i watched this movie as i found many Rossellini's works crucial for the history of Italian cinema, the likes of Paisa' or Roma Citta' Aperta, Germany year zero, those are well-known masterpieces.. So i took a look at Vanina Vanini, even knowing that the later Rossellini showed a radical change from the earlier works, generally in a deteriorating way.. This movie confirmed this.. I couldn't watch this film for more than 1 hour... it is perhaps the most uninteresting movie i've ever saw, and i've seen quite a few... I mean, it is ridiculously amazing how the story is uninformative, we have no specific time references, apart from some indirect dialogues in the movie, very very basic, should have been articulated a bit more... The cast is not bad in itself, it's just totally out of context... paolo stoppa is absolutely unlikely in his part, the young carbonaro doesn't leave any sign of the passionate role he'is supposed to play, Sandra Milo does what she can but her looks are probably more memorable than the acting.. Overall, as some of these actors/actresses performed quite well in other movies, i have to deduce that Rossellini wasn't really capable to effectively direct them properly. Apart from this, the story has huge flaws, it's very static, stale and boring, dialogues are sheer banalities, passion is lacking and Stoppa's way of interpreting the part doesn't have absolutely anything to do with it. Only good thing was the soundtrack, which i found of very good quality, unfortunately without any support from the acting side. I'm sure anybody can find a better way to spend his/her time instead of watching this movie.
Review of The Betrayer
