Stromboli (1950) User Reviews (60)

Vertical movie

[manuel-pestalozzi · 7/10 · 6 March 2007]

I must confess that I don't belong to those who consider this movie a big masterpiece. The main problem is Ingrid Bergman and her role. Somehow I found it hard to believe that a woman who seems to be reasonably urbane and worldly-wise, or at least streetwise, and who seems to have weathered difficult situations during a World War in comparative comfort would follow an illiterate peasant to a dead end island. She has many scenes on her own in which she – I can't describe it differently – throws tantrums and feels sorry for herself. It just becomes a boring routine after a while and a little ridiculous as well. There is no character development whatsoever. I liked Bergman much more in movies like Notorious or Gaslight were she probably received better direction.

However, the fantastic locations more than compensate for those flaws. The island of Stromboli is nothing more than an active volcano. The main characters live on the edge between the sea and the towering crater. All important movements in this movie are vertical. The messages from hell fall out of the sky in the form of burning rocks or lower themselves over the heads of people as poisonous gases. A contrary movement – up from the bottom - is the awesome fishing expedition – for me the most unforgettable event of the movie. Large teams of fishermen haul in a huge net, singing. Gradually the surface of the water over the net starts getting agitated until at last huge fish (tuna, I guess) start emerging in a wild frenzy and are hauled aboard. This is perfectly filmed an edited – and simply horrific.

All the elements come together and leave little action space for the cornered humans. The movie proposes two solutions: emigration or religion. The priest of the island plays a pivotal role in the story as he represents the link between the two options. However his actions seemed to me pretty inconclusive, at first he expresses himself overly optimistic, in an almost derisory way, as to the functionality of the ill fitted marriage of the heroine, then he declares himself incapable of helping the heroine, throwing her back onto herself in matters of religious belief. Eventually he comes through as the chief guardian of the dead buried on the island that is a kind of gateway to the world beyond. This is all interesting stuff, but it is not handled with particular care or discipline, which is a pity.

Ingrid Bergman, to escape a displaced persons camp in Italy, marries an Italian POW, and they go together to his home, the volcanic island of Stromboli.

[ncweil · 7/10 · 17 April 2017]

Even in a displaced persons camp, Ingrid Bergman, as Karen, a Lithuanian refugee, manages to dress better and look more beautiful than everyone around her. After her petition for passage to Buenos Aires is denied, she marries a POW from the adjacent camp. A native of the Italian volcanic island Stromboli, Antonio - Mario Vitale - brings her to his home. The village is a harsh place carved from the cinders of the mountainside, and half-deserted. As soon as she sets foot on the island, she can see she's made a mistake, but instead of accepting what she bargained for, she pesters Antonio to make more money so they can leave. He doesn't want to go - this is his home, and he is content even with this fussy wife. The men are fishermen, she constantly hears crying children, and the women dislike her immodesty. She redecorates the house, hiding his shrine and old photographs, putting out vases and flowers, turning her floral dresses into bright curtains. But she disregards the social rules, befriending a seamstress who's a "fallen woman" and playing in the sea with a group of boys. The inevitable clash between the peasant fisherman and the woman with aesthetic aspirations their simple life cannot satisfy, comes to a head with the eruption of the volcano. If I rated only the plot, this movie would earn a 5 - but the cinematography is magnificent. Otello Martelli's use of light and shadow, camera angle, and the restless natural world he filmed, create images that last long after the story has blown away like the fluff it is.

Poor old Ingrid!!

[cogs · 7/10 · 2 February 2005]

"Stromboli" is a fascinating examination of suffering, desperation, faith and the desire for redemption. I've never liked Rossellini's films as much as Bresson's but I think the two directors often dealt with the same themes in similar ways, with minor stylistic variations. Where Rossellini used actors and non-actors who gave performances, Bresson used models and types who were instructed to remain impassive. Where Rossellini's films focused on passionate characters and emotional situations, Bresson approached his stories with a scientist's dispassion. I've always found Rossellini's films strange – they are often parables that invest heavily in domestic melodrama and the histrionics of their characters. Nevertheless, I think "Stromboli" is one of his most successful films. Karin suffers so much--a war refugee, internment camp resident and then harried wife and social pariah on a desolate island--that it is easy to see how she is blind to faith. Despite her eventual redemption Rossellini doesn't paint Karin as a saint. Her protestations regarding the social politics of the island develop into a crusade to transgress their customs and protocols, often in self-righteous objection to the constraints placed on her. And her willingness to exploit her sexuality further confirms her all too human (and flawed) nature. The scenes where Karin attempts to seduce the priest and later seduces the lighthouse keeper are brimming with carnal sensuality. Bergman, as always, is excellent.

erupting beauty

[TheFerryman · 2 February 2004]

Stromboli is a film with the look of Flaherty's `Man of Aran' and the dramatics of von Trier's `Breaking the Waves'. The story is the tragedy of a woman named Karin, a Lithuanian refugee after WWII and her pursuit of a better life marrying an Italian peasant and moving down with him to his birthplace, a volcanic island off the coast of southern Italy.

Rossellini portraits her heroin without sentimentalism or affection of any kind. He seems to be more interested in revealing her dark sides and miseries, but as Bergman's performance is so emotionally raw, we cannot but stick with her to the end of her journey. We do not pity her, but take pity with her. Rossellini's strong Catholicism usually forces us to live through his films as Catholics, regardless of which belief one may have.

If war was hell then the post war can be redemption time. Karin has nostalgia of her past, a lost-paradise, and all her efforts are put to restore that primal state. She's an Eva cast away from Eden, with somehow Bovarian ambitions, trying to reach prosperity at any cost. Her chances are scarce, so she takes the only opportunity she gets to leave the camp, marrying Antonio, a peasant whom she first kisses through barbed wire. She will soon realize that Antonio's island is miles away of the paradise of her dreams. The place is barren and the locals are hostile. She's trapped in a labyrinth surrounded by sea and menaced by an active volcano. Any form of relationship, even with her husband, is impeded because of a communication problem. Technically she cannot speak the language. But she cannot either penetrate a hermetic, oppressive world ruled by rites and tradition. If paradise was a state where men could speak the language of the gods in harmony with nature, Karin's pilgrimage will ultimately have to restore that dialogue, rebuild that bridge with origin.

In her symbolic descent to primitivism she learns the meaning of life in the hard way, and at the same time she follows all the phases of mankind from the first cry of the new born, to subsequent life in a cavern, cave-painting, elemental worshipping, fishing for subsistence and conversion. Karin's fault is her self-sufficiency, denying the existence of a superior order and her mundane ambition of a destiny ruled by luxury and comfort. She thinks the place is filthy and defines her belonging to `a different class'. When she realizes that there's no place for glamour in Stromboli she turns into an Eve and tempts the local priest. This behaving sooner or later will provoke the wrath of the gods, portrayed in the everlasting volcano to which the fate of the islanders is attached from immemorial days. To outcome her tragic fall, Karin should ascend the top of the mountain while getting rid of her material belongings (the money, the suitcase), rise up her head to the sky and address God. Rossellini doesn't show us if she saves her life or not because the thing is that she assumed her role of creature and thus her subordination to a supreme kind. Same as the villagers, who stoically accept the infuriated eruptions, or the fishermen that depend on the fruitful sea.

The most unforgettable sequence of the film is the one of the tuna fishing. Rossellini is so precise in the choosing of the images and the rhythm of the editing that the one feels that is seated in one of the boats bringing the prays. But the scene has much more than an aesthetic value. It works not only because it's beautiful; it is also informative for the story, dramatic in itself and in the events of the film, and symbolic both for the story and for Bergman's character, who watches the action from a neighboring boat. Such an adjustment distinguishes art from a good movie.

An important page in Italian neorealism, but a flawed one

[darioilg · 7/10 · 20 December 2016]

Rossellini's "Stromboli, terra di Dio" is a film on the line between fiction and reality more than usual for the acclaimed director. Most of the central part, where Karin just lives in Stromboli and complains about stuff was not written as in a normal screenplay: Rossellini chose possible elements of the environment or popular habits and filmed them in the movie, putting Karen in it like an extrernal observator. This has a double effect: neorealism comes to some of its highest achievements (like the tuna fishing and the eruption of the volcano) but to the loss of a fantastic actress such as Ingrid Bergman, who always feels out of place. Careful: I didn't say KAREN, I said BERGMAN. Because as a character she should be out of place, and she is even esthetically: she's always combed and white as the moon, while the inhabitants are rusty and dirty. But the actress herself is out of place in this film, and that is not a good thing at all. Her lines are dumb, repetitive, and Bergman actually did a great job managing to not disappear in such irrelevance. She still lives the scene, but her attempt is clearly forced into a new, uncharted territory as was Italian filmmaking for an American diva. We could say then that Ingrid is just as lost as her character.

What I just can't stand in this film is the necessity of squeezing the religious conversion (I'm talking about the Italian version of the film, American and International versions have slightly different endings for that time's commercial policies). It was the result of Rossellini's collaboration with powerful politicians and Church men, to be specific Giulio Andreotti and Felix Morlion, whose intention was to use a critically acclaimed author's cinema for political propaganda. I hate when other interests interfere with artistic purposes, and here the last moments are definitely flawed with an out of the blue realization of the power and existence of God for no good reason.

As I said before, neorealist features are what makes this film enjoyable and a classic. Apart from the brilliant scenes I mentioned above, I really liked the harsh depiction of the patriarchy that unfortunately still exists and thrives especially in the South of Italy. I actually felt bad and angry at Antonio as he jerks his wife with no respect and beats her like an animal, but I know very well that even today that is the norm in so many families and that simply pisses me off. Kudos to Rossellini for depicting that so realistically, but then again he's a great director exactly because of scenes like those.

a sincere work

[trossellini-939-595470 · 9/10 · 1 May 2016]

I wanted to take the time to write of this work by my grandparents Rossellini and Bergman, as it has always been a film of both great emotion and confusion for me personally. If anything, there is much to be said for my grandmother moving from Hollywood to a deserted volcanic island with meager means and low production capacity. This speaks to her love not only of my grandfather's work, but also to her sense of adventure and courage, looking for new ways to express herself as an actress. When it comes to my grandfather, this is his most impulsive directorial work. He was in a both stressful and joyous time in his life and i can only imagine the feelings of both anguish and happiness that he felt. All of these swirls and jests of emotion are apparent, they are as evident as the very powerful setting itself. Though the film is certainly not perfect, and at times even slow and overtly dramatic, it is nonetheless sincere and beautiful. It is a work of love made by two people in love.

stromboli

[mossgrymk · 7/10 · 9 October 2020]

I know the Sight And Sound crowd loves it but I find it highly resistible for the same reason they venerate it, namely that watching an hour and forty minutes of Ingrid Bergman's spirit, individuality and, yes, arrogance crushed beneath the heel of complacent Italian peasantry is less than enthralling. Partially making up for this are Rossellini's three visually arresting set pieces, the Catching Of The Tuna and the Volcanic Eruptions. And of course Bergman is captivating, as usual. So, let's give it a B minus. PS...As wonderful as is the cinematography the sound sucks. Could maybe understand 60% of the English dialogue.

A flawed masterpiece

[tsember · 10/10 · 3 February 2003]

Stromboli Island is dominated by its continuously active (though infrequently deadly) volcano. The Tyrhennian island has a desolate look. Its men fish the waters north of Sicily and west of Calabria, its black-kerchiefed women mind their business and watch everyone else's. There is little money, no electicity and no running water. The morality is traditional and narrow. In that world it is a given that the man is the boss. He keeps his own counsel. He chastises a wayward wife as he would an unruly child. His woman's body is a utility for his release. The woman's pleasure is not a proper concern for the man. Or the woman. Like the movie, life in Stromboli is black and white. In the best exposure ever of the fisher's life, we see the boats net a school of desperately thrashing tuna. Somehow Rossellini captures the scene from the fish's point of view. In another take, the hero puts a ferret after a rabbit and enjoyably watches his wife's distress with the killing. He scorns her discomfort with this reality. An elemental man, he accepts that what you is eat is what you kill. Karin (Ingrid Bergman) was a flirtatious Lithuanian refugee with a well-developed sense of the world and herself. She wanted out of her post-WWII internment. Antonio (Mario Vitale) was a simple, horny soldier looking to acquire a wife. Eccola, Karin's ticket! They married and he took her to his island but it was apparent right away that Karin could not fit with the primitives of Stromboli. Antonio, though, expected her to come to terms with her situation, to "come around. At the end a pregnant Karin is shown in an agony of conflict: the necessity to go from Stromboli and the necessity to stay. Unfortunately, we can't care for Karin inspite of her impossible situation: she is stuck on her own predicament to the exclusion of any concern for her husband. Antonio is a nice guy who does feel for his wife's misery. Although Antonio gives Karin a cuffing after one embarassment and tries to imprison her to keep her from leaving, his actions are restrained given his place and the time. And the provocations he's endured because of her eye for other men. She has made a fool of him. She has estranged him from his own people. We could care more for Karin if she cared a little more about the predicament she's caused poor Antonio. Note: Even a great director like Rossellini had to bow to Hollywood standards to get a showing in the U.S.: Antonio and Karin sleep in separate single beds a la Ozzie and Harriet (in Stromboli!) and Karin, toward the end of the movie, rests on the ground after coming through the smoky fulminations of the volcano with not a hair out of place, makeup perfect, dress as clean and neat as if it had just come from the cleaners. What a gal. Jim Smith----------------

Time has stripped this movie of much of its original appeal

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 14 May 2013]

I gave this one a hats-off review on its first release, but I am not so fond of it now that I have Connoisseur's DVD. A slow-moving and obvious plot unwinds to an abrupt conclusion. Little attempt is made to interest us in any of the characters except our heroine. The men are boring boors who go through their motions like trained fleas and speak in platitudes. We certainly don't blame our heroine for wanting to escape from Stromboli. We're with her all the way! The men are a cruel, ignorant, self-indulgent lot who seem to relish the hardships they impose on both their fellow-islanders and themselves. The women simply put up and shut up. No doubt people did live this way on Stromboli in 1949. Maybe they still do. But 107 minutes is far too long to spend in their company.

the adventure before the letter

[lqualls-dchin · 10/10 · 20 August 2007]

Or L'AVVENTURA AVANT LA LETTRE, which actually encapsulates the situation of STROMBOLI. Although the recent death of Michelangelo Antonioni brought about many commentators who discussed the revolutionary effect of the first screenings of L'AVVENTURA (Martin Scorsese wrote such a piece which appeared in The New York Times of August 12, 2007), this was a far cry from the disastrous reception that STROMBOLI had in its original release. Of course, part of the problem was the extra-filmic situation, the "scandale" of the Bergman-Rossellini relationship.

But all that's in the past. STROMBOLI must be seen as the revolutionary work that it is. In the past (and this continues today), the film was castigated for its meandering plotlessness, for its seeming aimlessness. These are, in fact, aspects of the film, because the film is not "about" the passions of a woman (though this was how the movie was advertised on its initial release), but about lassitude. In effect, STROMBOLI was the first filmic expression of alienation, literally in the plot device of having Karin (played by Bergman) a displaced person, and metaphorically in scenes such as the one in which Karin is walking through the town and hears voices - she knows that they're talking about her, but she can't understand what they're saying. (The villagers speak in their Sicilian dialect, and Karin speaks in English; there is the scene where Karin redecorates the house, and the women come to stare, but when she invites them to come in, they just stare and skulk away.)

There are so many problems with seeing this film: it was cut and reedited and a voice-over narration was added for its initial American release; the Italian archival version is dubbed all into Italian. The actual version is a multi-lingual (English, Italian, Sicilian dialect) version which runs 107 minutes, with no narrator. In this version, the documentary aspects are fully integrated into the film.

STROMBOLI deserves to be seen in its full version, and deserves to be seen as the precursor of movies such as L'AVVENTURA, Resnais's Hiroshima MON AMOUR and Godard's UNE FEMME MARIEE.

Ingrid Bergman in Rossellini's Stromboli

[JLRMovieReviews · 7/10 · 31 August 2012]

I had heard mixed reviews of this and, being a die-hard Ingrid Bergman fan for years, I wanted to see everything of hers I could get my hands on. Directed by husband Roberto Rossellini, this film has Ingrid Bergman getting married to an Italian, of whom at first she turned down, but at last relented, when authorities questioned her as to how she came into Italy. During the German occupation of Yugoslavia, her husband was killed in the war and she made her way there somehow, but now she must leave. So she's off to the Italian's home island of Stromboli, which is the locale of an active volcano. Immediately, she is restless and very unhappy, despite the fact her husband is very nice looking and some women would give anything to be on an island with him. But that they might say is neither here nor there. She tries finally to change her perspective and pretty up the place and make herself more pretty with makeup and have a more positive outlook on life, as she had felt stifled and depressed on this small, lifeless remote island. But the local married women look down on women who wear cake on their faces, and call her immodest to her face. She keeps asking what she's done that is really wrong. She put away the pictures of old people that her husband had up, because they were depressing and painted a design on the walls to spice up the place, but when she is seen talking and smiling with another man by the locals and talk ensues, her husband slaps her around and says enough is enough. The place goes back the way it was. The ultimate denouement of the film is, will she leave her husband to be free of the restrictive life she has there or will she find peace? I couldn't tell you, as the ending is ambiguous. She is last seen trying to leave by way of the volcano, but is overcome by the smoke. She prays to be saved. But what does she mean? What is implied? Some ambiguous endings work, but in this case, I didn't feel it did. Throughout the film, I was entertained by the film but aware of its flaws. I felt like it was a poor man's version of "The Old Man and the Sea," as we are shown the life of her husband and his kin's way of life as fishermen. The fishing footage was very interesting to watch despite the fact Ingrid wasn't moved by being part of his life. She really made herself miserable. It's all in how you look at it. She may have wished for more and a better place in the world. But does she really belong to him and this world now? Should she reconcile herself to this? I am the type of person that loves films that show a lot of the ocean, so that plus Ingrid Bergman made this worth watching. But that ambiguous ending was a little disappointing to me. I would have preferred one ending or the other. Or, maybe she dies? But I don't think so. All in all, I think a Bergman and/or Rossellini fan would enjoy this film, flaws and all. But Ingrid Bergman is beautiful as usual. Sit back with Ingrid by the sea in Stromboli!

A vastly underrated masterpiece

[zetes · 10/10 · 15 June 2002]

An enormous step forward from his three neorealist classics listed above. Unfortunately, I think it might still be suffering from its original backlash. It was pounded by the critics at the time, but that was all for reasons outside the film itself (well, not exactly; the film seems to mimic real life at the time, even if it wasn't meant to). Of course, I'm referring to the affair that Ingrid Bergman, the film's star, and Roberto Rossellini, its director, had during the shooting, which resulted in the birth of an illegitimate child. Not only were they not married to each other, but they were both married to others at the time. That wouldn't, of course, cause most people living in the United States to even blink today, but it was a huge scandal at the time, resulting in a box office dud for RKO Pictures, who had produced it. Fortunately, we can look at Stromboli objectively today and recognize it for the great masterpiece that it happens to be.

Bergman, in possibly her best role, plays a young Lithuanian woman who has lived a sort of decadent life. She is now in an internment camp in Italy, praying to flee to Argentina. Her only other option is to marry the Italian soldier, several years younger than herself, who is flirting with her all the time. The first option falls through, so she is forced to go with her backup plan. All's well, until she finds out where the guy lives and has every intention of going back to: Stromboli, a volcanic island where only the toughest farmers and fishermen live. Bergman is immediately distraught. She has grown up wealthy, had a lot of luxuries. Now she is living in a hut on a dusty, barren rock with a husband who can only barely understand English, which is, incidentally, only a second language for Bergman, as well. There is little communication between them, and, indeed, in this land, that is not exactly important. Still, the husband really cares for her. In all actuality, although we can jerk our knees at his conservative ways, Bergman is the one who refuses to compromise. From the first day, she demands to be taken away from Stromboli, to America or Australia, maybe. But there is no money to do so. There are a lot of customs on the island which she doesn't understand. She doesn't even attempt to understand them. Even when a friend tells her she shouldn't enter a certain person's home, she goes in anyway, completely embarrassing her husband. When she complains to the priest that she is utterly unhappy, he replies that he understands, but her husband is just as unhappy, maybe moreso. After all, the first thing she did when he went fishing was store away all the pictures of his deceased family and a statue of the Virgin Mary. Stromboli is an amazingly fair film in this way. In fact, my only complaint would center on the print I saw (on TCM, of course) rather than the actual film: it is unsubtitled, which means that we are meant to see everything from Bergman's point of view, at least in this version. I think that the Italian should be translated in subtitles, because there are a lot of long segments where the Italians are talking to each other that go untranslated. Rossellini wouldn't have had this dialogue if he didn't want us to know what they were saying. Of course, it's not usually very difficult to figure out what they are talking about.

Among other things, Stromboli contains two of the most amazing set pieces in the history of film. First, Bergman has someone row her out to see her husband while he and other Strombolians are tuna fishing. In an extremely lengthy sequence, we witness this event. This is far more reality than Visconti ever gave us in La Terra Trema a few years prior. Second, the volcano at the peak of the island erupts and the residents have to sail out to sea in their boats for a very long time. The film also has a masterful finale, although I think I personally would have directed Ingrid differently in the final scene. It still works wonders. 10/10.

Classic melodrama about a refugee who marries an Italian fisherman in order to escape from his displaced camp

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 2 February 2023]

This vintage melodrama was even greater off-screen than on, this is the film which introduced Bergman and Rosselini and began their scandalous affair. The beautiful Karin (Ingrid Bergman) , a young woman from North Europe countries, living in an Italian refugee camp in 1948, marries fisherman Antonio (Mario Vitale) , a resident of the men's camp , to escape from a prison camp and they soon head for his home village, Stromboli. But she cannot get used to the tough life in Antonio's volcano-threatened village, Stromboli. Raging Island...Raging Passions !. This is It!. A Volcano of Emotion!

A thoughtful and brooding drama about a love story that goes wrong . It deals with isolation , loneliness and tradition against modern life . Depicting rural habits in a far place where population lives in poor and unfortunate conditions .The best scenes deal with the village life located on a remote island at the foot of an active volcano , photographed in neo-realist style and detailing the hardships and the way of existence of the fishermen and villagers . There stands out the enjoyable Ingrid Bergman giving very good acting as wife who's brought by her new husband to his home island of Stromboli where she finds the life bleak and isolated and and her marriage a trial .Roberto Rossellini and his future wife Ingrid Bergman met for the first time while making this movie . Rossellini had a celebrated, adulterous affair with Ingrid Bergman that was an international scandal. They became lovers on the set of Stromboli (1950) while both were married to other people and Bergman became pregnant. After they shed their spouses and married, producing three children, history repeated itself when Rossellini cheated on her with the Indian screenwriter Sonali Senroy DasGupta while he was in India at the request of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to help revitalize that country's film industry. It touched off another international scandal, and Nehru ousted him from the country. Rossellini later divorced Bergman to marry Das Gupta, legitimizing their child that had been born out-of-wedlock.

The motion picture was well directed by Roberto Rosselini who worked with no written script but a handful of personal notes. Rossellini produced his first classic film, the anti-fascist Roma, ciudad abierta (1945) ("Rome, Open City") in 1945, which won the Grand Prize at Cannes. Two other neo-realist classics soon followed, Paisà (1946) ("Paisan") and Alemania, año cero (1948) ("Germany in the Year Zero"). "Rome, Open City" screenwriters Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini were nominated for a Best Writing, Screenplay Oscar in 1947, while Rossellini himself, along with Amidei, Fellini and two others were nominated for a screen-writing Oscar in 1950 for "Paisan". Rating : 7/10 . Better than average. Essential and indispensable watching for Ingrid Bergman fans.

"La terra e dura qui": Setting as Character

[bowlofsoul23 · 5/10 · 4 April 2006]

"La terra e dura qui." Ingrid Bergman is a powerhouse in this film (perhaps out of love and devotion to the director), but she still can't match the power of the menacing volcano on this remote island off the coast of Italy. Bergman plays a prisoner of war with a checkered past stuck in a women's camp, who marries a Strombolian in order to provide herself with the security she needs. Trouble awaits her, and the first sign we get of that is when she starts to complain of being cold on the boat that is taking her to her new life. What she finds is not up to her high Continental standards, and her attitudes towards the locals and the place itself diminish her already low stature as an outsider. It is less the people however, than the general character of the place that turns her off. The volcano, unnamed by the villagers, always awaits in the background, and setting itself becomes one of the main characters (thus the importance of the title), a force to be reckoned with, much like her character.

Although this film is not noir in any way, and Rossellini himself would probably turn in his grave for hearing me say this, Bergman's character certainly does not hesitate in using her female "wiles" to get what she wants and needs. She survived a world war on what we take are wits and flexible morals, so she will also make it through this and I love her for it.

She even attempts to seduce the local priest by cooing "I knew you were the only person who could help me." Having that attempt fail, she tries with the village lighthouse keeper seen at right, and I don't even have to explain the power of her touch. As she asks for help to escape from the village, she softly touches his foot with hers, and creates an unbelievably palpable feeling of erotic energy, something unheard of in mainstream movies today. I know, that's such a cliché, but it's true.

Anyway, I won't discuss the ending, which angered me as a modern woman (even Bergman didn't seem to be buying it), but I will say that the film impressed me with its use of setting comprising plot, character, mise-en-scene, and theme. The film IS setting. It's also worth it just to see the non-actors performing a yearly tuna fishing ritual that dates back to the Phoenecians. Rossellini films are never just stories, they are historical documents. And I love him for that.

cococravescinema.blogspot.com

A bleak indiscretion...sub-standard Rossellini and Bergman...

[Doylenf · 17 November 2003]

Other recent commentaries on this film call it a "masterpiece". I strongly disagree. When it opened the reviews were as bleak and indifferent to it as Karen (Ingrid Bergman) is to the island of Stromboli. No one considered it up to Rossellini's "Open City" or "Paisan" in terms of genuine artifice. It was termed bleak and undistinguished with a plodding script that could only be called simplistic in terms of dialogue.

Fine B&W cinematography of a desolate island and scenes of an actual volcano eruption are not enough to make a 107-minute movie tailored to demonstrate the neo-realism of Ingrid Bergman's acting now that she had shed her Hollywood glamour. Bergman is ill served by a poorly developed character and embarrassingly inept scenes between her and her Italian fisherman husband (Mario Vitale).

There is startling realism in the tuna fishing sequence and harsh realism in the desolate landscape and close-ups of island people, but Rossellini did not seem to have a well developed or finished script in mind when he began shooting what others have called a "masterpiece". There is no doubt that had he the advantage of a well structured and conceived screenplay he might have been effective in telling this kind of story. But with the camera lingering on an anguished Ingrid Bergman sobbing in scene after scene of emotional isolation, the viewer is left with the feeling that this is little more than a post-war documentary in search of a coherent plot.

The unresolved ending used in the U.S. print is not the original ending, by the way, and leaves the viewer with the feeling he has witnessed an unfinished screenplay. It is said that Rossellini began shooting without a complete script on a day to day basis that must have been a strain on Bergman. It shows when he spends an inordinate amount of time on a fishing sequence that has little to do with furthering the slight plot. Too bad he didn't start the project with a finished script and a firm focus for his content.

The background music is oddly silent during some of the most emotional moments and despite Italian chants of fishermen the soundtrack remains mostly barren of any interesting content.

Stromboli

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 27 December 2022]

Ingrid Bergman is "Karin" desperate to escape from post-war austerity, so she alights on the young Italian "Antonio" (Mario Vitale) and relocates to his somewhat barren home near the eponymous volcano. Once there, though, she struggles with the mundanity, the routine and the harshness of life in his village - one that is also suffering the lasting effects of the recently ended war, and is now largely devoid of any population. It turns out that her new husband isn't quite the catch she anticipated either - indeed he is somewhat of a brute. What can she do now? First thing I would say is make sure you watch the original version with subtitles (if you need them) - it adds so much more to the authenticity of this film, and oddly enough, that is really all the film has going for it. The pace here is just about as downbeat and pedestrian as the life she depicts on her island. It plods along without much headway before an ending that seemed to take much more than 90 minutes to get to. As you'd expect from Rossellini, the film has a certain class to it and the bleakness of the volcanic environment works well to create the mood for the film - it is just a fairly dialogue heavy one that isn't very cheery.

coping with the Big Empty

[cafescott · 8/10 · 16 November 2013]

I enjoyed reading "erupting beauty" (The Big Combo, 2 February 2004) for a good summary of Stromboli. Zetes ("A vastly underrated masterpiece", zetes from Saint Paul, MN, 15 June 2002) and bkoganbing ("Ingrid and the volcano", bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York, 29 August 2012) both include good background about the controversies surrounding it. Cogs ("Poor old Ingrid!!", cogs from London, England, 2 February 2005) sees similarities between Rossellini and Bresson that I share. I agree with Cogs that Bresson is more interesting.

Stromboli is a showcase for Ingrid Bergman, who to my mind is easily the greatest actress in cinema. Karen's situation is Hellish. She marries to escape an Italian interment camp. She subsequently finds only misery with the desolate volcano-island that her fisherman-husband takes her to. The terrain is harsh and the locals are even worse. She discovers him to be overly simple and occasionally too beastly to bear. The finale reflects her desire for just a meager amount of happiness in such a world as this.

Visually Roberto Rossellini is superb. His visual aesthetics are unsentimental but never boring. His camera work is unobtrusive.

Two of the most memorable scenes feature a disturbing quotient of animal cruelty. In the first scene, a live rabbit is needlessly sacrificed by being placed near a ferret. Rossellini couldn't use stuffed animals. He has the audience, some of whom are animal lovers, suffer by showing the kill in detail. Of course, Rossellini is strengthening the distance between Ingrid and her fisherman husband, and identifying her with the suffering rabbit. However, I won't give Rossellini any credit for moving the story along with this thoughtless tactic.

The second scene is the justifiably famous tuna slaughter with real fisherman, nets and spears. I have eaten tuna all my life and haven't thought much where it comes from. Also, I have no doubt that all of the tuna that we see being harvested was ultimately eaten. To give Rossellini credit, he filmed it well--with Ingrid nearby witnessing it as if she was one of the unfortunate fish. I just don't think that it takes great storytelling skill to rely on animal slaughter to move an audience.

Two other scenes that are noteworthy is when Karen attempts to seduce a priest, and when she (apparently) seduces a lighthouse keeper. The character that Rosselini and Bergman are portraying is flawed, and very human. She's no saint, she's a woman with unfulfilled needs.

Overall, Stromboli is a must-see member of the Italian neo-realism canon. Very few films venture to depict life without false pretenses. Ingrid's Karen really suffers; and her actions make her a polarizing figure to viewers, isolating her further. Rossellini and Bergman are showing what life is really like as every member of the audience understands it.

Passionate yet problematic

[mollytinkers · 7/10 · 9 September 2021]

The first IMDb review that pops up in the feed is allegedly written by Rossellini's and Bergman's grandchild. It's a shame the author's identity cannot be authenticated, knowing that anyone can invent a username and purport to be anyone they wish. I hope it's legitimate, because it's a wonderful review. Read it, for sure.

Moving on, I found myself paying attention more to the flaws in the beginning than the film as a whole; but as the story unfolded, I become more and more engrossed. There are some wonderful components to this movie; there are also some disappointing aspects to get past.

The location shooting is breathtaking. The cinematography is a mixed bag of clear, clean visuals and grainy footage. The sound recording is sadly horrific. In all honesty, it should've been subtitled, in my opinion, as the locals used in the film are both hard to understand and extremely difficult to hear. The musical score surprised me in a delightful way.

I actually really liked the storyline. I agree with other users, however, that Bergman's character agreeing to marry a man she hardly knows is implausible. She's a strong-willed, well-coiffed survivor of WWII, having escaped from Czechoslovakia to end up in an Italian internment camp. That she would run off with a stranger whom she herself describes as "crazy", without knowing his occupation or finances, is perplexing.

Bergman's acting is superb. The male lead is quite handsome. The ending is frustratingly ambiguous. And take note that this was filmed before there were protocols in place protecting the welfare of animals used during production.

I will watch this again.

A Masterpiece of the Neorealism in a Drama After the Second World War

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 4 September 2003]

Karin (the gorgeous and marvelous Ingrid Bergman) is a Lithuanian living in a camp of refugees after the Second World War. She has some unknown obscure past and Argentinean government refuses her request of political asylum. In the camp, she meets Antonio (Mario Vitale), a rough fisherman and former Italian soldier. Antonio falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. Karin accepts, not for love, but as a means of escaping from that refugee camp. They move to an island in the border of the volcano Stromboli, a retrograde and conservative place. Karin will get into despair, tremendously affected by people from that area. This movie is what we must call a Masterpiece (with capital M). Rossellini used only three professional actors in developing such a film and filmed on the real locations with the local population. The inconclusive end of the plot was a technique not common in 1949. The despair of Karin is transmitted to the viewer, who will certainly feel sorry for her. The black & white picture is wonderful on DVD. In Brazil, this movie was previously unreleased on Video. Only in the beginning of this year, we Brazilians were able to achieve this masterpiece on DVD. The Brazilian lovers of cinema and excellent films like me now can say - Thank you, Rossellini! My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Stromboli"

The fisherman and the fish-out-of-water...

[ElMaruecan82 · 6/10 · 21 January 2023]

It seems that half the IMDb reviews have covered up the subject of Ingrid Bergman leaving her husband (and incidentally Hollywood) for Italian director Roberto Rossellini, a scandal that tarnished her reputation and could have terminated her career in America if if it wasn't for her successful come-back with "Anastasia"; that earned her second Oscar.

Having nothing particularly transcending to say about the film, allow me to give my two cents. I think that the span of six years isn't that of a big deal and perhaps Bergman's move allowed other actresses to rise to stardom, I wouldn't dare get judgmental and what's questioned here is the quality of the film she made with her new husband. Well, I liked "Voyage in Italy" with George Sanders, a solid drama about a couple trying to reinforce their fragile marriage through a holiday in Italy. Now what about "Stromboli", the post-War tale of a newlywed couple settling in the husband's hometown, much to the displeasure of a wife who's used to live a life of luxury during the darkest hours?

There's an ironic ring to Karen's situation that should have been the core of the story. Here's a woman who slept with Germans or maybe other officials who could ensure her to slip through the net of war restrictions or imprisonments, one could even call her the anti-Isla. She's venal, self-centered, utterly amoral... and yet holds such a high esteem of herself that she believes that she deserves the good life. If anything such a personality is the perfect candidate for a moral redemption or a Karmic retribution. But there are times where Rossellini and his collaborators in the script get so carried away by the wave of neo-realism that they took for granted the escapist value of the film. Just because we're here watching fishermen in action or some footage of a Stromboli eruption doesn't mean that the pacing should suffer from it. And there's a limit to the endurance a viewer can display in front of grainy black-and-white pictures and a bad audio.

And so we have Karen, the baltic prisoner and the handsome and dashing prince Antonio (Mario Vitale) who kept courting her from the other side of a camp only to reveal himself a modest fisherman in a little seaside village where most people migrated and stagnating under the ominous presence of the volcano Stromboli. There's something about Karen, her looks, her height, her uncommon beauty that immediately turns her into an outcast, men give her some lusty smiles, women (the few of them left) cold stares. Hardly the best prospects in life and so her whole journey is one of total boredom and perpetual resistance to that impulse to just go away. She can't for many reasons, it's an island, she's married but God knows she'll do her best even if it means tantalizing or seducing other men to do it. Now, how do you make a movie about boredom without making it boring, I guess Rossellini had enough talent to prevent the film from total dullness and was right in assuming that Bergman would carry it, her frustration can be made into a spectable.

Still, the role might have been challenging but as far as patience is concerned, "Stromboli" is very demanding. In fact, I'm wondering right now, how did Rossellini ever pitch it?

• Hey, let's make a movie about a woman who's bored to death in a godforsaken place in Italy full of black-clad gossiping matrons and with men going to fish tuna for the whole day". You know local touch, fish out of the water and the Stromboli to work as a metaphor for her nerves at the verge of erupting, not to mention a cool sounding title.

• I don't know, she's bored, you said. But what does she do during the day?

• Oh, she's just a perpetually angry woman, making women suspicious and men trying to comfort her... in total respect of course.

• Oh, I think I see where this is leading. Progressively, she'll learn to fit in the town and become a new woman who embraced the simplicity of life in the Mediterrannean sea, surrounded by rough but ordinary people. She'll be friend with a woman, an old man or maybe a kid.

• No kid. That's an old trope, hey, it's neo-realism, life isn't a fairy tale. Not only she'll always be furious but she'll try to threaten her husband and even seduce men to help her. Hell, she'll even seduce the priest who was her only friend.

• Gee, no wonder she's hated. And how does it end.

• I don't know, right now I'm busy capturing some footage of the Stromboli, the material is a little thin but we'll get enough fillers to give the film its documentary value.

• You said it, it's rather thin.

• Oh did I tell you the lead role is Ingrid Bergman?

• Sold.... But wasn't she married?

• Mmm... that's another story, let's stick to business.

And that's it, we do have beautiful shots of the village, picturesque, we have a long sequence showing men fishing a giant tuna and one little with a rabbit attacked by a ferret, needless to say that this is not a film I'd recommend for an animal lover.

But basically "Stromboli" is a film about a bored woman that barely succeeds in not being boring, because Ingrid Bergman's presence is nothing to be proven but even her alone can't carry it for too long and by the time we get to the emotional climax, she had lost so much the connection with the other villagers that there's such a feeling of existential dead-end that Karen can only strike us as a doomed woman, who had made such a disastrous life choice with a man so oblivious to her concerns that there's no way she would ever be happy again. If anything "Stromboli" is a movie about unhappiness.

Masterpiece of Acting & Direction

[whpratt1 · 8/10 · 29 August 2006]

This film was a very controversial in 1950, mainly because of Ingrid Bergman's personal life which was talked about from every pulpit in the country and was actually banned by the Catholic Church. However, in today's standard of living, this would not have made much difference, we hear about such things going on in Hollywood all the time. Ingrid Bergman,(Karin), " Cactus Flower",'69, played a very frustrated young gal who tried to escape from one place and married a fisherman and witnessed a horrible smelly fishy scene with large tuna being hauled into small fishing boats. Karin also had the experience of having to go out into the sea in order to avoid being burned up by a volcano that was pouring down lava into her town. Poor Karin also gets locked up in her own home and starts flirting with a local man to help her escape. Karin winds up climbing up a huge mountain without a suitcase and only the clothes on her back. Ingrid Bergman gave an outstanding performance that will be long remembered. Great Film to view in Black & White.

On location cinematography and native actors enhance average story of alienated interloper who finds redemption on volcanic island

[Turfseer · 6/10 · 9 October 2014]

There's quite a bit of interesting history to 'Stromboli' that goes beyond the film itself. First of course was the scandal of star Ingrid Bergman shacking up with director Roberto Rossellini and having a child out of wedlock with him. Her reputation in the U.S. suffered until she made a comeback in 'Anastasia', winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1956. Then there was also the controversy over the international film rights to the English language version of the film which resulted in a court fight between Rossellini and RKO Pictures.

The Criterion Collection features two versions, one dubbed in Italian and the English version which also contains some Italian dialogue. Ingrid Bergman plays Karin, a Lithuanian woman, who finds herself in an Italian camp for displaced persons after World War II. She marries an Italian POW, Antonio, who she meets on the other side of the barbed wire, separating the men from the women in the camp.

The couple ends back up in Antonio's fishing village on Stromboli, a volcanic island, near Sicily. Karin, a high maintenance woman used to material pleasures, resents being on the island for several reasons. First off is the threat of death or injury from the volcano itself, which periodically spews boulders and volcanic ash on the hapless village below. Then there's the hostility of the villagers (particularly the remaining female residents) who chastise Karin for her lack of "modesty." Karin also has trouble with her husband Antonio, who she regards as a simpleton and unpolished. In one telling scene, he pits a ferret against a defenseless pet rabbit, which upsets Karin greatly. Antonio, on the other hand, finds this quite amusing.

Karin doesn't help things for herself when she refuses to listen to the counsel of the village priest, who urges patience, until Antonio can make enough money so they can leave the island. Even worse is when Karin attempts to seduce the priest, which alienates him greatly. Later, Karin flirts with a lighthouse keeper in front of the villagers, which damages her reputation further.

Rossellini used the village locals in most of the scenes. Some of them apparently had spent some time in the U.S. and came back to Stromboli in their later years. As a result, a few are able to speak some English. The scenes where the men are helping Karin and Antonio to fix up their home, felt believable, but I wondered if the scenes of outright hostility by the local populace (particularly the women), wasn't simply an example on Rossellini's part, of forced drama (after all, if the real-life villagers were so hostile to the idea of a narrative that features an interloper that they can't stomach, would they have actually agreed to participate in the film itself?).

Perhaps the best aspect of the film is the on-location cinematography, particularly the excellent scene of the fishermen hauling in the tuna. Karin is juxtaposed with the big fish catch, as she is depicted as a person alienated from nature. Only when she gets into a direct confrontation with nature (after attempting to escape the island and threatened by the volcano) does she finally have an epiphany, accepts her situation and realizes that her arrogant stance, is untenable.

The role of Karin is an unusual one for Ingrid Bergman, as the protagonist here is not exactly very likable. In one respect, the part reflects Bergman's situation in her own life during that time. In marrying Rossellini and now living in his world, she had to fit into a completely different culture then where she came from.

I'm on the fence as to whether there's enough there in Bergman's role of the dissatisfied and stuck-up interloper who eventually finds redemption, to keep one's interest. Yes we 'get' the idea that she's alienated but her complaints go on for a little too long. Nonetheless, 'Stromboli' has all that local 'color' featuring the real-life inhabitants of the island as well a few dramatic scenes which will definitely keep your attention (the volcano eruption, the big tuna catch, etc.). The Criterion Collection also has a number of extras worth watching, including an interview with a prominent Italian film critic.

Stranded on a lonely fishing island

[barryrd · 9/10 · 16 March 2013]

Stromboli is a movie that comes from the post World War II neo-realist school. It is not for a modern mass audience, but if you like movies like The Bicycle Thief or Wild Strawberries, this movie is worth watching. I found Ingrid Bergman's performance superb as the well educated and literate wife of an Italian fisherman, rescued from a refugee camp. Once this refined young woman finds herself on a lonely island off the southern coast of Italy with nothing in common with the local people, she is at her wit's end. She will do anything to get away. The young woman tries to befriend people but every time she does, she seems to run afoul of the local customs. She pays a visit to a local seamstress who is shunned and this causes her to be guilty by association. When she decorates her home, her husband is upset by the removal of religious objects and old family photos. Even when going to church, she is stared at by everyone in the congregation. She finds some comfort in the priest who seems to understand her predicament and counsels her to save money for a time in the future when they can get away to a place that is more hospitable for them. This is not much consolation for her. At one point, the whole village is driven off the island by the eruption of a volcano that stands only a short distance away. The filming of this natural disaster is extremely effective and viewers feel they are in the midst of the eruption. For her, it is another reason to abandon the island forever. We feel that in some ways she has grown into a more mature person as a result of her trials; however, the gulf between her comfort zone and life on the island is too wide. The ending is neither hopeful nor despairing, and we can only imagine what might happen.

Back story is most of my enjoyment.

[noahgibbobaker · 7/10 · 5 June 2021]

Since the 1940's Roberto Rossellini was a forward thinking revolutionary, so why does 'Stromboli' feel so stuck in the past?. I think it's as a result of the films semi-autobiographical & biographical nature, and the "sinful" Rossellini + Bergman relationship that flourished during production; both a very 50's relationship and a very scandalous one for the period.

Bleakness As far As the Eye Can See

[romanorum1 · 5/10 · 15 May 2013]

Eager to escape a post-World war II internment camp after her emigration application to Argentina was denied for her questionable past, Karin (Ingrid Bergman) decides to marry Antonio (Mario Vitale), an Italian prisoner she has met on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Born in Lithuania in 1920 and living in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia during the war, Karin is hopeful that Antonio's home island of Stromboli off the coast of Italy will provide her with good things. After all, he – a fisherman – has said that it is beautiful.

Not only does she discover that an active volcano dominates the little isle, but also she finds that her existence becomes drearier than ever. Her previous life, although loose, gave her finer things; now she lives on a rockbound island with neither electricity nor modern plumbing. Karin and Antonio are poor, so as the island priest explains, they cannot even afford to emigrate to America or to other places. As Antonio speaks English ineffectually, husband-and-wife communication is weak. Moreover, the women on the island do not like Karin; they feel she is immodest. Karin's only friends are the priest and the lighthouse keeper. She simply does not fit inside of this old world society; Karin is a fish out of water. Antonio does love Karin, but love is not enough. The movie does drag, but it is probably necessary to get the "feel" of Karin's desolation. Although Karin may have some happy moments and even decorates her house, tedium always sets in.

There are two dramatic scenes of note: the tuna catch (very realistic) and the volcanic eruption. The ending is ambiguous, but based on what we have already seen, is most likely not on a positive note. This neo-realistic artistic film was the first collaboration between Roberto Rossellinni and Ingrid Bergman. It was not well received; the affair of Bergman and Rossellinni may have influenced its reception. The rating is based on the uncut version.