IFF Film Review: "Journey to Italy" ("Viaggio in Italia") (1954).

"A Dramatic and Unusual Love Story!" This is Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia). This Italian drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini, written by Rossellini and Vitaliano Brancati, and loosely based on the novel Duo by Colette. Sharing a passionless existence together, Alexander and Katherine Joyce, a married English couple, travel to Naples after inheriting a villa. On the verge of divorce, with neither one's disposition warming to the other, they decide to spend the rest of the trip separately. Katherine visits museums and historical sites, whereas Alexander goes to Capri to unwind with drinks. However, during the course of their vacation, the Joyces both undergo changes.

The film originally was intended as an adaptation of the French writer Colette's 1934 novel; Rossellini was, however, unable to get the rights to the novel, and was forced to draft a screenplay that differed sufficiently from the novel. Rossellini and Brancati, also apparently drew on a script entitled New Vine, by Antonio Pietrangeli, which described the argumentative relationship of an English couple touring Naples in a Jaguar automobile. The film's storyline about Charles Lewington, the deceased poet who'd been in love with Katherine Joyce, is considered to be an allusion to the short story The Dead by James Joyce. Rossellini's directorial style was very unusual. The actors did not receive their lines until shortly before filming of a particular scene, leaving them little if any chance to prepare or rehearse. George Sanders' autobiography Memoirs of a Professional Cad (1960) tellingly describes Rossellini's methods of direction and their effects on the actors and production team. Sanders wrote at length about the making of this film, which he found an exasperating and unpleasant experience. He spoke witheringly about Rossellini, whom he characterized as being more interested in scuba-diving than in film-making. Although the tone of his remarks is one of amusement, it became known that Sanders (who had admired earlier Rossellini films) had been deeply affected by exposure to a style of film-making quite foreign to his previous experience, and had spent the shoot feeling frustrated and angry, often bursting into uncontrollable tears. In 1953, the film was completed, but it took eighteen months to arrange for distribution of the film in Italy. In 1954, the film was released with the title Viaggio in Italia, with a running time of a hundred and five minutes. The film had been dubbed into Italian, and now is used as an example of "monstrous" difficulties with dubbing. The film was a critical and financial failure. However, today, the film generally is regarded as a landmark film.

The film stars Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Maria Mauban, Anna Proclemer and Paul Muller. The performances given by the cast are far from anonymous stylistically despite their casual, improvisational feel.

The film got off to a strong start, but it dawdled along to an anemic climax, and then came to a shaky conclusion. The film has none of the artistic merits of Rome, Open City or Stromboli, both Rossellini pictures.

Simon says Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia) receives: