I vinti

The Vanquished / Les Vaincus / [Voitetut] / [De besegrade]. IT/FR 1952. PC: Film Costellazione / S.G.C. P: Paolo Moffa. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Ass. D: Francesco Rosi. SC: Michelangelo Antonioni, Giorgio Bassani, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Diego Fabbri, Roger Nimier, Turi Vasile. DP: Enzo Serafin. M: Giovanni Fusco. ED: Eraldo Da Roma. FRANCIA: Jean-Pierre Mocky (Pierre), Etchika Choureau (Simone). ITALIA: Franco Interlenghi (Claudio), Anna-Maria Ferrero (Maria). INGHILTERRA: Peter Reynolds (Aubrey), Fay Compton (Mrs. Pinkerton), Patrick Barr (Kent Watton). 113 min. Original version in French, Italian, and English. The all-Italian dubbed version print from Cinecittà Holding with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 26 August 2008. - The opening lecture is about the brutalization after the war, a new form of crime: teenage delinquents from quiet, well-off families, desire to emerge as heroes through crime and violence, deeds blown up by the press. - A bit wooden and conventional direction, Antonioni not yet in full bloom. - In the French episode the blocking of the actors in the wood is already interesting in the same way as Le amiche later. Mocky shot for his false notes. - In the Italian episode there is the chase of the young smuggler, already fatally hurt. - The English episode is the most interesting, apparently inspired by Strangers on a Train: the psychopathic self-centeredness and lack of empathy by Aubrey, the proposal of a diabolic pact, the strangling, the train, the tennis, "the death of a human being is of no importance". The episode also has interesting links with Blow-up (the corpse in the wood, the elusive motive). -
Splendid traditional music by Fusco. - The cinematography of Enzo Serafin cannot be fully appreciated in this duped print with a mediocre definition of light.