로셀리니의 <이탈리아 여행>(1953) 분석

Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia: Revelatory Provisos of Death, Pregnancy and Reconciliation

Viaggio in Italia(Voyage to Italy, Journey to Italy), directed by Roberto Rossellini, is concerned with the passionless death-in-life of a modern upperclass British couple, Katherine and Alexander Joyce, who travel to Naples to sell the inherited villa of a recently deceased uncle Homer. There's a coolness in their relationship. The film shows the encounters of the couple as they sightsee around Naples. Naples is one of the few European cities of the ancient world that has never been completely extinguished. This paper offers new ways of looking at the film through the analysis of two scenes, on the way to and at the Fontanelle where collects a enormous number of unknown people's skeletons. Also it focuses on understanding how main characters become suddenly reconciled. It is because that the film's incredibly abrupt and unrealistic has been variously interpreted by some as a deliberately false ending, or as a miracle. Rossellini imposes the past, to show that history, the past, the dead, all have value here in the present and in some way impact upon it. First of all he has used James Joyce's “The Dead” in Dublininers in an unusual way. Katherine tells Alex the story of Charles Lewington who loved her near the beginning of the film. Alex is consumed with jealousy of the dead Charles. Furthermore, in the shots of street life that accompany Katherine's drives, we can see first a funeral procession, then shots of different pregnant women and a series of couples and babies in prams. Katherine visits tourist destinations on her own, immersing herself in the Neapolitan fascination with the dead. Dead are more alive than the living. Her trip to the Fontanelle cemetery with Natalia is a further development of this theme. The cemetery itself is a catacomb, with unidentified skeletal remains. Natalia herself uses the visit to pray for a child. For Katherine it is like a uncanny nightmare. In the final scene, Rossellini's documentary-like scenes are melded with the fictional story of the couple and their state of mind. It all comes down to that final miraculous moment, unexpected and even unconvincing. Suddenly their car is surrounded by a mass of people parading in San Gennaro procession. Just as, in the opening sequence by cattle on the road, they are forced to abandon the car in the midst of a crowd. Katherine is swept away and looks back in desperation towards her husband. Surprisingly something lights inside them, and their love is renewed as a bond of the spirit. The moment of reconciliation invokes the possibility of Joycean epiphany that “The Dead” shows. Even though their choice is dictated by the practical need to get to Naples, Katherine and Alex are heading for just such an epiphany. Viaggio in Italia is one of those pictures where nothing much happens. And it is no longer the disturbing experience that it was for the most viewers of the day. However, the film is a crucial work, truthful and mysterious.