated postwar Italian film classics directed by Roberto Rossellini
and starring Ingrid Bergman will show between March 1 and 16 at the
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11141 East Boulevard in
University Circle. The films—STROMBOLI (1949), EUROPA ’51 (1952), and
VOYAGE TO ITALY (1954)—are widely regarded as masterpieces of spiritual
cinema, and are generally seen as a trilogy (sometimes called the
“Voyage Trilogy”) or trinity. All three will be shown in new digital
restorations.
Roberto
Rossellini is best known as the one of the fathers of Italian
neorealism, exemplified by an earlier trilogy of his: the WWII films
OPEN CITY, PAISAN, and GERMANY, YEAR ZERO. But in the late 1940s, after
the completion of these major works, Rossellini began to shift his focus
from external social realities to internal spiritual strivings. At this
same time he met and fell in love with Ingrid Bergman, one of the
world's most beautiful and famous movie stars, and their affair
scandalized the world. (Both of them were already married, and she had a
daughter in Sweden.)
In
1950 Rossellini and Bergman wed. Their union, which ended in 1957,
produced three children and six films. Though their movie collaborations
were box office flops, STROMBOLI, EUROPA ’51, and VOYAGE TO ITALY grew
over the years to be revered by film scholars as great, ground-breaking,
modernist works. All three are introspective dramas in which the
distressed heroine (played by Bergman) searches desperately for
fulfillment, happiness, or the meaning of life. She wants to touch the
divine, and eventually does.
Admission
to each film is $9; members $7; age 25 & under $6. All tickets can
be purchased only at the door. Free parking for filmgoers is available
in the adjacent Cleveland Institute of Art lot. For further information,
call John Ewing or Tim Harry at (216) 421-7450; email cinema@cia.edu; or visit www.cia.edu/cinematheque.
Saturday, March 1, at 5:00 pm &
Sunday, March 2, at 1:30 pm
The Rossellini / Ingrid Bergman Trinity
STROMBOLI
STROMBOLI, TERRA DI DIO
Italy/USA, 1949, Roberto Rossellini
In
her first collaboration with the man who would become her lover and
husband, Ingrid Bergman plays a Lithuanian refugee in a post-WWII
internment camp. To escape the camp, she marries a simple Italian
fisherman and moves with him to Stromboli, a barren volcanic island that
is his home. But there she suffers an existential crisis when she can’t
adapt to the harsh, primitive living conditions. “Genuinely great.”
–Martin Scorsese. New digital restoration! Cleveland revival premiere.
Blu-ray. We will show the 106-min. English-language version on Saturday,
and the 100-min. Italian version (with subtitles) on Sunday.
Saturday, March 8, at 5:00 pm &
Sunday, March 9, at 4:00 pm
The Rossellini / Ingrid Bergman Trinity
EUROPA ‘51
aka THE GREATEST LOVE
Italy, 1952, Roberto Rossellini
Ingrid
Bergman’s second film with Rossellini was reputedly the director’s
favorite of all his movies. Bergman plays an American society woman in
Rome who decides to dedicate her life to the poor and the sick after she
suffers a shattering family tragedy. But Rossellini wanted to
demonstrate the difficulty of being a modern saint, so she pays a hefty
price for her newfound altruism. With Giulietta Masina. New digital
restoration! Cleveland revival premiere. Blu-ray. We will show the
109-min. English version on Saturday, and the 118-min. Italian version
on Sunday.
Saturday, March 15, at 5:15 pm &
Sunday, March 16, at 6:30 pm
The Rossellini / Ingrid Bergman Trinity
VOYAGE TO ITALY
aka JOURNEY TO ITALY
VIAGGIO IN ITALIA
Italy/France, 1954, Roberto Rossellini
Ingrid
Bergman and George Sanders star in Rossellini’s revered and moving
drama, about a British husband and wife whose festering marital problems
come to a head as they travel through Italy. The most celebrated of the
films Rossellini and Bergman made together, Viaggio in Italia was
proclaimed the first modern film by no less than François Truffaut. It
has a perfect rating of 100 on Metacritic.com. “[The] most beautiful and
magical of films.” –Time Out Film Guide. New digital restoration! In English. Blu-ray. 85 min. www.janusfilms.com
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