Review

  • Rossellini shot two versions of 'La Paura', one in German ('Angst') and an international version ('Fear'). The two differ in shots and editing. The first Italian version ('La Paura') corresponds to the international one. Later on another shorter version was distributed by the title 'Non credo più nell'amore'. This restoration is the reconstruction of the international version, 'Fear', and it started from the negative of 'Non credo più nell'amore' and by two vintage duplicates, a positive and a negative. The latter, with a number of vintage prints, were used as reference to reconstruct the editing. I watched the international 'Fear'.

    I can't help but feel a film about a woman living in constant fear as a direct result of her own infidelity would have fit into the Rossellini + Bergman catalogue so brilliantly just 3 or 4 years prior when they both were living in fear as a direct result of their own sinful affair's scandalisation of America. As it is, I feel that 'Fear' is distant from all collaborating on it. Lack of thought becomes uncharacteristically apparent in the closing act, and the reason for that seems to be a lack of care for a project that could have been so special, so Kiarostami, in a weird, Rossellini kind of way.