Vulcano

I viewed this film for the first time at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. It was explosive! The intrigue, the jealousy, the betrayal, the hate, the love, the MURDER!! It was all there on one tiny island. I cried, I laughed, I cheered, I gasped! It was like an opera, but without the annoying singing. Anna Magnianni didn't have to say a word. Her face said it all. What an amazing actress. It made me realize what a great loss her death has been.

A gentleman, who had worked on the film, and spoke before the viewing, said that Anna had worked on the film while she was getting over a broken heart caused by the loss of her real life love, Roberto Rossilini, to Ingrid Bergman. I loved this film ! God bless the Tribeca Film Festival!

I saw the movie with its original soundtrack: English. This choice was a great mistake.

The stars that I have awarded to the movie are mainly due to the performance of Anna Magnani.

It was surreal and at times disturbing to see the movie hearing all characters speaking in a perfect English: because of the language everything looked like a tale without a precise geographic location. This element detracts a lot of charm to Anna Magnani's performance and to the atmosphere in general.

For instance, Maria was the most surreal character of the tale: a young, fresh and beautiful young girl that with her perfect English seemed closer to the Princess Sissy on holiday than a girl grown up on that island. This added to the story a certain aura of tale, but, in my view, absolutely avoidable and not credible.

For non Italian native speaker, this movie can still have a certain effect, but for an Italian it can be a severe disappointment.

It is such a pleasure to watch Anna Magnani in whatever she has been in. She completely becomes a character. You know you are looking at a genuine person in her performances.

Looking at her, somehow I know I have known someone like her or maybe a composite of many personnas that form her wholeness in my mind's eye. She achieves such a connection with her roles. She buries herself in them. They are real, they have so many dimensions, she uncovers so many layers to what she does. At once, you connect with her and want to know more about her character.

This movie shows Anna's evocative face, her steady but suffered eyes, her expressions in one of her most interesting and lusty portrayals. But this is not a lust of abandon but of richest characterization and filled with nuances and her own gifted brand of virtuoso impulsiveness.

The story is simple but yet not well known. It is a pleasure to see the black and white rustic scenes and peaceful faces of the residents found on this island off the Italian coast the way they were 50 years ago. Are we this innocent anymore?

There is nothing spectacular here except Anna herself. Rosanno Brazzi and Geraldine Brooks offer a perfect contrast to Anna's joie de vivre. If you have a chance to see it. Sit back and take in a true original at work at the highest pitch of her craft.

Oh, Anna. I miss you.

At the same time as Roberto Rossellini was directing his new love Ingrid Bergman on the island of Stromboli, his former love Anna Magnani was filming forty kilometres away on the island of Salina for director William Dieterle. Comparisons are bound to be drawn but as comparisons are not only odious but tiresome I choose to comment upon Dieterle's film as I find that of Rossellini to be rather dull and dreary. By the very power of her personality no film featuring La Magnani could ever be labelled as either dull or dreary! Here she is Maddalena who has been banished to her former home from Naples by the police for the 'crime' of prostitution. Although ostracised by the natives she finds consolation on the island with her younger sister Maria and much younger brother Nino. Enter the handsome diver Donato who promises Maria a new life in the city. Maddalena realises that he is involved in a prostitution ring and so as to save her sister from a fate worth than death she resorts to drastic measures.......Geraldine Brooks is excellent as Maria and is 'dubbed' very well. Rosanno Brazzi has never been better as Donato and great to see as Nino the child actor Enzo Staiola following his scene-stealing performance in 'Bicycle Thieves'. As for La Magnani one word will suffice: Stupenda! The direction of Dieterle cannot be faulted. Although not blacklisted under McCarthyism he was at this time considered a 'leftie' because of his openly anti-fascist views. He had come to America from Germany and had quickly adapted to and thrived under the Hollywood system. This film proves his adaptabilty even further as he has cleverly assumed a 'Neo-Realist' style but has still directed in a traditional manner. No mean feat! After the dramatic, to say the least, finale, we are told that the film has not been about Maddalena, Maria and Donato but about the volcano 'which is eternal'. This serves to remind us, as if we need reminding, that in the face of Mother Nature we humans are all pretty insignificant.

There are two versions of this incredibly stunning and moving movie: the Italian one and the American one, with two different plots and endings.

We've been waiting the American version for years. Is it going to be realised in some way, maybe an Amazon DVD like you did for Wild is the Wind? Thanks for any consideration. There are two versions of this incredibly stunning and moving film: the Italian one and the American one, with two different plots and endings.

We've been waiting for years the American version . Is it going to be released somehow, maybe an Amazon DVD like you did for Wild is the Wind? Thanks for any consideration.