Product Description

In a magnetic performance, Vittorio De Sica is Bardone, an opportunistic rascal in wartime Genoa, conning and cheating his fellow Italians, exploiting their tragedies by promising to help find their missing loved ones in exchange for money. But when the Nazis force him to impersonate a dead partisan general in prison to extract information from fellow inmates, Bardone finds himself wrestling with his conscience for the first time. Roberto Rossellini s gripping drama, among his most commercially popular films, is further evidence of the compassionate artistry of one cinema s most important voices.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New video interviews with Isabella, Renzo, and Ingrid Rossellini, as well as film scholar Adriano Aprà
New visual essay by Tag Gallagher, author of The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini
Original theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic James Monaco and an excerpt from a 2000 interview with Indro Montanelli, author of the story that inspired the film

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36384 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENT.
• Released on: 2009-03-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 132 minutes

Features

• In a magnetic performance, Vittorio De Sica is Bardone, an opportunistic rascal in wartime Genoa, conning and cheating his fellow Italians, exploiting their tragedies by promising to help find their missing loved ones in exchange for money. But when the Nazis force him to impersonate a dead partisan general in prison to extract information from fellow inmates, Bardone finds himself wrestling with

Review
Heartrending, nerve-twisting...to rank with the best of Italian films. --New York Times

Customer Reviews

Do the Right Thing
I really wasn't too sure what to expect when I sat down to watch "General Della Rovere" this evening. The notes suggested that I would be watching a movie about a scoundrel. It didn't take long to find out that I was, in fact, watching a movie about a scoundrel. But oh what a scoundrel! There was an aspect to the preformance of Vittorio de Sica that oozed the suave, debonaire, coolness of a man who wanted others to know that he cares...so long as the money is paid up front. Our "hero" Bardone runs a sort of war-time Ponzi scheme with all the promises and down payments. It doesn't take long to realize that there's only one person Bardone really cares about. Heck, I even caught myself sensing an inner heart of gold just before another sucker gets taken. All along I found myself engrossed in this man, his victims and the others who played a role in his theatre.

Eventually, things take a turn in a variety of ways. At that point I had no idea what was going to be the outcome. As a favor to you, I'll let you have the same opportunity. I was more than satisfied with the ending although it wasn't exactly what I expected.

There is a professionalism to "General Della Rovere" that had it scoring high in my book. The directing, the interpositioning of newsreel footage and cinematic creation, the sense of uncertainty, the excellent preformances from top to bottom; all this and more was very impressive. Above all was the role of Vittorio de Sica whose mascarade had already fooled us enough times that we were on our own as to what to believe about him. I kept trying to figure out where I had seen the German Colonel before until I recalled that he was the camp commander in "The Great Escape". His performance in this film was equally compelling.

All during "General Della Rovere" I kept thinking of a recent film I had seen entitled "Bread, Love and Dreams". It was an older Italian movie that had been around long enough to have been dubbed in English. In viewing that film I was left with the choice of an expressionless Enlish or a demonstrative and incomprehenisble Italian. I chose the former and came away disappointed. I thought of that film because de Sica's delivery in "General Della Rovere" was in a class by itself. I watched the subtitles to keep track of the plot; I listened to the actors to keep track of the emotional impact. The dubbed de Sica in "Bread, Love and Dreams" had no emotional impact which is why I always try to view a foreign-language film in the original presentaion (with English subtitles). "General Della Rovere" is one of the best examples of why that makes such a difference.

Vittorio De Sica...the ACTOR
Any movie released by Criterion is worth owning: even if you're not familiar with the film or it's not a favorite, they're sure to include so many valuable extras that you'll get your money's worth and appreciate the film's significance as time passes on. Il Generale Della Rovere ($29.95; Criterion) is a Roberto Rosselini film starring director Vittorio De Sica (I'm always surprised when he acts but De Sica acted in hundreds of movies). De Sica plays a con man forced by the Nazis to impersonate a general and get info from Italian prisoners. For the first time, the bum feels a twinge of conscience. Extras include interviews and a visual essay. Visit me at michaelgiltz dot com.

Solid
Il Generale Della Rovere was one of Roberto Rossellini's most successful films (winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), commercially, and there is a simple reason why. It's not that good a film. It's a rather formulaic film, slathered with faux patriotic sloganeering, whitewashed politics, and a rather banal cinematic approach. Rossellini was, along with the film's star, Vittorio De Sica, one of the two big name directors of what was known as Italian Neo-Realism. But, while 1945's Rome: Open City was also a financial success for Rossellini, he went almost fifteen years between that success and this one, in 1959. De Sica, however, had more commercial and critical success in the interim.

The film's plot is supposedly based on real life events that took place in World War Two, after Italy switched sides, leaving the Axis and joining the Allies. However, there has been dispute, among historians, over whether the tale is true or not, and just how much of the tale, if true, is apocryphal, or the result of hagiography, because it was based on a novel by Indro Montanelli. The tale follows the life of a petty conman named Victorio Emanuele Bardone (De Sica), who uses a bunch of assorted aliases (including that of a phony Italian colonel named Grimaldi) to run his assorted scams and schemes, fleecing attractive women (wannabe actresses and prostitutes) and desperate families who are willing to pay him for information on the whereabouts of relatives who have been arrested by the Nazis. The black and white film runs for 2 hours and 13 minutes, and the first 45 or so minutes follows the escapades of Bardone, and watching him gamble and lose, fleece his suckers, and generally act in unethical ways, is the best part of the film. Especially good is watching him interact with a Nazi colonel named Muller (Hannes Messemer), for both men are essentially the same person, phonies who are out to wreak havoc in the world. The one difference is that Muller actually has fangs, and is willing to use them, whereas Bardone lacks the fangs and the will.

This is one of those films that I can marginally recommend viewing, if only because it illuminates the better work being done at the same time, like Fellini's La Dolce Vita. On its own, however, Il Generale Della Rovere is vastly overrated and a disappointing film in not only Rossellini's canon, but that of Italian cinema, despite its financial success. Hollywood was not alone in this regard. Why it was so critically well regarded, however, is a mystery, since its flaws are apparent. Then, again, never underestimate the power of patriotic screeds, especially when the legend looms larger than the man. Damn, I didn't know Rossellini loved John Ford.