Film Forum

LA PAURA
Italy/Germany, 1954
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Starring Ingrid Bergman, Mathias Wieman, Renate Mannhardt, Kurt Kreuger
Approx. 83 min. New 4K restoration.

Irene Wagner (Ingrid Bergman) has it all: cherubic kids, loyal servants, a chalet in the country, a Mercedes, a distinguished older husband (Mathias Wieman) who works as a research scientist. In her spare time, she oversees a factory that is critical to Germany’s industrial recovery. But Irene also has a paramour—and finds herself blackmailed by her lover’s ex-girlfriend, who threatens to blow up her marriage unless she submits to escalating demands. Shot in Munich, FEAR takes the outline of a 1910 Stefan Zweig novella and updates it to the post-war present where prosperity and precarity are uncomfortably proximate. What begins as a melodrama soon evolves into an icy essay on modern relationships: marriage as a laboratory experiment. “One shouldn’t fear poison when it is used by a doctor,” intones Irene’s husband, his lab coat not at all reassuring. “One poison is an antidote to another.”

New 4K restoration courtesy Cinecittà.

Presented with support from The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

*With

Viva Ingrid!
Italy, 2015
Directed by Alessandro Rossellini
Approx. 19 min.

Rossellini’s grandson Alessandro fashions a tribute to Ingrid Bergman and her time with Roberto through home movies, film clips, and interviews.

Courtesy Cinecittà.