Movie #11 in my Journey towards Cinephilia

Stromboli is a Roberto Rossellini film about a woman (Ingrid Bergman) who marries a man to escape a prison camp only to move to an island on the brink of a volcanic eruption. While this story and implications were interesting, and Rossellini’s camerawork was great as always, this film failed to resonate due to flat performances and an abundance of neo-realism.

The concept that a troubled person cannot escape from hardships was fascinating as it reflected on an increasingly cynical post-war attitude taken by Rosselini. Where his war trilogy (Roma, Citta Aperta, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero) were troublesome but ultimately hopeful portrayals of how the human spirit overpowers the atrocities of war,…

"Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman,
Let´s go make a picture
On the island of Stromboli, Ingrid Bergman"

Each element of Roberto Rossellini's STROMBOLI functions as an agent of tension towards some other aspect. The striking Hollywood glamor of Ingrid Bergman plays against the weathered faces of neorealism's non-professionals; the cultured modernity of Bergman's Karin, against the cultural conservatism of the island's denizens; and the unchanging rigidity of that culture, against the constant eruptions of the active volcano.

A widowed war refuge stuck in Italy, Karin agrees to marry a charming young soldier she only met through a mesh of barbed wire; but only after she is denied an Argentinian visa. The very moment Karin steps on the barren island wasteland, which…

"Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman,
Let´s go make a picture
On the island of Stromboli, Ingrid Bergman"

Each element of Roberto Rossellini's STROMBOLI functions as an agent of tension towards some other aspect. The striking Hollywood glamor of Ingrid Bergman plays against the weathered faces of neorealism's non-professionals; the cultured modernity of Bergman's Karin, against the cultural conservatism of the island's denizens; and the unchanging rigidity of that culture, against the constant eruptions of the active volcano.

A widowed war refuge stuck in Italy, Karin agrees to marry a charming young soldier she only met through a mesh of barbed wire; but only after she is denied an Argentinian visa. The very moment Karin steps on the barren island wasteland, which…

67 out of 100
Honestly I'm a little cold on this, it's a film I find more effecting intellectually than emotionally (which is a shame as I'd love to feel Bergman's pain more) but regardless it's a really very beautiful film about middles. In fact the film itself is a giant middle, beginning well into Karin's journey as a refugee and ending before we find out what becomes of her. And it's also balanced between two crossroads, starting with Karin either remaining in the refugee camp indefinitely, or marrying a handsome but poor fisherman to get out of there, and ending with her staring down the mouth of a live volcano halfway between potential freedom and potential oppression. The film…

Movie #11 in my Journey towards Cinephilia

Stromboli is a Roberto Rossellini film about a woman (Ingrid Bergman) who marries a man to escape a prison camp only to move to an island on the brink of a volcanic eruption. While this story and implications were interesting, and Rossellini’s camerawork was great as always, this film failed to resonate due to flat performances and an abundance of neo-realism.

The concept that a troubled person cannot escape from hardships was fascinating as it reflected on an increasingly cynical post-war attitude taken by Rosselini. Where his war trilogy (Roma, Citta Aperta, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero) were troublesome but ultimately hopeful portrayals of how the human spirit overpowers the atrocities of war,…

I have been working my way through the films of Roberto Rossellini. Stromboli is a mixture of a character study, Ingrid Bergman is a loose women, used to the better things in life. She marries a low class fisherman from Stromboli, a naked and harsh volcano island, just to get a visa to live in Italy. Not one of Rossellini's best but still impressive and atmospheric.

This is the film where Rossellini and Bergman met for the first time and Bergman entered into an extra-marital affair with Rossellini and became pregnant. The resulting scandal in America effectively blacklisted her from the North American movie market and she was even condemned by politicians and religious figures.

I saw the Italian dubbed…

Despites all the compliments this movie has, I can't really say I was touched by it.

I understand it as an precursor and I admire it for that, but I must say I'm disappointed with Rosselini. Although all the things people talk about him, I was hopping a masterpiece and I didn't get it. The simple story of a wanna-be-modern-and-cool girl who were in a displaced-persons camp with no where to go and who runs after the first handsome Italian she mets and then keeps complaining about everything is utterly boring. The relationship between Karen, played by Ingrid Bergman in a weak performance, and the village is O.K. No manicheism, both sides has their reasons to act as they do…