A couple traveling to Naples (Ingrid Bergman and George Saunders) find the thin veneer of happiness in their marriage torn away rather suddenly. It seems they were content enough back in England going through their routine in life, but now forced to be alone together for the first time, find that they really can't stand one another. They bicker and spend time touring the beautiful sites in the area separately, each noticing members of the opposite sex.
There was something very special about people going through such emotional distress while walking though ancient ruins, Bergman's character especially. The marble statues in the Naples Archeological Museum, skulls in the Fontanelle cemetery, and smoking calderas of Vesuvius seem to echo the crumbling marriage of her marriage, and whisper that all is transient, including love. At the same time, they seem to silently mock the living, whose troubles seem so small against the grandeur of eternal things.
The scene where they see the plaster molds of a man and a woman being freshly created at Pompeii and then, emotionally upset, wander back to the car, arguing bitterly while faded frescos look on impassively, is fantastic. "Life is so short," she says, and he replies "That's why one should make the most of it." The music soars as they walk along, together and yet separate, completely broken - it's a sublime, brilliant moment.
There is a very modern feeling to the subject matter and how it's explored in understated ways, and it seems clearly influential, starting with films like La Notte (1961). Unfortunately, after an entire film of honesty, the film gives way to an ending which feels forced and frankly pretty awful. I don't what possessed Rossellini to do that, but the film as a whole is still hauntingly powerful.
There was something very special about people going through such emotional distress while walking though ancient ruins, Bergman's character especially. The marble statues in the Naples Archeological Museum, skulls in the Fontanelle cemetery, and smoking calderas of Vesuvius seem to echo the crumbling marriage of her marriage, and whisper that all is transient, including love. At the same time, they seem to silently mock the living, whose troubles seem so small against the grandeur of eternal things.
The scene where they see the plaster molds of a man and a woman being freshly created at Pompeii and then, emotionally upset, wander back to the car, arguing bitterly while faded frescos look on impassively, is fantastic. "Life is so short," she says, and he replies "That's why one should make the most of it." The music soars as they walk along, together and yet separate, completely broken - it's a sublime, brilliant moment.
There is a very modern feeling to the subject matter and how it's explored in understated ways, and it seems clearly influential, starting with films like La Notte (1961). Unfortunately, after an entire film of honesty, the film gives way to an ending which feels forced and frankly pretty awful. I don't what possessed Rossellini to do that, but the film as a whole is still hauntingly powerful.