Stromboli
Short description
After the Second World War, Karin, a young Lithuanian woman, is living in a refugee camp in Italy. To obtain the citizenship and residence permit she needs, she marries Antonio, a fisherman who wants to take her home to the small island of Stromboli. What seemed like a way out quickly becomes another kind of confinement: the island is remote and poor, the locals regard her with suspicion, and her new husband proves difficult and unlike the man she imagined. The cultural distance between Karin and the islanders is greater than she can bridge, and the volcano looming over the island adds to her sense of unease.
Roberto Rossellini directed the film, the fourth in the chronological list of his features, following Germany, Year Zero. He also produced it, working from a screenplay by Sergio Amidei, Gian Paolo Callegari and Renzo Cesana. Ingrid Bergman plays Karin, with Mario Vitale as Antonio and Renzo Cesana as the priest. The Italian-American co-production had a budget of about one million dollars.
Released in 1950, the drama runs 107 minutes. On IMDb it holds a 7.2 rating from roughly 8,800 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.1 from around 235 votes, indicating a solid and fairly consistent response from viewers. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from twelve reviews places it close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Practically all the scenes were filmed without sets in the real village of Stromboli, and most of the people involved in the film were local residents, including Mario Vitale, who until that moment was an ordinary fisherman.
- Initially, Roberto Rossellini intended to cast Anna Magnani in the lead role, but during the script preparation stage, he unexpectedly received a letter from Swedish-American star Ingrid Bergman, in which she stated that she loved the films "Rome, Open City" (1945) and "Paisan" (1946) and was therefore willing to come to Italy to film at any time.
- After arriving on the island and getting acquainted with the life of the local inhabitants, Roberto Rossellini decided to add additional documentary scenes to the script, including the evacuation of residents during a volcanic eruption and the collective fishing with long nets, known as "tonnara".
- The isolated island of Stromboli saw many tourists from Italy and other European countries after the film's release. To this day, you can find commemorative information plaques with photographs from the filming process here, and the main local bar, located on the central square of the settlement, is named 'Ingrid'.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
