Stromboli (1950)

Director: Roberto Rossellini 
Country: Italy

A Lithuanian refugee woman named Karin (Ingrid Bergman) who had a good life before war mets Antonio, an Italian war prisoner (Mario Vitale), while waiting in a refugee camp for the approval of his Argentinian Visa, when her Visa application is denied, she decides to get married with Antonio and go with him to his home in Stromboli, a little Italian island near Sicily. During the Visa interview the film shows us how Europeans were looking for a new home in developed countries after the Second World War such as America, Australia or Argentina. 

At the moment she arrives to Stromboli, she realizes has made a big time mistake because the village is destroyed, underdeveloped and with a Volcano next to it, representing a deadly hazard, that place is paradoxically even worse than a prison or a refugee camp, with nothing much to do and uneducated close minded catholics as neighbors, Karin realizes that she gotta get outta there as soon as possible, but without money her chances are reduced. 

Also we can see other elements of this movie through the descriptions of the villagers who returned from America, and we can compare the almost uninhabited village to the industrial New York City and its people enjoying the benefits of the post-war boom such as driving new cars, working in factories, eating hot dogs, attending baseball games or wearing nice clothes. 

Composed by long shots, actual documentary footage (the volcano eruption scenes), minimalistic but powerful dialogues and non-professional actors, which was a characteristic of the Italian neorealism, Rossellini made a great work, not only because of that, but also because we can deduce and imagine many things without flashbacks, words or sequences in other place, that's why this film is a masterpiece. 

Likewise, many people in the film were real villagers like Mario Vitale (a real life fisherman) who made a great performance and later became a succesful actor but like in Stromboli he quit the industry to came back to his village, Bergman is stunning, beautiful and a great performer (married at the time with Rossellini), After having made powerful films such as "Rome, Open City", "Paisa" or "Germany Year Zero", Rosellini started with "Stromboli" another trilogy starring Bergman, the "Trilogia della Solitudine" keystone in the history of cinema.