M. Levi Movies
The grim, drab life of a man who labors in a Po Valley sugar refinery in northern Italy provides the center of this black-and-white drama from Michelangelo Antonioni. The worker lives with a married woman and their young daughter. One day, the woman learns that her legal spouse died. The refinery worker immediately proposes, but she spurns him in favor of another. Deeply depressed, the laborer begins to drift aimlessly across the northern wasteland with his daughter in tow. Along the way, he meets many people, including a woman from his past. Despite his many low-key adventures, he is unable to forget his daughter's mother and so returns to find that she lives in a new home with a new child. The story comes to its climax during a demonstration protesting the building of a U.S. airfield where the refinery stands. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1949
Originally Il Sole Sorge Ancora, Outcry is a neorealist tribute to the Italian resistance fighters of World War II. The scene is the tiny village of Lombardy, just outside Milan. The villagers have suffered four years of humiliation and exploitation at the hands of the fascists. But when a priest and a communist hostage are executed by pro-Nazi troops, the townsfolk join the resistance in revolting against their oppressors. Woven throughout this basic storyline are the exploits of Army deserter Vittorio Duse, who juggles with the affections of the daughter (Lea Padovani) of the partisan leader and a woman of wealth (Elli Parvo). Some observers have suggested that Outcry director Aldo Vergano might have become the pre-eminent Italian neorealist director had his career not been curtailed by a prison term; others have noted that Vergano's films, while spirited and sincere, pale in comparison to the more famous efforts of DeSica and Rosselini. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lea Padovani, Elli Parvo, (more)
