Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders star in Roberto Rossellini’s plaintively simple portrait of a marriage on the rocks, imprinted with the ghosts of love, cultures and civilisations.
A trip to Naples forces Bergman and Sanders’ wealthy couple to confront their passionless marriage. ‘The temperature’s beginning to rise,’ a local warns of the volcano beyond their villa, just as the couple’s despondency gives way to irritable contempt. Bergman delivers an affecting portrayal of loneliness and longing as she tours the city’s wonderous sites: marble galleries, ancient catacombs, geothermal vents, an excavation at Pompeii. Rossellini’s attention to Neapolitan scenes of devotion and revival amplifies the drama, asking: will the city destroy or resurrect this relationship?
Film synopsis courtesy of Caitlin Lynch, BFI