Synopsis
In the first episode, a heartbroken woman talks to her ex-lover on the phone. In the second, a pregnant woman believes she is carrying the child of Saint Joseph.
L'amore
1948 Directed by Roberto Rossellini
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Alternative Titles
Liebe, El amor, Rakkauden ihme, Milosc, Ways of Love, Amore, 爱情, 사랑, O Amor
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Premiere
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Italy
Venice Film Festival
Theatrical limited
02 Nov 1948
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Italy
05 Mar 1949
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Italy
12 Dec 1950
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USA
Releases by Country
Italy
21 Aug 1948
- Premiere Venice Film Festival
02 Nov 1948
- Theatrical limited Rome
05 Mar 1949
- Theatrical limited Turin
USA
12 Dec 1950
- Theatrical limited New York City, New York
Popular reviews
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L'Amore isn't really a film, but an excuse to release in theatres two shorts Rossellini did as showcases for Anna Magnani. That said, both are pretty good. The Human Voice is just a desperate Magnani on the phone for 30 minutes and the way she and Rossellini sustain the dramatic intensity is impressive. The Miracle has a larger canvas and remains among Fellini's scripts for Rossellini the one that displays his imagination the most. The relationship between Magnani and the landscape suggests Stromboli. Overall, those two shorts are a triumph for Magnani and a fascinating look at Rossellini starting to sketch some the ideas that would come to fore in his Bergman movies.
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"L'Amore" translates as "The Love", and the most surprising thing about this film is how much it lacks of love. The brilliant Anna Magnani plays the protagonist in two tales. These stories are, in my understanding, distinct from one another. Although the protagonist is the same actress in both stories, she is not the same character.
The first story reminds me of a play. The woman is speaking on the telephone. We never see who is on the other side, we do not know what the man is saying, the only thing we know is that she is suffering. Because of the absence of Amore.
The second story is the most interesting one. Federico Fellini even plays a part himself.…
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A minor, little-seen work in Rossellini’s filmography that interrupted the shooting of GERMANY YEAR ZERO in 1947 and was shot and completed in 2 weeks even though it was released a year later in 1948. GYZ had a host of shooting/scheduling problems, so squeezing in time for L’AMORE probably felt like a reprieve. It’s like when Wong Kar-wai changed lanes during the nightmare set of ASHES OF TIME (a grueling 24 month production) to shoot CHUNGKING EXPRESS (shot and completed in a slim 3 months). Maybe making movies while making movies was the only thing these guys could do to keep sane. Wild.
In any event, L’AMORE is not a particularly noteworthy film on its own narrative terms, but it…
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I was thinking that this film seems to be conceived solely as a platform for Anna Magnani to showcase her acting, and then in the middle of the film a title card appeared: “This film is an homage to the art of Anna Magnani.” And, of course, she is pretty amazing. The first part of this two-part film has Magnani acting with a telephone for thirty minutes, in which she makes the phone look like a supporting role nominee for the Oscars, and the second part casts her besides an ensemble of non-actors. The first part is based on Cocteau’s play The Human Voice and would have made a good double feature with Le bel indifferent (another Cocteau play, turned…
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ANNA MAGNANI. all there is to say. That heartbreaking Pronto! Pronto! Will stay with you forever.
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An odd film - two distinct, self-contained stories that both work extremely well on their own terms (the film contains two great performances from Anna Magnani) but feel odd together without a very liberal reading of the title, and this basically ends up being the point, of the extremities of love in different manifestations - of desperation, of lust, religious love, maternal love, and does a perfect job of love over technology (through a phone) that precedes just about every second amateur short film made nowadays. Still, a two film anthology feels a bit odd, especially when one is significantly longer, a triptych or more would feel more sound structurally, and I can't quite shake off that feeling. But both…
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This omnibus film marked a departure by Roberto Rossellini from Rome Open City (1945) and the three neo-realist films he had made before coming to this project which was clearly designed to showcase Anna Magnani, with whom he had been in a relationship since 1945. The first short film, La voce umana, is a melodrama adapted from Jean Cocteau’s play La voix humaine and the second, Il miracolo, is a religious allegory based on Ramón del Valle-Inclán’s novel Flor de santidad.
I have seen a couple of stage productions of the Cocteau play over the years. Essentially it is a monologue in which a woman talks on the phone with her lover of five years on the night before he is due to marry…
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Two Anna Magnani films for the prize of one. L'amore consists of two halves, each basically a 40-ish minute short film starring Anna Magnani.
The first is Magnani's rendition of The Human Voice, that one-woman-show written by Jean Cocteau we have see most recently done by Tilda Swinton, but has also been performed on the screen by Ingrid Bergman, Rosamund Pike and Sophia Loren. As is to expected, Anna Magnani is acting her heart out, and delivers my favorite rendition of the material that I have seen (although Tilda's version has the benefit of being directed by Pedro Almodóvar, who gave it the most visual flourish). Judged by its own, this would probably land on four stars.
The seconds part,…
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Two for the price of one! Anna Magnani plays two different roles in two different stories. The first featured only her, in a room, seeking to restore a love affair via the telephone. She portrays emotional breakdown and desperation without anyone to react to but the ringing of a prop. It's quite something.
The second story is about a woman that seems to believe herself to be the Virgin Mary. She is taken advantage of and scorned viciously by the locals in a performance that is heartbreaking to behold. Apparently, this caused some controversy upon its initial release in the United States, but it seemed, while very sad, not at all blasphemous to me.
December count: 48/100.
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qué religiosa devoción por el rostro filmado, qué gesto de amor *hacer* esta película
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Estoy en estas dos historias de tantas maneras que es hasta vergonzoso.
Estoy aquí inmovilizada por el frío, me he quedado helada esperando. Tanto levantarme, sentarme, acostarme, andar de un lado a otro como una bestia enjaulada; tanto mirar el teléfono que no sonaba nunca. Tanto esperar, esperar, esperar... ni siquiera sé qué espero.
Me toco la cara, el pelo. ¿Qué hacer sino? Qué hacer mientras te escucho si no puedo tocarte. Me lavo la cara con agua fría, doy vueltas a la habitación como una posesa haciendo siempre el mismo recorrido, sin alejarme demasiado del teléfono (por si llamas). No duermo, no como, hago guardia al lado de un instrumento de tortura y se me va la vida, la…
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