Il Generale Della Rovere [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

With a deft guiding hand, director Roberto Rossellini brings out the depths in this study of a man's transformation during the German occupation of Milan. Based on a novel by Indro Montanelli, the story is true. Colonel Mueller (Hannes Messemer) and his cohorts have decided to plant a spy in the Milan prison. They choose a petty thief from the streets who earns his living plying the black-market trade and assign him to the task. He is thrown in jail under the false identity of General della Rovere (Vittorio De Sica) in order to bring the Italian resistance fighters among the prisoners, out into the open. As the fake general slowly makes friends with these men, he becomes a leader of sorts, and this transformation gets him thinking in a different way about himself. This well-wrought drama was given the "Best Foreign Film" award in 1960 by the New York Film Critics, and it won the Golden Lion at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Screen: Black and White
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Subtitle: Eng
• Features:
  • New Video Interviews with Isabella, Renzo, and Ingrid Rossellini, as well as film scholar Adriano Apra
  • The Choice, a new visual essay by Tag Gallagher, Author of The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini
  • Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Plus: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic James Monaco and an excerpt from a 2000 interview with Indro Montanelli, the author of the story that inspired the film

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1961 (Sergio Amidei, Indro Montanelli, Diego Fabbri)

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1960

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Golden Lion - 1959 (Roberto Rossellini)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Vittorio De Sica - Victorio Emanuele Bardone
       Hannes Messemer - Col. Mueller
       Vittorio Caprioli - Banchelli
       Sandra Milo - Valeria
       Anne Vernon - Chiara Fassio
       Giovanna Ralli - Olga
       Lucia Modugno - The prostitute
       Baronessa Barzani - Contessa della Rovere
       Mary Greco - The Madam
       Linda Veras - German attendant
       Kurt Polter - German officer
       Ivo Garrani - Fabrizio
       Kurt Selge - Schrantz
       Otto Messmer
       Vittorio De Sica - Grimaldi
       Luciano Pigozzi
       Giuseppe Rossetti - Fabiizio/Pietro Valeri
       Nando Angelini

• Director:

  Roberto Rossellini

• Producer:

  Moris Ergas

• Screenwriter:

  Roberto Rossellini, Diego Fabbri, Sergio Amidei, Indro Montanelli

• Book Author:

  Indro Montanelli

• Cinematographer:

  Carlo Carlini

• Composer (Music Score):

  Renzo Rossellini

• Art Director:

  Piero Zuffi

• Costume Designer:

  Piero Zuffi

REVIEW:

• The transformation of an ordinary man to something resembling a hero is the stuff of many war films, but they're usually about a soldier who finds the courage to throw himself into the thick of battle. Here, the transformation is wrought on a con man, played by Vittorio De Sica, who manages to look elegant even as he's playing a man of reduced means. Presenting himself as "Colonel Grimaldi," he preys upon the fears of those whose relatives have been incarcerated by the Germans in occupied Genoa, offering promises of access and a better deal in exchange for the money he needs to pay his gambling debts. The fact that Bardone (the character's real name) is taking advantage of his fellow Italians is a terrific setup for his own incarceration as General della Rovere. The Germans hope to use his charismatic presence in a jail packed with political prisoners to elicit information on which of them is the leader of the resistance, opening him up to intense torture for information on his organization's activities. Not surprisingly, Bardone undergoes a conversion once he's behind bars. Setting up this scenario takes a bit too much screen time, though it's a lot of fun to watch De Sica's routine. The payoff scenes -- his reading the last graffiti of condemned men written on a cell wall, using his con man's skills to bluff his fellow prisoners into being brave during an air raid -- are well worth the slow build-up. Also of note is Hannes Messemer's performance as Bardone's Colonel Mueller, a cultured Nazi officer who only reluctantly uses physical intimidation to get his way and then shrugs philosophically when a mass execution thwarts his quest for the leader's identity. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi