An interesting film starring George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman as a husband and wife who are facing some strain on their marriage while on a trip in Italy to receive inheritance. I say interesting because that’s about all there is to the plot but still it gets your attention in a certain way. I mean, there are plenty of long slow scenes with any action, like when the character Katherine Joyce is walking in museums and visiting historical sites in Italy. But what I liked the most was the tension between the couple. The DVD synopsis states: “a marriage is breaking up under the strains of a trip to Italy”, however I didn’t get the impression it was falling apart. I felt it was just a rough patch in a marriage. But it’s quite appealing in the way you can feel that deep down the characters do really love one another. They are both jealous when the other spends time with strangers and consequently argue about it but as the story reveals, they’ve been together for eight years and I think that’s enough to build the basis of a strong relationship. I’m also still trying to figure out its “deliberate rejection of many aspects of ‘classic’ Hollywood narrative” because although there really wasn’t any story, I think it was a conventional ending.
I liked the at-times documentary style filming, particularly at the start when they’re travelling in the car. I didn’t like George Sanders’ character − sometimes was a bit too mean, as Katherine remarked in the film (obviously I sympathised with her).
3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment