Resurrectio

"Resurrection" (1931) will always have a place in film history as the first talkie ever made in Italy (though released after another, "The Song of Love"). It is an avant-garde celebration of sound (there is A LOT of music) and visual tricks, with minimal dialogue; it's as if it was made under the perception that a sound film is destined to be largely a silent film with sound. It may also be notable for some (very) fleeting glimpses of nudity. The storytelling is often incoherent, and the film feels way, way overlong even at just one hour running time. You can sort of see why it was not a commercial success. ** out of 4.

Blasetti's take on sound is a breakaway from what was being done at the time with key sequences - the bus ride, the Concerta Sinfonica - played in images and mime without dialogue, till they come in on closer shots where the characters get synch. sound for speech. It works a treat, preserving the visual style of the silents and adding the character's voices and music.

Though Lya Franca, as in Camerini's GLI IOMINI, CHE MASCALZONI, is plausible and involving, while the rest are grotesque elements of the simple minded romance melodrama, all the lead trio vanished from movies.

The camera-work is consistently excellent, clear and convincing and the design is one of the film's striking elements - vamp Alexandresco in her preposterous high fashion outfits contrasting with heroine Franca in her cloche hat or the Art deco pleasure palaces and apartments against her simple home, bus, big store job and factory whistle streets.