Synopsis
In Amalfi, a village on the Italian coast, an old man who seems to have strange powers gives Celestino Esposito, the local photographer, a dangerous ability.
The Machine That Kills Bad People
1952 ‘La macchina ammazzacattivi’ Directed by Roberto Rossellini
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Alternative Titles
The Machine to Kill Bad People, A Máquina de Matar Pessoas Más, Az igazsággép, 殺人カメラ, Die Maschine Bösetöter, El ingenio matamalvados
Popular reviews
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Interesting film by Rossellini. It has his trademark neo-realism with a beautiful cinematography and natural acting, now presented as a story of morality and how we should act.
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To some extent, I’ve been wrong about neorealism and need to rectify that with what I’m learning in Tag Gallagher’s extensive Rossellini biography, along with Peter Bondanella’s analysis on the filmmaker’s critical turning points. A lot of my research over the years, both during my undergrad and independent study, has leaned towards a very textbook definition of what neorealism is supposed to be about (unemployment, poverty, proletariat despair) and how it is supposed to achieve those ends (nonprofessional actors, documentary photography, authentic locations). Any simple Google search will parrot the same formulas (focus on a slice of postwar daily life, shoot in the streets, avoid dramatization) and outline the same politically correct goals (expose Fascism’s distortions, inspire social change). However,…
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Certainly an interesting film. It blends Rossellini's trademark neo realistic style with a story that on paper sounds like something that would belong in a expressionist fantasy film. That contrast is intriguing, but i'm not sure that it fully worked for me.
Still it's a fun watch with a good message -
I don't know if this was a great film or if my expectations were so low that it was a home run for me. The Machine That Kills Bad People was an extra film on my Fear DVD so I assumed that it was nothing to write home about. Boy was I wrong. I loved the film.
The idea is brilliant. A man gets the power to kill bad people simply by taking a picture of a picture of them. The funny thing is that they even die in the same position they were in on the photo.
SPOILERS! The protagonist loves that he has this power, until he starts to realize that we are all evil and if he…
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In which Rossellini at least flirts with arguing that a real saint today would openly advocate for violence against the rich, even if a climactic twist and some moralistic complacency ultimately pulls him back from the brink. “Cultivate good without going too far,” may be the ultimate moral that keeps the status quo’s gears running, but before we get there our camera-wielding everyman is happy to use his tool to show his town’s wealthy elite for the crooks and cheats they are. While the Americans are building hotels on the dead and the rich plot to keep inheritances among themselves and the fisherman are starving, the saint argues that the few good people left are the ones who don’t just…
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It's like an Italian neorealist episode of The Twilight Zone... except made about seven years before the show started airing... so does that mean that The Twilight Zone is actually an American television version of the film???
Cue the music!
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Roberto Rossellini has not shied away on the content of religion, as many of his films demonstrate how its existence are critical to the lives of the Italian people, whether it may challenge them or fulfil them, palpable either directly or thematically in its narrative, and with it, amplifies his adoration for the neorealistic qualities that initially defined his work. Even in his later films, as he departs from the grounded essence of his War trilogy, his tendencies of neorealism remains, still impacting our perception of the content and amplify the emotions that surround his characters. This was certainly the case in his first collaboration with Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli, as the environment that surrounds her is amplified in its captured…
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love it when movies just tell you what the moral was at the end
in all seriousness, it does work, acting more like a greek moral play than rossellinis usual m.o.
celestino is a great character, especially his occupation as a photographer. he is inherently voyeuristic, viewing life through a lens, seeing others through photographs, and this plays into his stance in the film. he watches from the outside and judges all, for being too rich, too selfish, too stupid, essentially for just jot being him. he thinks he can do better and when he’s given the opportunity he doesn’t flinch. but once again he has no substance to his beliefs, his action can only be reactionary, never building or… -
The Good Woman of Setzuan meets Say Cheese and Die.
Similar to how Visconti turned to comedy in Bellissima for self critique, and more specifically, a study of neo-realism's contradictions. Rossellini even abandons many tenants of realism here in his fantasy plot to critique camera-reality. The camera the character here is given actualizes the implications of all cameras, to sentence the subject to a death of sorts, forever trapped as a single image.. The camera as a tool of false justice, an object requiring responsibility. The camera as a gift of the devil disguised as saint. His "greatest invention." This is also so funny. Rossellini should have done more comedies.
Also reminded me of something I read a while ago,…
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