Film Series: A Journey in Italy @ Lake HIawatha

Wednesday Evenings - April 6 to May 11

Coffee and conversation at 6:15, Film Introduction before the film, Film at 6:45

Discussion following the film will be led by Joyce Frei McNeill, Ph.D. Berkeley College

April 6, Summertime (1955) Katherine Hepburn is a repressed middle aged legal secretary who finds love in Venice, although with a married Italian, Rosanno Brazzi. A visual portrait of Venice in glorious photography along with the memorable musical score, the film was written by Arthur Laurents and directed by David Lean.

April 13, Senso (1954) One of the few color films by director, Luchino Visconti, about a wanton contessa who loves an Austrian soldier who is a scoundrel. Set in Venice and Verona, before the time of the unification of Italy when Austria was in power, the film portrays the lavish settings and details of the director, whereas the plot resembles Tennessee Williams who helped with the screenplay.

April 20, Rome: Open City (1945) An Italian neorealist drama, which shows the resistance to the Nazi occupation in Rome. Filmed on location, the film shows the poor working class, and the moral conditions of World War ll. Directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Anna Magnani, it won the Cannes Grand Prize and several other international awards.

April 27, It Started in Naples (1960) Clark Gable comes to Naples to settle the estate of his estranged brother, only to find his nephew being raised by a sexy night club singer. This is Sophia Loren in one of her most playful yet sexy roles as she performs her club act on film. The film was the last film released in Gables’ lifetime and it was also nominated for art direction.

May 4, Stromboli (1950) When Karen (Ingrid Bergman) marries a fisherman to escape prisoners’ camp, she comes to the impoverished island of Stromboli. Life in the village is threatened by the volcano while the villagers are played by actual people from the island. Roberto Rossellini directs and this was the film that sparked the scandal of Bergman and Rossellini.

May 11 To Rome With Love (2012) Written and directed by Woody Allen with an ensemble cast , the film has been called a “magical realist romantic comedy.” The stories have underlining satire especially about celebrity worship, and are told in vignettes; one story is based on Fellini’s The White Sheik (1952).