Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

jarrodmcdonald-1 Hulu has recently added the Criterion restoration of JOURNEY TO ITALY. It's a 1954 drama about an Englishman (Sanders) and his wife (Ingrid Bergman) who travel from London to Italy to take care of a deceased relative's estate. Along the journey, they begin to understand why their marriage is crumbling. Bergman's own marriage to the director, Roberto Rossellini, was starting to crumble off-screen.George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman had costarred 13 years earlier in MGM's RAGE IN HEAVEN. When JOURNEY TO ITALY was originally released, it did not do well with audiences and critics were lukewarm towards it. But it has steadily grown in reputation and is believed to have influenced many well-known directors.At any rate, I watched it yesterday...it gets better with each subsequent viewing. George and Ingrid are in a way playing bourgeoisie caricatures but probably because Rossellini had a loose script, this caused them to invent dialogue that was much more natural than what we're accustomed to hearing them recite in their Hollywood movies. A few things really stand out-- the clothing is fabulous on both of them, and the hotel and villa used for those scenes are exquisite-- better than anything that could have been constructed on a sound stage. It feels like the characters are living in a real time and place because of this, and ultimately, it makes the film and its goals more endearing. Also, I love the little tourist interludes Rossellini has Bergman do, not only at Pompeii, but earlier in the film when she visits the museum, I was completely caught up in it, though there was little plot during those sequences, probably because of the fluid camera work.I did think the film slowed down a bit when George's character went off to Capri, and we'd see her driving around looking at women with baby carriages. But I understood why this was done, as it gave us insights into what was wrong with her. Then when we cut to him ending his time away, tempted by a hooker on the street, we were likewise given insights into what was wrong with him.The ending of JOURNEY TO ITALY is truly wonderful. There's this long scene where they are on a street and they get tangled up with some outdoor religious procession that occurs in the main plaza. The way they come to their senses and realize the potential of their relationship is well played. I think the way he pulls her in for the embrace was spectacularly done. To me, this scene, as well as a scene earlier in the picture where he is eating pasta with her and raving about the wine, are moments where we see George Sanders are his most vulnerable and at his best.

Jackson Booth-Millard This film is one I found listed in the pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I would probably never have been attracted to this film if it weren't for this recommendation, I hoped it would be deserved of it. Basically husband and wife Alexander 'Alex' (George Sanders) and Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman) are a wealthy and sophisticated English couple who have travelled to Italy to to sell a large property they have recently inherited from a deceased uncle near Naples. Alex is a workaholic businessman, while Katherine is more sensitive, their relationship is cooled and strained by the journey to Italy, as well as Katherine remembering poignant memories of now deceased poet friend Charles Lewington, he died in the war. Katherine tours museums of Naples and Pompeii, Alex flirts with women on Capri, his sarcasm and bluntness and her critical nature cause their marriage to disintegrate within days of arrival, they agree at one point to consider divorce, but it is a religious procession in Pompeii that they are caught up and their love for each other is rekindled. Also starring Maria Mauban as Marie, Paul Muller as Paul Dupont, Anthony La Penna (Leslie Daniels) as Tony Burton and Anna Proclemer as Prostitute. To be honest, I could not concentrate fully on everything going on, because it was so chatty, only my interest in Bergman and the sights of Italy kept me engaged a little, it is perhaps to simple in narrative and plot, but if you see the journey of the title being both physical and spiritual I suppose you can get a little something out of watching this romantic drama. Worth watching, at least once, in my opinion!

ElMaruecan82 It's another "Voyage to Italy" that lead me to that one, Martin Scorsese's documentary recollecting the Italian classics that forged his inspiration, among them was that intriguing Rosselini movie starring George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman. It didn't have a De Sica vibe but there had to be a reason Marty put it on his to-watch list.Indeed, "Voyage to Italy" is another of these raw diamonds like only Italian Neo-realism could produce. It starts with a couple coming from London to Napoli to sell a villa belonging to a recently deceased uncle. There's no further development in that element of the plot, the focus is on the relationship between Alex and Katherine Joyce, and from the first exchanges, we understand that something is not going well. And that journey in Italian countryside might affect their relationship, for better or worse.Fittingly, Ingrid Bergman gives an eerie 'Bergmanian' feeling to these first interactions, an odd mix of personal involvement and total detachment that you can only spot when you're married. I've been married for four years now, and I can tell when a husband and a wife only talks to break the silence. This is how dialogue is crucial in the movie, what they say is secondary to the story, it's all in the 'how they say it'.What we take from the exposition though is that this highly educated, upper class, a bit worn out, couple never did anything together besides marrying: no children and no travels. So, this trip to Italy might be a good medicine against the monotony that kept poisoning their couple or the deathblow on an agonizing marriage. She admires poetry, Mediterranean idleness and fascination for sweet and simple things; he abhors this laziness, so common among little people. While they converged to the same point, they couldn't be more divergent everywhere else. And it doesn't come as a surprise when they choose to visit Italy separately.Katherine visits museums, temples, she's fascinated by art, by these looks on marble statues, by these colossal relics where men identified imitated Gods, saw things in big, and she seems to remember how little his life has shrunk to. The delight of these visits is also spoiled by the old guides whose nonchalant and rapid tone make impossible any form of contemplation or meditation on such majestic beauty, anything to forget her marital boredom.Alex is more drastic; he simply meets other women, spending as many pleasant evenings as he can. After all, didn't he see Katherine being courted by all these luscious Italian bourgeois during a party and let it go? Did she or did she not intervene when he was talking to an old feminine acquaintance the night before? Alex rhymes with complex, his language consists on hurting to provoke a reaction, and bizarrely, a non-reaction is much more displeasing. At the end, they never acknowledge having fun and never really talk. Why? In fact, both are looking for ways out. It's obvious that Katherine needs Alex more than a guide. And so does Alex. During a crucial night, he meets a prostitute and takes her for a ride, she then confesses in the car that she was about to commit suicide and needed someone to spend the night. Alex doesn't accept as if he felt it could be that mistake he might regret it forever, and no girl yet would be worth such sacrifice. Yet when he's back to the hotel, he wastes another opportunity to let his heart talk.The day after, Katherine goes for a last trip to the catacombs, discovering meanwhile the joyful population of Napoli, full children and pregnant women, everything she lacks. Her guide, a lady who works at the hotel, notices the same because she can't have children. As a married man, I remember before my wife got pregnant, we couldn't help noticing those who were. Loveless and childless people have the eye for such things. And Katherine doesn't even have the luxury to love Alex through a child.And that boiling frustration explodes when she's confronted again to an infuriated Alex and the argument escalates to a "let's divorce" that sounds the death knell of their marriage. But they have no time to digest the decision as they're coerced to visit Pompeii's ruins. And in a heart-pounding moment, we follow the disinterment of a corpse, followed by another one, a husband and a wife, literally rooted to the spot by a sudden torrent of lava and ashes. A moved Katherine leaves the site, followed by Alex, who'll admit later the sight hit a sensitive chord too.In their way back, they're blocked by one of these typical Italian crowed processions, so they get out of the car. And while the taboo word was spoken, Katherine felt even more uncomfortable than she was at the beginning, and God, how true to life it is. Couples are weird you know, once you talk of separation, this is when you realize that there's something that deeply ties you to that person, more than love, a sort of moral commitment and visceral need to stay together. Alex still believes it is the right choice, probably exhilarated by the perspective of enjoying life, too short to be drowned in an ocean of unhappiness.And in one of the greatest twist endings, Katherine is literally swept along the human wave and literally taken out of Alex' hands. Alex feels then how precious she is for him and goes save her and they embrace … and there's no need for words anymore. We know they lanced the boil. And I wish this could be the last image of the film, the conclusion of an ordinary story speaking so many true statements about marriage.Indeed, there's more to discover in marriage than the country you visit as you might feel even more estranged to the beloved one than you are in the country.

camarro130 Rosselini did everything he could to ruin Ingrid Bergman. This is another one of his miserable movies which is boring and unexciting about a middle-aged couple whose marriage is on the rocks. Why would you take a beautiful exciting women and make her a frump? And what did he do to George Sanders? A clever actor and wonderfully adept at delivering witty lines. All he does is flirt with women. The women he flirts with are more interesting than his wife. The usual European attraction for the morbid. Lots of skeletons and skulls to make you feel like life has no meaning and we're all going to die. Don't watch it unless you're studying what not to do if you want to make a really good film. The photography was good for the time and that's about all I can say good about it. I think his objective was to destroy their careers. I believe secretly (or maybe not so secretly) he was jealous and hated actors. It's no wonder their marriage didn't last. I gave it a 3 rating because I have seen worse and after all Bergman and Sanders were in it.