A View from the Bridge

I just saw this excellent movie in a crappy DVD transfer, actually a DVD-R. It is also available on YouTube. As far as I can see it's the only version available in English at this time and there is no one in French although the movie was apparently shot also in French for the European market.

The setting of the Arthur Miller play in the docks may be surprising at first but it works, allowing parts of the story to take place in outdoors. One can recognize the director's legendary ability with the comedians. They look and sound so naturel that you could believe they have never played another role in their career. The dramatic tension reaches a peek in the third part of the movie. I was riveted to my TV set despite, again, the lousy quality of the support.

A View From The Bridge transcends its stage-play roots to give an earthy feel for its neighborhood and its neighbors. This is high praise considering the play is one of Arthur Miller's very best to begin with. The chemistry is devastatingly hot between Raf Vallone and his illicit love for niece Carol Lawrence who, at first admires him, but later turns on him with disgust. Maureen Stapleton is magnificent as Vallone's desperate wife. Vincent Gardenia is disarmingly young in an early role. The cinematography seems to peel the layers of this blue-collar area like an onion, and the score is simply perfect. A View from the Bridge is a neglected classic that needs to be restored to prominence.

Based on a play by Arthur Miller, the film is very typical of its era (where many such classic plays were adapted for the screen) but also characteristic of director Lumet - who was constantly striving to push barriers (among the themes touched upon here are incest and homosexuality!) and always put his greatest emphasis on the acting. In fact, the cast here is an eclectic but surprisingly effective mix of American, French and Italian actors (though set in Brooklyn, the film was actually shot in France!) - with Raf Vallone especially impressive in his difficult role. The film's dock-side setting (gloomily photographed by Michel Kelber) recalls, to a certain extent, ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) - though this is more of a domestic melodrama; still, the final confrontation between Vallone and Raymond Pellegrin (with its tragic aftermath) reaches a fine pitch of tension.

This play by Arthur Miller was filmed by Sidney Lumet in France, but why? Lumet brings us the gritty and dark world of immigrant longshoreman Eddie Carbone (Raf Vallone) and his family ... wife Maureen Stapleton and her niece Carol Lawrence. Carbone is involved in illegally bringing two Italians (cousins of Stapleton) into the US and getting them jobs on the wharfs of New York City. But something goes very wrong when the younger man (Jean Sorel) starts to get involved with Lawrence and Carbone's jealousy and lust for the girl come to the surface.

All the main characters live in a small and squalid apartment, the perfect setting for the pent up lust and anger that fuels the actions of the characters. The more Carbone lusts for the girl, the more he despises the young Italian and his "foreign" ways, hinting at his homosexuality because he is blond and likes to sing.

Vallone is superb as the volatile and treacherous Eddie Carbone who finally is consumed by his raging passions. Stapleton is solid as the aggrieved wife who remains loyal even as she slowly begins to understand her husband's actions. Jean Sorel is terrific as the young Italian as is Raymond Pellegrin as his older brother.

The real surprise here is Carol Lawrence as young Catherine. Generally considered a musical performer (WEST SIDE STORY), she turns in an amazing performance the innocent girl who finally comes of age.

Co-stars include Morris Carnovsky as the compassionate lawyer, Vincent Gardenia as the grocer, Harvey Lembeck, Frank Campanella, and Mickey Knox as co-workers.

Eddie Carbone (Raf Vallone) a dockworker on the Brooklyn Navy yard accepts his wife's two cousins into his home so they may work and earn enough to return to Sicily prosperous. However when the younger brother Rodolpho (Jean Sorel) gets cozy with Eddie's beloved niece sparks fly and tragedy ensues.

Having never seen the original Miller play on which this is based I cannot compare this 1962 film adaptation by Sidney Lumet but from the film alone I can say it is quite an achievement. The low budget is obvious and many a time one feels as if they are watching an old television movie. But at the same time it adds another layer to the raw atmosphere of the piece. This is the Brooklyn of the 1950s where many struggle for a meager wage and are bound to the docks. Only culture and their traditions keep them alive and this film captures it all.

The cheap look also puts more emphasis on the actors to give their best and boy do they deliver, I could not account for 1 bad performance in this film with the leads routinely strong, particularly Vallone adding an authentic Italian touch, to the extras dotted with many true blue New York blue collar actors like Frank Campanella and Vincent Gardenia.

Being from an Italian family I can say this film captures many of the eccentricities and machinations of an Italian household from the dominant masculinity to family talks and fruit at the end of the meal. Lumet captures the cramped atmosphere so reminisced and glorified in many homes but here turned cold and repugnant due to the material of the piece. The film brilliantly draws the contrast between the old world Italian immigrant mindset of making and saving to go home (as expressed in the brother Marco in his strictly workman's cloths) and that of the younger, new immigrants who come to America to look for opportunity and pleasures not found at home (as expressed in Jean Sorrel with his bolo tie and Texas shirt). The film deals with old world adapting to new world in a larger passion play of lust and betrayal with emotions so sustained that shift to become so open and raw one is left gasping.

Just goes to show what can be accomplished with good actors and a fine director, another under regarded jewel in Sidney Lumet's crown.