The father of neorealism bids farewell to cinema and predicts the future through the lens of the past. Special screening as part of the Still Life. Portrait. Landscape. Genre Beside Itself programme.
Registration opens three weeks before the screening
General Della Rovere
- Date:
- 10 Feb 2027,
19:30–22:00
Registration opens three weeks before the screening
- Age restrictions
- 18+
Il generale Della Rovere
1959, Roberto Rossellini
Italy–France
132 minutes, Italian with Russian subtitles
Starring: Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, Vittorio Caprioli, Sandra Milo
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1944, occupied Genoa. Emanuele Bardone, a gambler and petty thief, shifts from one guise to another like quicksilver: one moment he is a lawyer, the next a jewellery salesman, and then a colonel who, for a hefty sum, can pull an arrested relative out of prison. It seems that he is driven solely by the desire to survive in difficult times. However, the next role Emanuele takes on changes his life and the lives of those around him.
Still from General Della Rovere, 1959
To Rossellini, cinema’s great moments are the ones that bridge performance and life, when barriers separating the player and the mask break down.
— Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine
For Roberto Rossellini, this film marked both a return to his roots and his last major success. Shot in the neorealist aesthetics, the action unfolds against the backdrop of documentary footage, as if on a green screen.
