I sequestrati di Altona

When a movie from 1962 has less than 200 votes on IMDb, what does it mean? Directed by legendary De Sica, and starring great Sophia Loren... it must be a terrible failure? Well, it isn't.

Having read Sartre's play "The Condemned of Altona", it is my impression that the movie is very faithful to its atmosphere. There are some changes, of course: instead of concentrating exclusively on torturing his characters inside the mansion (as Sartre does), De Sica takes advantage of possibilities of film, adding outdoor scenes.

I don't want to reveal the plot, although it is very interesting. I recommend reading the play first, since the relations between characters will be clearer then. Anyway, see this movie if you get the chance!

It was very long ago, but this film touched me deeply. A became obsessed with Shostakovich's 11th Symphony, and remember vividly some scenes. When Maximillian Schell is finally "released" and goes out into the city (Hamburg?) to see what Germany has become, he is repulsed. When Frederich March is told he will die, he is solemn. The plot, that they have hidden their son because he is a wanted war criminal. That they collaborated willingly with the Nazis, as an industrial power. Perhaps I have forgotten important details. But the movie resonates with me.

While this film was not entirely successful, there are scenes that will stay in your mind forever! If you liked Von Trier's "Zentropa", you will like this film on a similar theme.

I like most movies De Sica directed but this is a mediocre tale of a German industrialist dying of cancer, who wants to leave his estate to his second son Werner, while his first son Franz who was a Nazi officer, to escape justice is sheltered in his father's estate and thinks the war is still going on in 1962. It is based on a play by Sartre, which I guess was not successful, and like most movies based on plays, it feels claustrophobic.

Sophia Loren plays Werner's wife and since the movie producer was Carlo Ponti, he used this opportunity - like many other - to showcase his girlfriend Loren as a "real actress". Loren'skills as an actress are debatable, and even Ponti preferred to bet on some of her other assets. That's why even if the action takes place in freezing Hamburg, in a long key scene Loren wears a slip dress, displaying her ample cleavage.

Totally missable, third-rate movie.

... from director Vittorio De Sica. German shipping magnate Fredric March learns that he has six months left to live. He summons his son Robert Wagner and daughter-in-law Sophia Loren to his palatial estate in order to set plans for his passing. Loren, who resents Germany's Nazi past and March's role in it, learns that March's older son (Maximilian Schell), believed long dead, has lived in seclusion since the end of the war, so she sets out to learn why he is hidden away. Also with Francoise Prevost and Gabriele Tinti.

This must have been a major European release at the time, as De Sica was one of the most respected directors, and Loren and Schell had just won the lead acting Oscars. It's heavy stuff, with the examination of German culpability for Nazi atrocities a thorny subject. The version I watched was in Italian with subtitles, so it was odd seeing March, Schell and Wagner dubbed with others' voices.