L’amore

Roberto Rossellini

Sog.: dalla piéce La voce umana di Jean Cocteau (Una voce umana), Federico Fellini (Il miracolo). Scen.: Roberto Rossellini (Una voce umana), Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli (Il miracolo). F.: Robert Juillard (Una voce umana), Aldo Tonti (il miracolo). M.: Eraldo Da Roma. Scgf.: Christian Bérard. Mus.: Renzo Rossellini. Su.: Kurt Doubravsky. Int.: Anna Magnani (donna al telefono/Nannina), Federico Fellini (vagabondo), Peparuolo (monaco), Amelia Robert (maestra). Prod.: Tevere Film. Pri. pro.: 30 ottobre 1948. DCP. F.: 69′. Bn.

info_outline
T. it.: Italian title. T. int.: International title. T. alt.: Alternative title. Sog.: Story. Scen.: Screenplay. F.: Cinematography. M.: Editing. Scgf.: Set Design. Mus.: Music. Int.: Cast. Prod.: Production Company. L.: Length. D.: Running Time. f/s: Frames per second. Bn.: Black e White. Col.: Color. Da: Print source

Film Notes

L’amore is made up of two parts. The first, Una voce umana, is based on a play by Jean Cocteau and was made in 1947, before Germania Anno Zero and the second part, Il Miracolo in April 1948. In both films Anna Magnani plays a woman who loves without being loved in return. The second part (as it is shown in the beginning of the film) is “dedicated to the dramatic art of Anna Magnani”, it seems like a farewell (and, as it is known, it actually was).
Una voce umana is faithful to the theatrical script, word for word […]. Rossellini continued the experience of the Sicilian and Neapolitan episodes in Paisà. He carried on exploiting the possibilities that long shots offered him. Here the camera became a microscope. It opened our eyes onto a new world. We could not only see the individual’s actions, we also saw what the individual thinks and feels.
People who consider Una voce umana to be no more than a display of exhibitionism have not understood anything about the film. It makes what is said and done by Anna Magnani appear transparent. We see through her eyes. Moreover, we are not only faced with her and her feelings but we also see the man she loves. And it is with her that we see the past that this couple has shared. It is not only beautiful, but at the same time infinitely painful. Rossellini used the camera like a surgical instrument. […] Watching Una voce umana and reflecting on what we see, we have to ask ourselves: what is the thing we actually define as love? […] Love is an ephemeral phenomenon; this is what Rossellini has shown us. […]
In Il Miracolo (script: Federico Fellni), Rossellini tells the story of a woman who the residents of a village believe to be feebleminded and who, for this reason, leads her life far away from the others. She looks after goats and at time also the other peasants’ children. One sunny day, she meets a bearded man (Federico Fellini). Straight away, she is convinced that he is Saint Joseph. […] Il Miracolo has been accused of being a parody on the Immaculate Conception. This is unthinkable for Rossellini. The seriousness with which Rossellini tells this story is the same as in Francesco giullare di Dio. It could be said that Rossellini takes this story more seriously than Church has ever done with its own dogma. It is true that this is a form of provocation.

Rudolph Thome, L’amore, in Roberto Rossellini, Reihe Film 36, Carl Hanser Verlag, Berlin 1987

Copy From

Restored in 2013 by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, CSC - Cineteca Nazionale, Coproduction Office e Istituto Luce Cinecittà at L'immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
The digital restoration was based on the best available elements, a combined duplicate positive preserved by Cinecittà Luce