Roberto Rossellini’s small-scale but infinitely moving 1953 masterwork plucks two stars from Hollywood?Rossellini’s wife Ingrid Bergman and the magnificent George Sanders?and smashes them down on the road as a crisis-hit couple coming apart during a trip in Italy. Rossellini gave his actors the bare bones of a situation, then left them to improvise; they stumble beautifully, trying to discover their own story. The random feel anticipates the French new wave.
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