Journey to Italy (1954)

Roberto Rossellini’s plaintively simple portrait of a marriage on the rocks, imprinted with the ghosts of love, cultures and civilisations.

With a cycle of projects starring his wife Ingrid Bergman, Roberto Rossellini began to lose some of the critics whose attention he had grabbed with Rome: Open City (1945). Moving away from the neo-realist movement’s unflinching depiction of post-war social realities, he was beginning to chart the emotional relationships between his characters.

Katherine and Alexander Joyce (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) are an English couple holidaying in Naples whose marriage starts to fracture under the strains of mutual boredom and resentment. The striking looseness of Rossellini’s storytelling suggests the subjective textures of life, encompassing periods of dead time that anticipate the modernist art films of Michelangelo Antonioni.

“‘With the appearance of Journey to Italy, all films have suddenly aged ten years,’ Jacques Rivette wrote. Narratively open and fragmented, driven by melancholy, astonishment and the disruptive force of reality, it is the ideal junction in Rossellini’s filmography between the neorealist experience, his artistic collaboration with Ingrid Bergman, and the adventurous, avant-garde nature that would guide the great Roman director throughout his career.” Giulio Casadei

1954 Italy, France
Directed by
Roberto Rossellini
Produced by
Roberto Rossellini, Adolfo Fossataro, Alfredo Guarini
Written by
Roberto Rossellini, Vitaliano Brancati, Antonio Pietrangeli
Featuring
Giacomo Rondinella, Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders
Running time
106 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Journey to Italy

Critics

Daisuke Akasaka
Japan
Nicholas Baer
Netherlands
Robin Baker
UK
Luciano Barisone
Switzerland/Italy
João Pedro Bénard
Portugal
Manon Billaut
France
Hannes Brühwiler
Germany/Switzerland
Giulio Casadei
Italy
Massimo Causo
Italy
John Conomos
Australia
Tag Gallagher
USA
Nima Hassani Nasab
Iran
Carlos F. Heredero
Spain
Kent Jones
USA
Dave Kehr
USA
Edward Lawrenson
UK
Alberto Lechuga
Spain
Isaac León-Frías
Peru
Michel Lipkes
Mexico
João Lopes
Portugal
Geoffrey Macnab
UK
Dmitry Martov
USA
Andrea Morán
Spain
Giona A. Nazzaro
Switzerland
Davide Oberto
Italy
Cristiana Paternò
Italy
Julie Pearce
UK
Cristina Piccino
Italy
Pablo Piedras
Argentina
José Quental
Brazil
Behzad Rahimian
Iran
Peter Christian Rude
Denmark
Wendy Russell
UK
Giulio Sangiorgio
Italy
Víctor J. Vázquez
Spain
Jon Wengström
Sweden
Deane Williams
Australia

Directors

Edgardo Cozarinsky
Argentina
Michelangelo Frammartino
Italy
Luca Guadagnino
Italy
Joanna Hogg
UK
Isabelle Stever
Tilda Swinton
UK

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