Il Grido

Rating:
Summary: Stark and Beautiful
Review: I've given this a rating of 4 rather than 5 based on the DVD production, rather than on the film--which I'd rate a full 5. The image on disc needs cleaning up--spots and little jerks are sometimes distracting; and there are no helpful extras--a commentary at least would have been very helpful. But the subtitles are good and readable, and the movie itself is wonderful.

The story is grim enough in outline--a rebuffed lover spirals down into despair, and he spirals down into a society with no safety net. But the black and white countryside, the roadside gas station, the villages, the shack where the prostitute lives, all these are hauntingly photographed. And each character is a surprise, so that the film feels populated by a whole world of very real people, not 'written' characters. There are a couple of moments in the story that can break your heart--such as when the main character sends his little daughter away--but the film is not at all depressing; you feel moved, but also elated at the brilliance of the filmmaking--and maybe a little awestruck if, like me, you grew up in the US midwest and never suspected that out in the big world, people were making truly adult films back in the 1950s, films that are as rich and satisfying as a good novel. The concluding sequence opens the story up and gives it almost epic scope, as the character returns to the village he left, to find himself in the midst of an anti-government riot--though by now, the rioters' issues are meaningless to him.

I'm not enough of a film expert to compare this intelligently with Antonioni's later masterpiece, "L'Avventura" (which I've probably misspelled), except to say that if you love that film, you really must see this one; and, if you found that later film obscure and too slow-paced, give this one a try before deciding Antonioni isn't accessible. This one will really pull you in.

Rating:
Summary: No L'Avventura, But Very Good
Review: I've only seen one other of Antonioni's films--L'Avventura--so I'm no authority. (I'm very much looking forward to seeing more though.)
This is a very fine film. While the inability of Aldo to communicate with women, and find succor in committed or romantic love, is very interesting, this film seems to me to be more about some of the changes happening in rural Italian society, progress that Antonioni expresses as having a very negative impact on working people.
The scenery is bleak and barren. Antonioni often has the camera pulled back, so that you see the whole of the human figures futilely moving among featureless buildings or arid ground. The cinematography, the camera shots themselves of the landscape as well as of the human figures, is excellent. There are a number of interesting angles used through windows of couples separating. The acting is of a uniformly high standard.
I was reminded of Modern Times. In that film, Chaplin was always on the move, and largely oblivious to the social forces working around him--much of the time he is forcused on simply getting a job, as is Aldo. Aldo can't find permanent work, despite being a gifted mechanic. The police are often lurking in the background, enforcing petty and occassionally cruel laws.
While its not as good as L'Avventura--which is more mysterious and ambiguous and less polemical--its a terrific film, well worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Il Grido (The Outcry)
Review: Il Grido is an unusual vehicle for Steve Cochran who appeared in gangster flics in the 50's - and was famous for affairs with Jayne Mansfield, Mae West, Mamie Van Doren and Joan Crawford. His private life seemed to mirror his screen personna but his acting prowess becomes evident near the end of his life in Il Grido. A strange account of a man's decline from the Italian working class to aimless drifting in an ever engulfing bleak landscape. His encounters with women depict the volatility of his well-meaning but purposeless character, Aldo, but his anguish only becomes evident when leaving his young daughter- sensing they will never meet again. As her train departs, Aldo's anguish becomes wrenching and is the beginning of his eventual dissolution.

A thoughtful challenging movie for its poetic imagery and cinematic imagery.