Before watching “Journey to Italy,” Directed by Roberto Rossellini in 1954, I had expected a romance and exciting movie about traveling. I think this is the view back then that most of the viewers had expected, but did not receive. “Journey to Italy” begins with a couple in a car, they are obviously already in a foreign country as the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. I was imagining them boarding an airplane to get to Italy, so if you pictured this too it doesn’t happen.I got a lot of tension from the characters at first. They start talking about the inheritance they received and it’s going to be a messy situation so than can explain the tension I felt.This movie did a good job of making the viewer feel what the characters are feeling.

Katherine tells her partner “I didn’t know you’d be so bored being alone with me.” I think this film is relate able to people back when the film was made. Ingrid Bergman was a popular, famous actress at the time. I found these small clip from the movie, and thought it was emphasized how amazing of an actress she was. This is a small clip from Journey to Italy.

There are resources proving there was rumors of a romance scandal off the set between the main actress and the director. I think even if there was no affair going on, the director wouldn’t mind the rumors with such a beautiful actress. I also believe the scandal is true and should be embraced and honest if that’s the case.

I believe this is why people had high hopes for a romance, and Katherine says many times “I don’t think you’re happy when you’re alone with me. ” I think this movie shows more of a realistic relationship. There were a lot of key issues with this movie and the rumored scandal. Overall, I think this movie is well put together and shows a lot amazing landscapes of Italy and places you’d never get to see in real life. The plot was different than I had expected, but that’s fine.

Rossellini said in an interview that he feels the story line was hard to ever perceive for viewers. At first, you could ask yourself what is going on and what exactly are these people doing? I found myseld questioning what was going on at times, and also where the movie was going. It isn’t a confusing movie, I think it’s just not completely clear. Something that could’ve been changed about this story line would be that they could’ve made it more clear. I understand what they were doing and why, but what’s the point?

I think this film says a lot about, time, love, and how to value and enjoy time. I’m happy I got to watch it. The film is also all in black and white, which I didn’t mind, but this was the first black and white movie I had ever seen. I watched the original Wizard of Oz when I was younger, and was amazing the beginning was in black and white. I never thought I’d watch one when I got older, and I’m glad I can now say I have.

I hope this blog post/ essay gives my peers a chance to understand and get a glimpse of the movie. I wanted to make it clear what I was expecting and what I saw. I believe there were a lot of high hopes for this movie, especially with the scandal, and were deceived with the story line and not so much romance.

Sources:

Journey to Italy (1954) Full Movie