Stromboli

Rating:
Summary: Ingrid Bergman's first film with Roberto Rossellini
Review: "Stromboli" was the first film Ingrid Bergman made with Roberto Rossellini during their scandalous relationship that made the actress persona non grata in Hollywood. This 1950 film features Bergman as Karin, a Czech refugee who gets out of a displaced person's camp by marrying a young Italian ex-soldier, Antonio (Mario Vitale). He takes Karin back home to the island of Stromboli in the Tyrrhenian Sea. But Karin is passionate and life on the island is boring in the extreme. She has nothing in common with her young husband, who spends his time fishing for tuna, while the local priest (Renzo Cesana) can only offer platitudes. Only with the young lighthouse keeper (Mario Sponza) does Karin find any friendship. Antonio imprisons Karin in the home and beats her because of his suspicions about her relationship with the man from the lighthouse. When she discovers she is pregnant, Karin flees to the volcano and her fate.

That sounds melodramatic, but wait until you see the ending Hollywood gave to this 1950 film when it was released in the U.S. Whatever Rosselini's original vision, there is agreement that the film's atmosphere, not to mention the coherence of the story, were destroyed by the studio. "Stromboli" features the neo-realism that Rossellini made famous in "Open City" and "Paisan," which meant he had local villagers and fisherman in the roles. Rossellini also had no script, just shooting scenes as he went along, although he had to go back and reshoot an opening scene once he knew where the film was going to end up. Anyhow, "Stromboli" ends up losing an additional star because of the Hollywood butcher job, but this was not a great film for its director in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: A spiritual film
Review: Stromboli is one of my favorite films. It contains many themes; love, rootlessnes, acceptance of one's fate, the power of nature, man/woman's relationship to God/the universe. The whole film is situated in a very gritty post-war reality. I found this movie,in it's own quiet, understated way, a very spiritual film.

I loved the ending. Great.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't quite erupt
Review: The then-scandalous affair between the star and director of "Stromboli" was what set it apart from their other films. Love and the volcano erupted -- but the box office didn't. "Stromboli" clearly aspires to be a mystical, enriching film, but the plodding dialogue and meandering pace bog it down.

Karin (Ingrid Bergman) is a Czech refugee living in a camp, desperate to escape but unable to. She finds her doorway out when she meets the Italian soldier Antonio (Mario Vitale), who asks her to marry him. Karin doesn't love him back, but she agrees to get out of there. Bingo, that's what they do. They are married, and Karin leaves.

But Antonio comes from the island of Stromboli, a volcanic place occupied mostly by hardy tuna fishermen. And in some ways, it is as much a prison for her as the refugee camp. The village is backward and isolated, the people unfriendly, the mindsets narrow and Antonio seems like a stranger. Karin's desperation starts to grow, especially when she learns she is pregnant.

Rossellini's style was one of neo-realism, as much realism as a film can have while still being fictional. "Stromboli" was filmed on location (in ridiculously primitive surroundings), with most of the cast made up of local fishermen that Rossellini recruited for his movie. Bergman even had to climb the volcano and live in a shack with no electricity and plumbing.

The stark, bleak shots of the island and its tiny village are amazing, breathtaking. They help convey the black-and-white simplicity and roughness of life there. But Rossellini's peculiar filming methods take away from the bleakness of it. He improvised as he went, with no fixed script, and the resulting scenes feel poorly thought-out (Bergman gets upset over and over and over). However, this wasn't entirely Rossellini's fault; the Hollywood studio got its hedge clippers on "Stromboli," stripping away much of the atmosphere and quite a bit of the plotline.

Bergman's outstanding acting skills are what elevate the film above "mediocre." With her subtlely expressive face and eyes, she draws in our sympathy and understanding for Karin in a very trying situation, even though the character is a deeply underdeveloped one. At times, she is revealed to be also a bit selfish and manipulative. Mario Vitale does a fair job as Bergman's tradition-bound, rather close-minded husband, who has little idea of her suffering.

"Stromboli" is far from a masterpiece, but it's not a dud either. Bergman and the island are stunning, but the choppy, wandering storyline takes away from what could have been truly breathtaking.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't quite erupt
Review: The then-scandalous affair between the star and director of "Stromboli" was what set it apart from their other films. Love and the volcano erupted -- but the box office didn't. "Stromboli" clearly aspires to be a mystical, enriching film, but the plodding dialogue and meandering pace bog it down.

Karin (Ingrid Bergman) is a Czech refugee living in a camp, desperate to escape but unable to. She finds her doorway out when she meets the Italian soldier Antonio (Mario Vitale), who asks her to marry him. Karin doesn't love him back, but she agrees to get out of there. Bingo, that's what they do. They are married, and Karin leaves.

But Antonio comes from the island of Stromboli, a volcanic place occupied mostly by hardy tuna fishermen. And in some ways, it is as much a prison for her as the refugee camp. The village is backward and isolated, the people unfriendly, the mindsets narrow and Antonio seems like a stranger. Karin's desperation starts to grow, especially when she learns she is pregnant.

Rossellini's style was one of neo-realism, as much realism as a film can have while still being fictional. "Stromboli" was filmed on location (in ridiculously primitive surroundings), with most of the cast made up of local fishermen that Rossellini recruited for his movie. Bergman even had to climb the volcano and live in a shack with no electricity and plumbing.

The stark, bleak shots of the island and its tiny village are amazing, breathtaking. They help convey the black-and-white simplicity and roughness of life there. But Rossellini's peculiar filming methods take away from the bleakness of it. He improvised as he went, with no fixed script, and the resulting scenes feel poorly thought-out (Bergman gets upset over and over and over). However, this wasn't entirely Rossellini's fault; the Hollywood studio got its hedge clippers on "Stromboli," stripping away much of the atmosphere and quite a bit of the plotline.

Bergman's outstanding acting skills are what elevate the film above "mediocre." With her subtlely expressive face and eyes, she draws in our sympathy and understanding for Karin in a very trying situation, even though the character is a deeply underdeveloped one. At times, she is revealed to be also a bit selfish and manipulative. Mario Vitale does a fair job as Bergman's tradition-bound, rather close-minded husband, who has little idea of her suffering.

"Stromboli" is far from a masterpiece, but it's not a dud either. Bergman and the island are stunning, but the choppy, wandering storyline takes away from what could have been truly breathtaking.

Rating:
Summary: An Appreciation of 'Stromboli'
Review: There are few cinema couples as sadly mismatched as Karin (Ingrid Bergman) and her Italian husband Antonio (Mario Vitale) and the Italian island of Stromboli looks much better in Nanni Moretti's 'Caro Diario.' No sex, not even sincere displays of affection and a village full of black-clad women who despise Karin, the new girl in town. Ugh! Why even see this movie? Well, have you seen Ingrid Bergman when she was so young and beautiful - perhaps in 'Notorious' with Cary Grant? Then you know you can spend an hour looking at her and it will seem like a minute. She speaks Italian without the hand gestures and she decorates the home she shares with Antonio with things that remind her of Lithuania (her homeland in the movie.) Antonio tears everything down and puts the pictures of his black-clad relatives back up on the dresser with a statue of the Virgin. Could any couple have more to drive them apart than these two? Rossellini doesn't bother to show much of their personal conflicts. He concentrates his camera on Karin. This is what makes the movie worth watching. Karin is selfish and opportunistic (I think the scene where she tries to charm a helpful priest is a real acting challenge) but of course, she desperately wants to leave Stromboli ... you would, too. Antonio, her husband, is a man who speaks in a dialect she doesn't even fully comprehend. He is a fisherman and he has been a war prisoner for long enough to want to be home again and stay home. Too bad it is an island that rains fire on its inhabitants when the volcano erupts. Too bad for Karin that there are few residents in the town and they are all fishermen. Yes, the movie plods. But the direction and dialogue are perfect for the story and the setting. What makes the movie a treasure is the scene when the fishermen make their big catch of tuna. It is wonderful and illuminates the entire film.

Rating:
Summary: One of Bergman's best films
Review: This film has been under-rated over the years! Forget the fact that Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini had just fallen in love and that the scandal [the love affair and then their beautiful baby, Robertino]caused her to be exiled from the USA. The film would have been rated a masterpiece today, but was about twenty years ahead of its time.It's not meant to be a story, but an account of how one woman comes to terms with the life she has chosen, as a result of marrying an Italian from a refugee camp. Karin marries Antonio because she can't get a visa to Argentina. Then she discovers what his home is like: a rugged, black, volcanic island far to the north of Sicily. Their house is in a bad state of repair, to put it mildly. At first she rails against this situation, declaring proudly that she is "from a different class". Bergman acts out her part here brilliantly and almost makes us hate her - briefly. She then desperately tries to be accepted and to make the house a home, but is thwarted by the islanders. The women say she is "not modest" and, when she asks the local loose woman to help her sew a skirt, she's really in trouble. Her husband beats her. She then tries another tack: she attempts to use seductive tactics on the local priest and then on the lighthouse keeper. Again, her acting is brilliant and throughout it all she looks stunningly beautiful. One can only conclude that this was because she was actually in love with the man who was filming her- Roberto Rossellini.
Determined to escape, she climbs the volcano, but realises her attempt to get to Ginostra, on the other side, is hopeless. That final scene is so powerful, I cannot describe it. Everyone should see this film. Who needs modern cinema, when you can have this?
Ingrid Bergman stated that she was going to retire from acting after making this one. Thank God she did not! She would have been lost without her work and we would have been so much the poorer without her films.

Mary [one of Ingrid's greatest fans - as if that were not obvious!]