Film Forum

VOYAGE TO ITALY

12:30  Buy Tickets

(1954, Roberto Rossellini) In Naples to sell Uncle Bob’s villa, London business man George Sanders and wife Ingrid Bergman find that, after eight years of marriage, they have little to say to each other. And as the closing drags on, Bergman remembers a died-too-young poet who loved her, Sanders frets about time away from work, and they split apart – she to stare at the rawness of the statuary in the Museum, the ionization of Vesuvian craters, the skeletons at the cemetery; he to dally with friends on Capri, languidly pursue an estranged wife, and to wave off an attractive prostitute; both to finally view the plaster molds of the dead of Pompeii. Little happens, and yet subtly we see the degeneration of a marriage. Will it take a miracle to save it? Unsuccessful on first release, but over the years steadily climbing the ranks of All-Time Ten Best lists. DCP restoration. Approx. 97 min.

“Quite simply, it is a very, very great film. One of those masterpieces which feels as if it’s becoming a little harder to ‘fix’ with each and every viewing… a key stepping stone on the path to modern cinema.”
– Geoff Andrew, BFI

THE LONG, LONG TRAILER

2:25  Buy Tickets

(1954, Vincente Minnelli) “Ragout of beef!” lipsmacks Desi Arnaz, anticipating wife Lucille Ball’s dinner; only trouble is, she’s cooking in their state-of-the-art 36-foot-long trailer—while it’s moving. First star teaming of 50s TV phenoms Lucy and Desi. 35mm. Approx. 96 min.

Restored by Academy Film Archive and 20^th Century Fox. Funding provided by The Film Foundation.

“Vincente Minnelli has the last word on 50s situation comedy in this film designed as a vehicle for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz at the height of their television popularity… It is one of the most brilliant and thorough dissections of this peculiarly American idiom on film.”
– Dave Kehr, The Chicago Reader