General Della Rovere
1959 Italian film
- Sergio Amidei
- Diego Fabbri
- Indro Montanelli
- Vittorio De Sica
- Hannes Messemer
Production
companies
companies
- Zebra Film
- Société Nouvelle des Etablissements Gaumont
Release dates
- 31 August 1959 (1959-08-31) (Venice International Film Festival)
- 7 October 1959 (1959-10-07) (Italy)
Running time
- 137 minutes (premiere)
- 132 minutes (theatrical)
- Italy
- France
- Italian
- German
- Hebrew
General Della Rovere (Italian: Il generale Della Rovere) is a 1959 Italian–French drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini.[1] The film is based on a story by Indro Montanelli which was in turn based on a true story.[2]
Plot
Genoa, 1944, during the era of the Italian Social Republic. Petty thief Emanuele Bardone is hired by the German occupation forces to impersonate an Italian Resistance leader, General Della Rovere, and infiltrate a group of resistance prisoners in a Milan prison. Gradually, Bardone loses himself in his role and not merely pretends to be a hero of the resistance but actually becomes one, first encouraging his fellow prisoners to show courage and eventually accepting death by firing squad rather than betraying another imprisoned resistance leader.
Cast
- Vittorio De Sica: Vittorio Emanuele Bardone/Grimaldi
- Hannes Messemer: SS Colonel Müller
- Vittorio Caprioli: Aristide Banchelli
- Sandra Milo: Olga
- Giovanna Ralli: Valeria
- Maria Greco: Madama Vera
- Herbert Fischer: German sergeant
- Anne Vernon: Clara Fassio
- Franco Interlenghi: Antonio Pasquali
- Ivo Garrani: Partisan Chief
- Linda Veras: German Attendant
Cultural influences
The transformation of Emmanuele Bardone, the film's protagonist, from an Axis collaborator into a hero of the anti-national socialist resistance, has been compared by Spanish political commentators to the life story of Adolfo Suárez, the Spanish prime minister who oversaw the transition to democracy in the late 1970s. In particular, Javier Cercas devotes the last chapter of The Anatomy of a Moment[3] to exploring the parallels between Bardone and Suarez.
Awards
References
- ^ Forgacs, David; Lutton, Sarah; Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (2008). Roberto Rossellini: Magician of the Real. British Film Institute. ISBN 9780851707945.
- ^ "Indro Montanelli: Il generale Della Rovere. Introduzione di Geno Pampaloni". Biblioteca Teresa Gullace (in Italian). Retrieved 10 September 2023.
- ^ Cercas, Javier (2011). The Anatomy of a Moment: Thirty-five Minutes in History and Imagination. New York: Bloomsbury. pp. 310–314. ISBN 978-1-60819-491-9.
- ^ Bondanella, Peter (1993). The Films of Roberto Rossellini. Cambridge University Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780521398664.
External links
- General Della Rovere at IMDb
- General Della Rovere at AllMovie
- General Della Rovere at Rotten Tomatoes
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Films directed by Roberto Rossellini
- La Vispa Teresa (1939)
- The White Ship (1941)
- A Pilot Returns (1942)
- The Man with a Cross (1943)
- Rome, Open City (1945)
- Desire (1946)
- Paisan (1946)
- L'Amore (1948)
- Germany, Year Zero (1948)
- Stromboli (1950)
- The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
- The Seven Deadly Sins (segment: "Envie, L'Envy", 1952)
- The Machine to Kill Bad People (1952)
- Europe '51 (1952)
- We, the Women (segment: "Ingrid Bergman", 1953)
- Mid-Century Loves (segment: "Napoli 1943", 1954)
- Where Is Freedom? (1954)
- Journey to Italy (1954)
- Fear (1954)
- Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (1954)
- India: Matri Bhumi (1959)
- General Della Rovere (1959)
- Escape by Night (1960)
- Garibaldi (1961)
- Vanina Vanini (1961)
- Anima nera (1962)
- Ro.Go.Pa.G. (segment: "Illibatezza", 1963)
- The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966)
- Socrates (1971)
- Blaise Pascal (1971)
- Agostino d'Ippona (1972)
- L'età di Cosimo de' Medici (1973)
- Cartesius (1973)
- Anno uno (1974)
- The Messiah (1975)
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