Generale della Rovere
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Written by Sergio Amidei, Diego Fabbri, Indro Montenelli and Roberto Rossellini from Montenelli’s novel
1959/Italy/France
Zebra Film/Societe Nouvelle de Establissements Gaumont
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Victorio Emanuele Bardone: Do you know what is the cause of all my troubles? Gambling! I always lose! What’s more, I always pay, and I’ve never cheated.[/box]
My YouTube experience with Rossellini’s film was such a disaster that I hesitated to review it. Despite everything, it had so much merit that I can recommend it and am waiting for an opportunity to see it properly.
It is late in WWII as the Allies are marching northward into Italy. They have not yet reached Genoa, where the movie takes place. Victorio Bandone (Vittorio de Sica) is a compulsive gambler, womanizer, and fraud. As the film begins, he owes a German officer 50,000 lira. He scammed 100,000 lira from a family on the promise that he could help a detained relative but promptly lost the whole amount gambling. The debt to German is something he must pay and his successive schemes to get the money all fail spectacularly.
The courtly, affable Bardone is given one last chance – a choice between prison and a big pay off with a trip to Switzerland as a bonus. The Germans have killed Generale della Rovere, the military leader of the resistance, rather than capturing him as intended. They want to put Bardone in jail to impersonate the general and thus lure the political head of the organization, Fassio, and his comrades there to rescue their leader. It is an offer Bardone cannot refuse. When a group of rebels is arrested, the Germans still don’t know which one of them is Fassio, and Bardone must stealthily identify the man.
The free subtitled version of this film on YouTube was unsatisfactory. There was an iris effect obscuring parts of the frame. Then the sound went out of synch. To add insult to injury the video cut off the last five climactic minutes of the film! I was vaguely able to parse out what happened using my Spanish to decipher the Italian from the original language version.
Despite all that, this was among my favorite Rossellini films thus far. It turns out De Sica is pretty wonderful on both sides of the camera. He turns in a moving and nuanced performance. The feel harkens back to Rome: Open City without all the harrowing torture of that film. I can recommend it in some suitable format.
Generale Della Rovere was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmISuh4rDWw
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