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Journey to Italy (1954, It./Fr.)
(aka Viaggio in Italia, or Voyage to Italy)
In Roberto Rossellini's evocative romantic drama, an
example of Italian neo-realism, it explored a reserved but troubled
British couple traveling in Italy together during a vacation, who
were struggling to save their marriage:
- in the film's opening, an unhappily-married,
wealthy, sophisticated, and childless British couple (after eight
years of marriage) was driving toward Naples, Italy; the two
were sensitive-minded Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman) and her
husband - workaholic, cold-hearted, often-bored, and brusque Alexander
'Alex' Joyce (George Sanders)
- the couple was in a car
driving mostly in silence through the Italian countryside toward Naples
(Napoli) 100 kilometers away; their first lines of dialogue during
a disjointed conversation were very instructive about their relationship:
(Alex: "Where
are we?" Katherine: "Oh, I don't know exactly.");
Katherine bluntly told Alex: "It didn't occur to me that it'd
be so boring for you to be alone with me"
- they found themselves alone but together for one
of the first times in their troubled, uneasy, eroding and dissatisfying
marriage and fractured relationship: (Katherine: "This is
the first time that we've been really alone ever since we married")
- they stayed their first night in a two-roomed hotel
suite in Naples - with separate beds; they decided to visit the
bar to be in the company of others, since Katherine assumed
she was always boring to Alex: ("I don't think you're very
happy when we're alone")
- their undivided, transplanted
time together in non-familiar and unstructured circumstances (unlike
their lives in London) magnified their unhappy situation and all
its strains; they spoke about how they didn't really know each other:
Katherine: "I realized for the first time
that we, we're like strangers"
Alex: "That's right. After eight years of marriage, it seems
we don't know anything about each other"
Katherine: "At home, everything seemed so perfect, but now
that we're away, alone..."
Alex: "Yes, it's a strange discovery to make...Now that
we're strangers, we can start all over again at the beginning.
Might be rather amusing, don't you think?"
- the two thought that they might be personally renewed,
find self-discovery or work out their differences, or alternatively
that they should probably seek a divorce from one another
- at the bar-restaurant, Alex suddenly became gregarious and interested in
speaking to a vivacious and "charming" Brit named Judy (María
Martín) - something clearly noticed by Katherine; she
sensed Alex was "in good form" with Judy, but so out of step with
her - his own wife
- they were in Italy for a short visit to put up for sale a villa property
on the Gulf of Naples left to Alex through inheritance by his recently-deceased
Uncle Homer; at the villa on their first full day in Naples, they
were given a tour of the property by its caretakers, British war
veteran Tony Burton (Leslie Daniels/Anthony La Penna) and his Italian
wife Natalia Burton (Natalia Rai/Ray)
- while basking in the sun (with their eyes closed)
on the deck of the villa in view of Mt. Vesuvius, the rift in their
marriage intensified when the neurotic and romantic Katherine told
Alex a melancholy tale involving a former "pale and spiritual"
acquaintance of hers named Charles Lewington
who had become seriously ill and died two years earlier; he had
been stationed in Italy during the war where he wrote poems; she
recited part of one: "Temple of the spirit. No longer bodies but
pure ascetic images compared to which mere thought seems flesh,
heavy, dim"; she recalled how youthful suitor Charles had come
to visit her on the eve of her wedding to Alex - he had braved
rain and cold weather to come to her window, and she ran out to
greet him in the garden; Alex reacted coldly to her recollected story of lost and unrequited
passionate love and called Charles "a fool"
Katherine's Melancholy Tale About a Young Poetic Suitor
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- afterwards, both of them started to follow different
and independent pursuits - Katherine
hastily left the villa for the day by herself to drive back to Naples
to begin visiting cultural and historical Neapolitan sites and museums
on her own; as she drove through the busy streets of the city, she
muttered under her breath about her seething distaste for her mean
husband Alex: "I
hate him. The brute! He thinks he understands life. He ought to be
punished for his pride, his self-assurance"; she was guided through
the expansive hallways of the National Archaeological Museum with gigantic
statuary - providing a survey of Roman imperial history; later back
at the villa, she told Alex how the stone figures were boldly displayed
with full nudity: "What struck me was the complete lack of modesty
with which everything is expressed"
- once they were alone, they mutually accused and blamed
each other of sabotaging their marriage:
Katherine: "Ever since we
realized how little we meant to each other, you've done everything
you could to make things worse." Alex: "And what about you? You haven't
said a word or made a gesture to try to save what little is left
of our marriage."
Katherine: "But why should I make the effort all alone?"
Alex: "Because it's your fault. The whole thing is your fault!"
Katherine: "I think you ought to know that it didn't take me long
after we were married to realize what was wrong. There was always
criticism in your eyes, criticism until it crushed me!"
- Alex accused Katherine of a "lack of a sense of humor
and your ridiculous romanticism"; she countered by claiming he
had reduced her rank or status to "a mere hostess" - Alex suggested
that for their betterment, they should stay away from one another
- the often smug, condescending and sarcastic Alex,
who sometimes expressed hostility and lashed out at strange customs
he encountered, departed to enjoy the socializing and 'company' of
past acquaintances on the island of Capri; meanwhile, Katherine visited
the site of the caves of the Cumaean Sibyl; the elderly guide told her: "It is
here that lovers came to question the Sybil when they wanted to
know what the course of their love would be"
- Alex visited the island of Capri for a few days to
be with other British tourists and womanize with married socialite
Marie (Maria Mauban)
- as Katherine drove to her next tourist site, she
noticed strolling couples, and young mothers pushing baby carriages
(later, she also commented about all the pregnant women in Naples);
at the volcanic, igneous Phlegraean Fields of Vesuvius, she was shown
boiling lava and sulphur springs
- when Alex returned on
a boat from Capri to the mainland at 5:00 pm, Alex picked up
an unnamed morbid, depressed and almost-suicidal prostitute (Anna
Proclemer); she didn't understand when he called her a "shameless,
brazen hussy";
they had a brief chat while parked together in his car, when she
told him: "If you
didn't call me just now, I think I would have thrown myself into
the sea"; he abandoned her and dropped her off before returning
to the villa; he found Katherine waiting up for him, but disguising
the fact that she was concerned about him
Alex with Married Socialite Marie (Maria Mauban)
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Alex with Prostitute (Anna Proclemer)
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- the next day at the Fontanelle
catacombs with Natalia Burton, Katherine viewed rows of skeletal
skulls gathered from ancient cemeteries, as Natalia had earlier described:
"These poor dead are abandoned and alone. They have no one to look
after them, no one to pray for them"; when they returned to the villa,
Alex chided her for taking the car on another "love pilgrimage" ("another
ruin immortalized by Charles?"); he also meanly criticized her: "Everything
you do nowadays seems so utterly senseless"; when she called him
"intolerable," he suggested that they get a divorce
- at a crossroads in their relationship and in a pivotal
scene together, Alex and Katherine were pressured by Tony Burton to
visit the ancient ruins and site of archaeological excavations of
the lava-covered city of Pompeii in 79 AD; they were shocked while
viewing the real-life, slow uncovering, reconstructing and unearthing
of the disintegrated yet preserved remains of two people (revealed
in plaster casts or molds put into a hollow space) who had died lying
together: ("Two
people, just as they were at the moment they died. A man and a woman,
perhaps husband and wife, who knows, may have found death like this
together?")
- the sight of the preserved human remains slowly being
unearthed represented the internal upheavals and disillusionment
occurring within Katherine’s own
inner self; the couple experienced a profoundly
disturbing reaction, especially Katherine: "Oh, Alex,
this is too much. I can't stand it any longer. Please take me home.
I want to go home. I don't want to stay here any longer." Later
as they quickly departed, Alex also admitted to her: "I understand
how you feel. I was pretty moved myself"
- the film's moving resolution and reconciliation scene (although contrived
and a formulaic, possibly hopeful ending) occurred as they drove back
through Naples to the villa; they were seriously threatening to
break up and divorce each other when they found themselves engulfed
in the midst of a religious processional for Saint Gennaro (crowds
of joyous marchers cried out: 'Miracle! Miracle!')
- the two were forced to park their car by the side
of the street and wait; they abandoned the car and soon became separated
within the surge of humanity - Katherine felt emotionally alone
and desperately called out for Alex's help; the two lost individuals
began to search for each other and found relief and a sense of mutual
completeness once they found each other, hugged, and were reunited
Engulfed and Trapped in Their Car by Crowds of Humanity
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Katherine: "Oh I don't want to lose you"
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Reconciled in the Film's Conclusion
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- they became recommitted to
each other with newfound hope and an embrace, as the camera pulled
back and raised up:
Katherine: "Oh, I don't want to lose you."
Alex: "Katherine, what's wrong with us? Why do we torture one another?"
Katherine: "When you say things that hurt me, I try to hurt you back. Don't you see?
But I can't - I can't any longer, because I love you."
Alex: "Perhaps we get hurt too easily."
Katherine: "Tell me that you love me."
Alex: "Well, if I do, will you promise not to take advantage of me?"
Katherine: "Yes, but tell me. I want to hear you say it."
Alex: "Alright, I love you."
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Opening Image
Unhappily-Married, Bored Couple: Katherine and Alex
Katherine: "This is the first time that we've been really alone..."
Katherine: "...we're like strangers"
Alex: "...it seems we don't know anything about each
other"
Tour of Uncle Homer's Villa Guided by the Burtons
Katherine: "I hate him"
Katherine in the Naples Archaeological Museum
Blaming and Sabotaging Each Other (Alex: "The whole thing is your fault!")
Katherine in the Caves of the Cumaean Sibyl
Katherine in the Boiling Lava Fields of Vesuvius
Katherine at the Catacombs of Fontanelle
Alex to Katherine: "Let's get a divorce!"
Katherine's Shocked Reaction at the Remains in Pompeii
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