L'oro di Roma, 1961

GOLD OF ROME: One more trip back to Italy in the early '60s for this impressive film by Carlo Lizzani - another one I did not know as it may never have been released in the UK, but again, it is on YouTube complete at 93 minutes.

It used a fictional story to recount the facts behind the final deportation of the Jews of Rome: Nazi Colonel Herbert Kappler summoned the highest representatives of the Jewish community ordering them to collect 50 kgs of gold within 36 hours. The punishment in case of failure or disobedience was the detention of 200 people. Gold was collected and brought but on nothing could save 1259 Jews from deportation: it was the beginning of the end for the Jewish community of the Ghetto of Rome.

The film stars French actor Gerard Blain as the militant Jew determind to fight back and who joins the partisans, and Jean Sorel (again, see below) as the Catholic who falls for Jewish Anna Maria Ferrero who witnesses the start of the round-up. The Roman locations are nicely used and we see a lot of the Jewish community as they try to reason with the Germans and understand what is happening to them as they are rounded up. One of many films then on the German occupation of Rome, like THE RED AND THE BLACK 1983 (Christopher Plummer plays Kappler here, to Gregory Peck's priest in the Vatican, with John Gielgud excellent as Pius XIIP) [review at War link] and MASSACRE IN ROME with Mastroianni and Burton.



The film was shown in New York a few years ago on Remberance Day, with director Lizzani present. Having recently enjoyed De Sica's L'ORO DI NAPOLI (Mangano, Loren, De Sica, Italian labels) and other early 60s Italian movies like GHOSTS OF ROME, THE LONG NIGHT OF '43, and the '51 ANNA - as reviews below - this is an interesting addition. Now for BITTER RICE (RISO AMARO) before moving on to some modern titles ...

Another great Italian war film of this era is the 1962 well-regarded FOUR DAYS OF NAPLES by Nanni Loy, with Jean Sorel again as a sailor who gets shot by the invading forces; one to track down then!

Hypnotised ...

IPNOSI (HYPNOSIS) 1962 (or DUMMY OF DEATH). An ingenious little thriller (directed by Eugenio Martin) which is a nice discovery and also showcases that young Jean Sorel ...(lots more on him at Jean Sorel label)

As usual my pal Melvelvit summarises it nicely over at IMDB: "Hypnotist's assistant Eric Stein (Jean Sorel) is in love with his boss Han's (Massimo Serrato) fiancée Marta (Eleanora Rossi Drago) and secretly sends her roses every opening night. Chris (Götz George), the guy delivering the flowers, is also an amateur boxer down on his luck and takes advantage of an empty dressing room to steal the trio's bankroll but he's caught by Hans who gets knocked out during a brief struggle. Eric finds the unconscious Hans and bashes his head in with a cane before calling for help as the act's ventriloquist dummy, Grog, seems to look on. The police track Chris to his sister Carmen and chase him out onto a ledge where he saves a detective from falling before fleeing into the night. Now hiding out with his boxing buddies, Chris asks Carmen to help him find the real killer while Marta has a breakdown and the only witness to the crime, Grog, disappears...

The next murder comes as a surprise and what follows is reminiscent of PSYCHO with one sibling searching for another who's already dead in a surprisingly suspenseful black & white crime thriller with some supernatural touches. The film's also a forerunner of the Italian horror sub-genre later known as Giallo, some of which even starred that handsome devil Jean Sorel, a little league Alain Delon".
There is also a VERTIGO touch as the tough police guy (Heinz Drach) on the case follows Chris out on to a high window ledge and is left dangling by his fingers as the fugitive goes to rescue him - who will fall? In this case neither as the cop is saved, then knocked out by the fugitive who flees into the night, giving the cop another reason to find him before the real killer does - thats just the first of many thrills and spills here, Sorel shines as another villain, as in his CHAIR DE POULE the next year - Sorel/French labels.

My Voyage to Italy - Martin Scorsese

The perfect documentary for me is Martin Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, I missed this whenever it played on television - did it ever play here in the UK? - but at least the dvd is now avalable. Scorsese of course as an Italian-American is the ideal guide through Italian cinema, he grew up watching these films and they have inluenced his work. It is a given that he would have loved Fellini's I VITELLONI (which I raved about here a while back), it is a major influence on his MEAN STREETS.

This four hour documentary charts the landmark films and directors of the post-war era, including Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rosselini and Michelangelo Antonioni, good to see the usually neglected Rossellini given his due here. Given Marty's wealth of knowledge and infectious passion, just watching this DVD is like attending the best film class. He knows what he’s talking about and gives precise, eloquent descriptions of each movie, using his years of experience in front of a screen as well as behind the camera. Most of all this is 246 minutes of one of the great US directors imparting his passion about some of the most important films of the 20th century. It makes one want to go back to the movies and experience them all over again, particularly Visconti's great SENSO, De Sica's UMBERTO D, and those Fellini and Antonioni masterworks. I VITELLONI for instance remains a timeless pleasure and makes me want to see those other early Fellini films.



If you care about the medium, then it is an essential purchase. Scorsese introduces various segments and through judicious use of clips and an informed, eloquent voiceover takes us on a journey of the following films:

• Paisà (1946))
• Rome, Open City (1945)
• Stromboli (1950)
• Europa ’51 (1952)
• Shoeshine (1946)
• Bicycle Thieves (1948)
• Umberto D (1952)
• The Gold of Naples (1954)
• Ossessione (1943)
• La Terra trema (1950)
• Senso (1954)
• I Vitelloni (1953)
• La Dolce Vita (1960)
• Voyage to Italy (1954)
• L’avventura (1960)
• L’eclisse (1962)
• 8½ (1963)

His focus of course is on classic Italian cinema, but a broader view would encompass the sword-and-sandal peplum films popular in the late 50s/early 60s (like GIANT OF MARATHON, Leone's rather good THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII and the Steve Reeves spectaculars, APHRODITE, MESSALINA (see Belinda Lee label), and the giallo thrillers by the likes of Mario Bava and Dario Argento (Jean Sorel label), as well as the popular Loren-Mastroianni films and the delicious comedy films of Monica Vitti, Alberto Sordi et al (BOCCACCIO 70, LE BAMBOLE, LE FATE etc); and those films from the works of Alberto Moravia (TIME OF INDIFFERENCE (Claudia Cardinale label), TWO WOMEN), Georgio Bassani (THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINI'S) and those intriguing novels by Natalia Ginzburg (DEAR MICHAEL (CARO MICHELE), FAMIGLIA etc). Other strands of Italian cinema I liked are those Lina Wertmuller films like SEVEN BEAUTIES, the Taviani's PADRE PADRONE and new comedies like LOOSE CANNONS (review at Italian label), and the lesser known films by Alberto Lattuada (THE TEMPEST, DOLCI IGNANNI), Mauro Bolognini (GRAN BOLLITO, METELLO), Monicelli etc; Visconti's 1952 BELLISSIMA and 1965 operatic melodrama SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE D'ORSA) being my recent re-dioscoveries. I will have to comment separately on the polarising works of Bertolucci and Pasolini!

I have written about these in more detail at Italian, De Sica, Antonioni, Fellini labels ....plus at labels for Loren, Vitti, Valli, Cardinale, Magnani, Mangano, Mastroianni. We sure love those Italians!

Italy in the '60s continued .. Visconti & Claudia

A return to Visconti's operatic melodrama from 1965, VAGHE STELLE D'ORSA (its from a poem) or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS or simply SANDRA - which I have written about here before [Visconti, Cardinale, Sorel, Craig labels]. It is a small film in the Visconti canon, overshadowed by those big operatic productions like THE LEOPARD, THE DAMNED, DEATH IN VENICE or LUDWIG. I first saw it when I was 19 in 1965 and then it became unobtainable for a long time. It was great to catch up with it again last year, and it was as powerful as I remembered. The stunning black and white photography by Armando Nannuzzi show Claudia Cardinale at her zenith, along with Jean Sorel as her brother and English actor Michael Craig as her husband.



Sandra and her husband return to the family home, one of those sprawling Italian mansions, in the Etruscan city of Volterra, where family secrets are slowly uncovered, as Sandra has to confront her brother who wants to resume their once-incestous relationship, her mentally ill monther and the crumbling estate and the secret about their father and the war ... Visconti builds it to a powerful climax,and the images still resonate... thanks to Daryl for this new batch of stills.

Rome, 1960

LES ADOLESCENTES (I DOLCI INGANNI or SWEET DECEPTIONS). Another Italian rarity, this 1960 Alberto Lattuada film is marvellously compelling now, and is a lovely companion piece to those better known Italian films of the time, (like LES DRAGUEURS is a nice unknown companion to those better known French New Wavers). Here we are in Rome in 1960 in crisp black and white images, as we spend a day with a teenage girl, Francesca – yes it is a coming of age film but from the girl’s view.



She is the gravely beautiful Catherine Spaak whom the camera loves and lingers on. It starts with her in bed for several minutes, she gets ready for school, goes out with her brother and friends, meets older man Christian Marquand, gets to meet the aristocracy and bumps into (literally as their cars collide) petulant young gigolo Jean Sorel. The Sweet Life looks very attractive here. She ends up later with Marquand and has her first sexual experience, but is it what she expected? It ends back in her room with her looking into the camera as the film fades ... It all adds up to a very engrossing movie. Spaak went on to a prolific career (Vadim’s LA RONDE, HOTEL) and is still working – she was the mother of Italian detective ZEN (Rufus Sewell) in last year’s BBC series. A Titanus-Carlo Ponti production.

Alberto Lattuada also directed the 1958 De Laurentiis production THE TEMPEST, (Silvano Mangano label), which I liked a lot back then, and it was good to see again recently.
Another marvellous early '60s look at Italy is that recently restored episode by Monicelli, in the now 4-episode BOCCACCIO 70 (1962) featuring Marisa Solinas and Germano Giglioli as the young couple trying to get some time together, a nice addition to the other 3 segments: Anita Ekberg with Fellini, Romy Schneider with Visconti, and Sophia Loren with De Sica!

Dolls and Fates

Following on from Gina in KING QUEEN KNAVE and Jean Sorel in CHAIR DE POULE here they are in the 1965 Italian sex comedy LE BAMBOLE (THE DOLLS), below: Sorel with Raquel Welch in the '66 LE FATE (THE QUEENS or SEX QUARTET) and Monica Vitti from the same film...


I have written about these Italian compendiums, popular in the '60s - Antonioni contributed to one too, with Princess Soraya, but it hardly saw the light of day - as per Vitti, Sorel labels. LE BAMBOLE (aka FOUR KINDS OF LOVE) is probably the best featuring 4 tales of which the best is the torrid Gina Lollobrigida as the hotel owner's wife trying to seduce the secretary (Sorel) of visiting cardinal Akim Tamiroff - it is played for laughs and was rather a sensation in Italy at the time. Monica Vitti is also hilarious playing aganst type as the working class woman trying to get her slob of a husband killed off. Elke Sommer and Virna Lisi are in the other two, less amusing segments.




LE FATE (SEX QUARTET) the following year and in colour feature Vitti and Sorel again - he in a rather silly tale with the young Raquel Welch, while Vitti dazzles in that dress as the hitch-hiker driving men wild, as she moves from one to the other. Seeing the arthouse muse (the same year as her MODESTY BLAISE for Losey) being so deadpan silly and looking terrific, remains a treat, as ever. Two other favourites, Claudia Cardinale and Capucine (with the dreaded Alberto Sordi) star in the other two tales. Fun seeing them again.

The Italians must have liked these compendiums: back in '54 we had GOLD OF NAPLES, another 4 stories featuring the young Loren, Silvana Mangano, De Sica and Toto; and then BOCCACCIO 70 in '62 which was 3 segments - Fellini's with Anita Ekberg, Loren with De Sica and Romy Schneider in the Visconti tale - there was a 4th by Monicelli but it had no big stars and was taken out, but is now available on the dvd and its an amusing tale with that perfectly 1962 look - Marisa Solinas and Germano Giglioli (below).