Pretty Good

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Even in a displaced persons camp, Ingrid Bergman, as Karen, a Lithuanian refugee, manages to dress better and look more beautiful than everyone around her. After her petition for passage to Buenos Aires is denied, she marries a POW from the adjacent camp. A native of the Italian volcanic island Stromboli, Antonio - Mario Vitale - brings her to his home. The village is a harsh place carved from the cinders of the mountainside, and half-deserted. As soon as she sets foot on the island, she can see she's made a mistake, but instead of accepting what she bargained for, she pesters Antonio to make more money so they can leave. He doesn't want to go - this is his home, and he is content even with this fussy wife. The men are fishermen, she constantly hears crying children, and the women dislike her immodesty. She redecorates the house, hiding his shrine and old photographs, putting out vases and flowers, turning her floral dresses into bright curtains. But she disregards the social rules, befriending a seamstress who's a "fallen woman" and playing in the sea with a group of boys. The inevitable clash between the peasant fisherman and the woman with aesthetic aspirations their simple life cannot satisfy, comes to a head with the eruption of the volcano. If I rated only the plot, this movie would earn a 5 - but the cinematography is magnificent. Otello Martelli's use of light and shadow, camera angle, and the restless natural world he filmed, create images that last long after the story has blown away like the fluff it is.

There's quite a bit of interesting history to 'Stromboli' that goes beyond the film itself. First of course was the scandal of star Ingrid Bergman shacking up with director Roberto Rossellini and having a child out of wedlock with him. Her reputation in the U.S. suffered until she made a comeback in 'Anastasia', winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1956. Then there was also the controversy over the international film rights to the English language version of the film which resulted in a court fight between Rossellini and RKO Pictures.The Criterion Collection features two versions, one dubbed in Italian and the English version which also contains some Italian dialogue. Ingrid Bergman plays Karin, a Lithuanian woman, who finds herself in an Italian camp for displaced persons after World War II. She marries an Italian POW, Antonio, who she meets on the other side of the barbed wire, separating the men from the women in the camp.The couple ends back up in Antonio's fishing village on Stromboli, a volcanic island, near Sicily. Karin, a high maintenance woman used to material pleasures, resents being on the island for several reasons. First off is the threat of death or injury from the volcano itself, which periodically spews boulders and volcanic ash on the hapless village below. Then there's the hostility of the villagers (particularly the remaining female residents) who chastise Karin for her lack of "modesty." Karin also has trouble with her husband Antonio, who she regards as a simpleton and unpolished. In one telling scene, he pits a ferret against a defenseless pet rabbit, which upsets Karin greatly. Antonio, on the other hand, finds this quite amusing.Karin doesn't help things for herself when she refuses to listen to the counsel of the village priest, who urges patience, until Antonio can make enough money so they can leave the island. Even worse is when Karin attempts to seduce the priest, which alienates him greatly. Later, Karin flirts with a lighthouse keeper in front of the villagers, which damages her reputation further.Rossellini used the village locals in most of the scenes. Some of them apparently had spent some time in the U.S. and came back to Stromboli in their later years. As a result, a few are able to speak some English. The scenes where the men are helping Karin and Antonio to fix up their home, felt believable, but I wondered if the scenes of outright hostility by the local populace (particularly the women), wasn't simply an example on Rossellini's part, of forced drama (after all, if the real-life villagers were so hostile to the idea of a narrative that features an interloper that they can't stomach, would they have actually agreed to participate in the film itself?).Perhaps the best aspect of the film is the on-location cinematography, particularly the excellent scene of the fishermen hauling in the tuna. Karin is juxtaposed with the big fish catch, as she is depicted as a person alienated from nature. Only when she gets into a direct confrontation with nature (after attempting to escape the island and threatened by the volcano) does she finally have an epiphany, accepts her situation and realizes that her arrogant stance, is untenable.The role of Karin is an unusual one for Ingrid Bergman, as the protagonist here is not exactly very likable. In one respect, the part reflects Bergman's situation in her own life during that time. In marrying Rossellini and now living in his world, she had to fit into a completely different culture then where she came from.I'm on the fence as to whether there's enough there in Bergman's role of the dissatisfied and stuck-up interloper who eventually finds redemption, to keep one's interest. Yes we 'get' the idea that she's alienated but her complaints go on for a little too long. Nonetheless, 'Stromboli' has all that local 'color' featuring the real-life inhabitants of the island as well a few dramatic scenes which will definitely keep your attention (the volcano eruption, the big tuna catch, etc.). The Criterion Collection also has a number of extras worth watching, including an interview with a prominent Italian film critic.

I probably shouldn't like this movie as much as I do. The ending, and I mean just the very end is silly and overwrought (preceding this is a lovely little poem of a scene to contemplation and wonder at the world when Bergman wakes up from her delirious crying dreams) and though he's meant to be a non professional actor literally pulled out of town the main guy who marries Bergman's character just isn't that good even as a first/only timer.But Rossellini's aim here is to depict alienation in a stark form and he achieves it, with that volcano acting like another character - looming, always threatening, could and will blow at any moment and leaving those people below in a state of constant peril in barbaric terms - and the character slowly losing her mind in this predicament. Of course, it's easy to say she could have stayed in the temporary camp she was at in the start of the film (she didn't really love the guy to start with), but really this is just the kick off to what the filmmaker is best at showing and what his first time star/muse/lover is so strong at portraying: bewilderment and total disillusionment for a better life following the end of the second war.Another actress could have hammed this up totally - only Anna Magnani, the original choice for the role, could have gone toe to toe - but Bergman is terrific at never having to say it but just being the smartest, least petty person on this island her new husband takes her too while he makes pittance fishing. She is tough and cynical and in another world could be right at home with Bogie.Here, when she breaks down in tears, which is more than once, it's hard not to feel for her especially as she tries to be civil and find a place for herself in this land of rubble. There's deeper existential ideas and notions going on here. But what I appreciated was how the heaviness of the subject matter was balanced with documentary sequences (or close enough to them). Just showing the locals all fishing and getting their giant tuna and other animals. You feel like you're seeing real work that is hard not to appreciate, and yet still crouched in this story of a woman lost with herself.That may be why the ending doesn't entirely work for me- Rossellini means for her to find redemption, but from what? Him? I dunno. and yet there's always striking imagery, and a visual force even in the seemingly simplest of shots - and to go on a volcano, that's some pre-Werner Herzog s*** right there.

I enjoyed reading "erupting beauty" (The Big Combo, 2 February 2004) for a good summary of Stromboli. Zetes ("A vastly underrated masterpiece", zetes from Saint Paul, MN, 15 June 2002) and bkoganbing ("Ingrid and the volcano", bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York, 29 August 2012) both include good background about the controversies surrounding it. Cogs ("Poor old Ingrid!!", cogs from London, England, 2 February 2005) sees similarities between Rossellini and Bresson that I share. I agree with Cogs that Bresson is more interesting.Stromboli is a showcase for Ingrid Bergman, who to my mind is easily the greatest actress in cinema. Karen's situation is Hellish. She marries to escape an Italian interment camp. She subsequently finds only misery with the desolate volcano-island that her fisherman-husband takes her to. The terrain is harsh and the locals are even worse. She discovers him to be overly simple and occasionally too beastly to bear. The finale reflects her desire for just a meager amount of happiness in such a world as this.Visually Roberto Rossellini is superb. His visual aesthetics are unsentimental but never boring. His camera work is unobtrusive.Two of the most memorable scenes feature a disturbing quotient of animal cruelty. In the first scene, a live rabbit is needlessly sacrificed by being placed near a ferret. Rossellini couldn't use stuffed animals. He has the audience, some of whom are animal lovers, suffer by showing the kill in detail. Of course, Rossellini is strengthening the distance between Ingrid and her fisherman husband, and identifying her with the suffering rabbit. However, I won't give Rossellini any credit for moving the story along with this thoughtless tactic.The second scene is the justifiably famous tuna slaughter with real fisherman, nets and spears. I have eaten tuna all my life and haven't thought much where it comes from. Also, I have no doubt that all of the tuna that we see being harvested was ultimately eaten. To give Rossellini credit, he filmed it well--with Ingrid nearby witnessing it as if she was one of the unfortunate fish. I just don't think that it takes great storytelling skill to rely on animal slaughter to move an audience.Two other scenes that are noteworthy is when Karen attempts to seduce a priest, and when she (apparently) seduces a lighthouse keeper. The character that Rosselini and Bergman are portraying is flawed, and very human. She's no saint, she's a woman with unfulfilled needs.Overall, Stromboli is a must-see member of the Italian neo-realism canon. Very few films venture to depict life without false pretenses. Ingrid's Karen really suffers; and her actions make her a polarizing figure to viewers, isolating her further. Rossellini and Bergman are showing what life is really like as every member of the audience understands it.