Monday, December 23, 2013

1860 (1934)




Director: Alessandro Blasetti
Starring: Giuseppe Gulino, Aida Bellia, Gianfranco Giachetti, Mario Ferrari
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2007)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo)
Subtitles: English, Italian

Bonus:
* Contains both the 1998 restoration (74 minutes) and the 1951 reissue by Blasetti (69 minutes)
* 1934 alternate epilogue (1 minute)

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?
A chronicle of the unification of Italy as seen through the eyes of a young partisan. While the film is sometimes (unhappily) labelled as "propaganda", Blasetti's approach can easily be considered as proto-Neorealist because of its attention on popular participation and historical process. Influenced by Eisenstein and Pabst, the style is in fact anti-rhetorical and even anti-spectacular, but also unexpectedly lyrical and touching. Perhaps, non-Italian viewers may prefer to start with the 1951 version, which has a more declared didactic aim.

Recommendations
...well, a must see.

Screenshots